bultow n also boulter, bulto [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED boulter Co (1602-), bulter, bultey Co (1769-), EDD boulter, bultys Co; OED bultow Nfld (1858-), DC Nfld (1849-); WILCOCKS, pp. 147-9: bulter, trot or spiller (s w England); Fisheries of US, p. 79: bull-tow, boulter (Nfld); NANCE, pp. 42, 50: boulter, bolter; bulter(-stick) Co. In the cod-fishery, a long, buoyed fishing-line with closely-placed and baited hooks attached at intervals; set line; TRAWL. Also attrib.
   1845 Journ of Assembly Appendix, p. 209 [The French] have adopted what is called the Bultow system, by which means they extend lines and hooks miles round a ship. 1850 [FEILD] 91 The French at Quirpon fish with the bulto, and with enormous seines. 1855 WARREN 13 The bultow fishing is carried on in the following manner:- The vessel is provided with three or four large boats [which] carry out from 5 to 8000 fathoms of rope, to which are fastened leads, with baited hooks at certain distances from each other; these are placed out from the vessel in different directions, let down, and secured with suitable moorings, to prevent their being carried away by the strong currents which usually prevail on the Banks. They are laid out at stated distances from each other, with several thousand hooks well baited, and frequently occupying several miles of ground. 1868 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 8 The people of this place ... use nothing but bultows and codnets. 1886 Colonist Christmas No 15 In the summer she ran a ferry-boat from Gallows Harbor to Ram Islands, and attended to a bultow. 1905 GRENFELL 124 We have other methods also for catching 'fish,' for we use nets in which they will mesh, and also 'bultos,' or long lines fitted with thousands of hooks. 1937 DEVINE 75 This might be codnet fish or bultow fish. T 187/90-65 Bultows is what you call trawls, and the twentieth of October, that's when you'd be allowed to put [them] out. 1972 NEMEC 57 'Bultows' or 'trawls' [were introduced at St Shotts] sometime after 1850.

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