Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Candlelight Fisherman, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a fisherman, tells how his father taught him to test the wind at night by sticking a candle lantern outside: "Open the pane and pop out the flame/To see how the wind do blow". He tells how he does it, and advises listeners to do the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Phil Hammond)
KEYWORDS: fishing technology work humorous nonballad father wife worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 219, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CANDLEBLO*
Roud #1852
RECORDINGS:
Phil Hammond, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (on FSB3)
Bob Roberts, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (on BRoberts01, HiddenE)
NOTES: The joke is that while one is testing the wind with the lantern, its light attracts fish. Doing this, of course, is against the law. - PJS
Kennedy adds another joke along the lines of the "Arkansas Traveller": If the wind blows out the candle, it's blowing too hard to go out; if the wind doesn't blow out the candle, there isn't enough wind to sail. - RBW
File: K219

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Below is the version from Bob Roberts in Roy Palmer's Oxford Book of Sea Songs (1986).
The word "snug" and the verse in brackets are from my transcription of the Bob Roberts recording from his Songs from the Sailing Barges CD. I can't catch all the words on the "south wind" verse, so I'd appreciate corrections and suggestions. Except for that one word and the "south wind" verse, the Roberts recording is almost identical to what's in the Oxford Book of Sea Songs

CANDLELIGHT FISHERMAN

My dad was a fisherman bold
And he lived till he grew old,
Till he opened the pane and popped out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.

He often said to me:
'You'll be wise before you go,
Do you open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow?'

When the north wind roughly blow
Then I lay right down [snug] below
And I open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.

When the wind comes from the west
It will blow hard at the best,
So I open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.

Now a wind that's from the east,
Is no good to man nor beast
So I open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.

[When the south wind softly blow
It's not enough for you to go.
But I open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.]

My wife she said to me:
'We shall starve if you don't go,'
So I open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.

So all you fishermen bold,
If you'd live till you grow old,
Do you open the pane and pop out the flame
Just to see how the wind do blow.