The ship lay to perpendicular to the current, drifting. When a school of cod was spotted, the pilot had an anchor cast. The fishermen stood in barrels, their lines ready and baited. They released 30, 40 or 50 fathoms of line, depending on the depth of the water, the strength of the current and how much the ship was drifting.

Fishermen towed their line more or less quickly. Some hauled it up a few fathoms from time to time, then let it fall quickly to prevent the cod from recognizing the bait. As soon as a fisherman felt a cod bite, he pulled it to the surface. If the fish was of normal size, he hauled it in himself. If it was large, the man next to him gaffed it and pulled it aboard. The first man grabbed the fish by the gills and hung it by the head on a small piece of iron that had a pointed end. After cleaning the fish and removing its tongue, he used the contents of the stomach to bait his hook. He then dropped the fish into a pen behind him and cast his line again, repeating this throughout the day.

According to Duhamel du Monceau, when the weather was good, the fishermen cast their lines and pulled them up right away because the cod took the bait quickly. The men each caught 125 to 200 cod a day. At such a rate, it took less than three months to fill a ship's hold. ⁷⁸ However, sometimes the fishery continued for six months or more, as in the case of the Saint-André in 1754. It was not uncommon for a ship to return to France with only half the expected cargo. The cod was not always abundant. On some days, few fish were caught, and sometimes, there were simply no fish.

From April 16 to September 30, 1754, Captain Bellet's crew had several slow days (Graph 1). According to Le Roy's charts, on twelve of the days the ship was on the Bank, the men did not catch anything. Did they eat the fish on those days? That is a possibility. Other ships' logs sometimes mention "50 cod for the crew" or "50 cod for dinner". Such notes often coincide with Sundays. In the case of the Saint-André, only two of the days the crew was left empty-handed were Sundays. At the time, numerous religious holidays were celebrated on weekdays, so all the unproductive days might be indicative of religious obligations, but that is very unlikely.

According to Le Roy, the ship's total catch was 16,670 cod petit compte, which equalled 12,830 cod of the highest quality grand compte de Honfleur. ⁷⁹ However, the numbers on his charts add up to 16,890 cod, a slight difference of 220 fish. ⁸⁰ The Saint-André spent 168 days on the Bank. There must have been ten fishermen on the crew, since the captain, the mates (pilot, second mate, carpenter, surgeon), the salter, the apprentices or the boys would have been directing the manoeuvres, supervising the fishery, or preparing and salting the cod. The average number of cod caught each day was about 100, which, divided by ten fishermen, gives an average of ten cod per man per day (Table 2). Not exactly the miraculous draft of fish!

The ship's average weekly catch was about 703 cod. The total weekly catch was above this average on only eleven of the weeks spent on the Bank (Graph 2).

According to Duhamel du Monceau, the most promising season for the Bank fishery was from mid-April to the end of June, when the fish arrived little by little. ⁸¹ In June the weather was good, but the cod was pursuing capelin. Young cod were most abundant in July. ⁸² In August, the cod followed the capelin out of the Bank, but it returned in September and October, when the winds made fishing more difficult.

Graph 2 shows that the fishermen on the Saint-André caught the most fish the last week in May (1,680 cod). The first two weeks in June were the second (1,380) and sixth (950) most productive, respectively, whereas the third was in the middle of August (1,280). The first week of September was the fifth best (990) and the second-last week of April was the seventh (900). These results indicate a rather early season around the end of May and in the first weeks of June (Graph 3).

Le Roy's notes on the weather reveal that the weather was foggy, foggy with sunny periods, or rainy and cool during the three most productive weeks of the fishery. But in the weeks that followed, the skies were generally clear. These observations confirm in part the empirical knowledge of the time.

The most favourable conditions for the cod fishery, and in fact any hook-and-line fishery, were when the sky was overcast and the sea was clear of foam. Strong winds and rough seas made it difficult to fish because the lines became tangled due to the movement of the ship and the ropes. When there was a storm, fishing became impossible. From June to mid-September, the sea was generally calm and the weather good without too much fog or too many squalls. ⁸³

Graph 4 shows that the weather on the Bank was quite good from April 16 to September 30, 1754. The crew of the Saint-André had 113 days of good weather, 14 days of fog, and 27 days of rain and cloudy skies. There was also one day of good weather with rough seas, which made fishing more difficult. Le Roy's notes indicate that the conditions on the Bank were not always as terrifying as some might think. But even then, the cod was not as plentiful as the fishermen had hoped it would be.

When the cod was abundant, an apprentice took over the initial preparation of the fish, so as not to distract the fishermen. The tongues were set aside for the man who caught the fish. They were counted at the end of the day to determine the man's catch. The man who caught the least fish had to empty the pen that contained the heads and throw the heads into the water while the other men had supper and rested. ⁸⁴