set n Fisheries of U S, p. 176: setting trawl, day set, night set on Grand Banks.
1 The placement of a trawl-line when fishing for cod, often with defining word day, night; length of trawl-line set out. See also FLYING SET.
1955 DOYLE (ed) 63 "The Banks of Nfld": We scarce get time to light our pipes when our dories go, / We've got to make three sets a day, let the wind blow high or low. 1960 FUDGE 17 She had a half set of trawl gear. 1963 Nfld Record ii (3), p. 15 The hooks were baited, the trawl line paid out and marked by buoys, and the set periodically taken up to remove the fish and re-bait the hooks for another setting. 1963 TEMPLEMAN & FLEMING 11 Sets were made in the shallow to intermediate depths on some occasions. T 41-64 We use one [group of] twenty-eight [lines] for all-day fishing, an' then we bait up another twenty-eight in the nights for a night-set. Take that back in the morning an' leave it on board. M 71-94 The men would leave the islands at about 3 a.m., set their trawl which would consist of five or six ten line tubs. They would wait for two or three hours and then haul it back. This was referred to as a 'day set.' 1973 HORWOOD 11 She was a vessel of considerable size and carried a crew of twenty-five, and eleven dories... But before they had time to make a 'set,' a gale of wind and a choppy sea overtook them and two masts broke off and went over the side.
2 Phr set of harness: assembled straps of horse's gear.
1917 Christmas Bells 16 Such was the price of learning how to make a pair of boots, or a suit of clothes; or to make a sail or an anchor, or to build a house, or make a set of harness.
set of nets: number of nets placed together to trap seals; FLEET, FRAME.
1863 HIND ii, 207-8 Some nets are more than 100 fathoms long, by 10 fathoms wide; and several nets, placed together as advantageously as possible for the purpose of taking seals when they are migrating in herds in the spring or in the autumn, form what the fishermen call a set of nets.
3 See WATER n: WATER SET.
