With the recent thread on the prioritization of sports fishing I have noticed a significant amount of misinformation and a trend towards negative attitudes towards the commercial fishing fleet as a whole. I get it – in Washington’s bizzaro-world situation that resulted from the Boldt decision, what would normally be only a normal amount of animosity between user groups has been turned into a full-on cage match between the participants in the non-tribal half. When I was a sport fisherman for the nearly 20 years I fished for salmon, I too lamented the commercial fleet as having too much of the take.
Note I said “was" a sports fisherman.
My name is Skillet, and I am now a Commercial Salmon Troller in SE Alaska. I’m typing this while anchored up in Symonds Bay on Biorka Island, about 10 miles out of Sitka, AK, a place I amazingly get 4G service. Winter kings are the quarry, and they are elusive…
I’m starting this thread for a few reasons. First, I think the majority of people on this site would appreciate the pictures, stories and lifestyle that myself and other commercial fishing members of the HuntWa family have to offer. I’ve only been doing this for three years now, after I made the decision to leave my full-time and rock-solid corporate career of 12 years to pursue this dream. But I know there are others on this site that fish for a living, and the overall vibe of the site is turning a bit anti-commercial fishing. Again, being a salmon sport fisherman for almost 20 years I get the underlying reasons, but I’m hoping that by reading about your fellow HuntWa members who have chosen this lifestyle as a way of earning a living it will help people understand the other side. In particular, I hope to educate people about the troll fleet in general, the AK troll fleet specifically, and how we strive to have a sustainable fishery for generations to come.
It is important to me to keep this thread positive. If you have questions, feel free to ask, I or hopefully other knowledgeable fellows will jump in to answer. No BS zone here – if I don’t know the answer I’ll put it on my to-do list and get back to you asap. I don’t currently fish salmon in WA, only AK – but might do WA if the correct opportunity presented itself. Fish politics are very complicated, and I’m just getting involved in them. But I will ask that if you’re going to try and troll me or other “commies,” or have a burning desire to just flame me or other fisherman for what we do, please start your own thread and use the @skillet tag to notify me of our profession’s crucifixion there. I’ll be happy to be drug through the dirt on your turf – but please respect my hope this thread will be a great place to keep the stories and images that I feel my HuntWa family can appreciate. I hope to keep adding to this thread as part of my career over the next X-number of years. I’m not brand-new, but I think I can fish for a while longer yet and plan on keeping this thread upated as I get back to cell and wifi coverage over the seasons I fish. This is my life now, and I am willing to share it with the HuntWa folks if they’ll have it. If not… I’ll delete it and go back to my anonymous fish-killing ways.
I also invite other commercial fisherman to jump on and share their stories and images. Any good/positive stories about commercial fishing by non-commercials are welcome too. I am hoping this can be a clearing house for good fishing vibes.
One thing to note – there are a handful of folks on this site that know who I am, and what I do. Of those, a very few I consider my “Team Washington” (along with my family) that have gone above and beyond to keep me on the drag and landing fish.
Woodchuck, Pianoman, Ridgeratt, H20hunter, Camo – you guys are the greatest and I appreciate everything you’ve done. Other folks have chipped in where needed, too numerous to list - and know that I appreciate every one of you. Any commercial fisherman will tell you that the home team is a huge part of our success while we’re out being waterborne vagabonds turning nature’s bounty into the best seafood available.
I’ll start by offering up a pic of my boat, my trusty steed, my home away from home, my world for 10 months a year - the F/V Diamond Lil. She is a 47’ steel freezer troller, of Ed Monk design, weighs 80K# dry, built in Moss Landing CA and originally meant for the albacore tuna/swordfish fisheries down there. These boats make great salmon & albacore freezer boats though. I’m pretty sweet on her, and I think she’s a beaut. I may be a little biased... but this girl can catch fish.
Here she is in Jan after lying up for the winter in Seattle. Some rust to clean up, but it is a steel boat after all.
Here we are fishing the good wx in June in Sitka Sound, pic taken by a friend on the opposite tack. This is "West Channel".
She can pack almost 15k# of coho in ice, or 12k# of FAS coho. I fish her interchangeably as a freezer, and ice boat and a slush boat – just depends on the fishery and customer needs. She has a blast freezer on board that will bring a salmon carcass down to -38 deg F. But it’s a dry cold...
A quick list of the work I did with her in 2016 – the fisheries available to a guy like me on a boat like this are numerous, you just need to decide where to park your money in permits and get to work. I hold several permits now, but only the Power Troll license is limited-entry. That means there are no new licenses being issued and I need to buy one off of a fisherman who is quitting or retiring. The prices for a power troll permit vary wildly, historically ranging from a few thousand bucks to over $65K. I got mine somewhere in the middle… I could write a book about the permits and prices, might be a good topic for another post later.
For the fishing, my 2016 looked like this-
Early May – Spring kings. Primarily hatchery fish, they keep us penned in tight to the shore and limited days in most areas to minimize impact on treaty fish.
Mid-May – Ling cod dinglebar fishery out on the Fairweather Grounds. It opens elsewhere as well, but the Fairweather grounds are where you want to be if you have boat that can take it. A dinglebar rig is like an 80# bottom bouncer for walleye – with a dozen 10/0 jigs trailing behind it called a train. Pulling up a loaded train is a complete hoot and will challenge your biceps in big waves. The Fairweather Grounds are an offshore plateau that comes up to 30 fa (that means it shallows up to 180 feet deep for you lubbers) out of really deep water and is a fish factory. But May 40-70 miles offshore in the Gulf of Alaska is nothing to play with, so you need to pull up your big boy pants to commit to heading out there. More on that later-
Late May-June 25th – repair whatever you broke on the Fairweather Grounds chasing lingcod and get back to shaking down the boat on spring kings. The fishing gets really limited, but that’s ok. You usually have boat work to do, get your crew squared away with your processes, and attend to the details a boat owner/captain has to. Get your rest. Time is limited, everything has got to be ready - the troller’s grind is about to start.
July 1 – 1St summer king opener. This is the big show for the Alaskan Commercial Troller. You have just a few days to make what will be a significant portion of your season’s earnings. 2016 first opener went 5 days. With 20 hours of daylight and willing kings and coho, nobody sleeps much. I started out on the Fairweather Grounds and moved in towards the Cape Cross area on day 4 to finish up.
July 6th (2016) – unload, refuel, reprovision, charge out for the coho. This is the “other” salmon we catch as trollers, and while they aren’t worth what kings are they usually make up the bulk of our $$ every year. I cannot begin to tell you how many coho I’ve killed over the last few years. They are 99% AK fish, some Canadian bound. This is a grind fishery - ever watched Groundhog Day? Some guys head for the chum grounds instead, but I like coho fishing. Will go dog fishing in the future if I need to though.
Aug 5-ish – mid season break. We’re usually ready for that, since there’s been no days off since July 1. Get a group of friends, find a beach, light a fire, drink that beer and have a cookout. Sitka as a town seems to help us all relax at this point, especially the “P Bar” – the local fisherman’s bar. If you ever get to Sitka, this is a must-do.
Aug 8-ish – Hope the hangover didn’t last too long and you got your king gear tied up, because this is the second king opener. The first opener is designed to catch 65-ish percent of the AK quota, the second opener is the mop-up. In 2015, we didn’t even get a second opener. In 2016, it went three weeks. Fishing is anything but consistent. We usually get a bunch of coho during the second king opener, so it’s a blast.
Mid-Aug to Sept 30 - (or, end of second king opener until coho closes) – Back to the grind. This is when you start questioning the wisdom of being a commercial troller. Every day it is grinding gear, cleaning and icing (or freezing) fish, delivering at the end of every trip, etc. You can go a full month and a half without seeing town by delivering to tenders, who will resupply you with what you need. By now we’ve been working every day, sunup to sundown and running at night, since July 1. Except that mid-season break of three days… Write that dedicated crewman his last summer salmon check, buy him a nice steak dinner and drive him to the airport. He’ll feel rich - for a while!
*Sept 15-ish – this is when the major part of the Washington/Oregon fleet that has AK licenses break south. The weather (wx) can turn fast mid-Sept, and if you are ready to go you go. Playing around with staying for a few more days of coho fishing isn’t worth it when you see the big storms brewing out in the GOA (Gulf of Alaska). Unless you plan on staying up for the winter fisheries, clear out.
Oct 1 to Oct 10 – If you have a pot shrimp permit, this is your season. For the rest of us, it is a time to tie up, sleep in for a few days and start the list of what needs fixing. It is ALWAYS a long list. But get to it – winter kings open on Oct 11!
Oct 11 thru April 15 – Winter kings, unless quota is reached and they close early. This is a rough-weather fishery. They don’t let us out past the “surf line”, but that’s plenty for me. Today I fished the line in Sitka Sound in 20 knots westerly and 10 ft swell – all while snowing. Very typical for this year, and have heard this is a tame winter wx-wise. We’ll see what the future holds. I need to run the boat south very soon to haulout and do my annual repair/maintenance, hoping to be back up here by April to fish the late winter season. And then it starts over again.
As you can see, there has been a serious crimp put in my hunting. I hope to get a bit of moose hunting in up in AK, blacktail on Baranof, and maybe even a late hunt when I fly home for the holidays in WA. The fishing seasons will dictate my hunting future from now on. And I'm ok with that as a cost of my decision to make this my life.
I hope this is well received by the majority of the HuntWa family in the spirit in which it is intended. I think I could easily fill pages upon pages with pics, video and stories – as I’m sure some other old salts could. Let’s see what you all think, and I’ll either keep adding on or just nuke it.
Signing off,
Skillet
Captain of F/V Diamond Lil