Commercial Fishing

[jmscon]

Dang!

I met a guy who lived on his boat at the Ballard oil dock. Ole, I think he hand rolled year round on the Washington coast and in the straight. Hands like leather and tough as nails!

[Skillet]

Good point Woodchuck.  Hand trollers on bigger boats are tough.  I can't swear to it, but this guy may be Chuck Norris.

I was advised early on by an old salt to never get in a fist fight with a hand troller.  I think that goes double for this guy.

[Woodchuck]

Good point Woodchuck.  Hand trollers on bigger boats are tough.  I can't swear to it, but this guy may be Chuck Norris.

I was advised early on by an old salt to never get in a fist fight with a hand troller.  I think that goes double for this guy.

Sounds like solid advice to me. 

[pianoman9701]

I need your fish, Chris. When you coming back?

[Skillet]

Hi Pman - with the summer chinook shutdown I'm not able to work on kings again until the AK winter troll opens in mid Oct.  And given the doom and gloom we're hearing about ocean survival, there is dock chatter that we might not even get that fishery this winter.  That would really hurt my operation, so I'd be looking for other fish to work on.  I'll keep you posted. 

[Skillet]

Well, got some kings over the last couple of days here in Sitka Sound before we got blown off the water tonight.  40 kts SE incoming, everybody's heading for town.  The P-bar will be hopping tonight 

Here's a pic of the biggest one this trip, and the hootchie that caused his demise.  Guessing right around 20# dressed, but the scale will tell the tale tomorrow morning.

[Mark Brenckle]

Cool, glad to see they opened the king season.

[j_h_nimrod]

I miss fresh king on the BBQ!  Nothing better!  Not sure if I am alone, but an iced king makes my mouth water

[Skillet]

Haha, if these weren't already sold I might be chunking one up right now 

I get to eat fresh fish of all types quite a lot, but for my money nothing yet beats a super fatty fresh winter king/springer.

[Skillet]

Cool, glad to see they opened the king season.

You and me both.  I was going to have to hit Southpole up for a job sweeping her shop this winter otherwise 

[Sitka_Blacktail]

A little wrap up of my season on the Copper River Flats/Prince William Sound. 

The season started very slow due to management concerns over kings. We got very short openers and no inside fishing. It soon became apparent that the king run was actually fairly healthy this year as we caught a decent number of them in spite of the restrictions, but that didn't get us more time and area. Then disaster struck. One of my longest time fishing buddy's boat was found going in circles with nobody aboard. I had missed the initial radio chatter but when I got to the tender I heard the coast guard chopper talking on channel 16. over the loud hailer. about a search and asked what was going on and was told that Mick was missing. As I was delivering my fish I heard the chopper direct a boat into an area of the surf to check out something they saw. It turned out to be Mick, but they were too late to save him. He'd been in the water over an hour. His flotation gear hadn't saved him.  Totally put a damper on my season.  When I met Mick in 72, his wife (Girlfriend at the time) and I were 18 and Mick a couple years older. We grew up in the fishery together and you'll never meet a nicer couple.  Mick continued fishing Pete Dahl Slough for his whole career while I moved on. The Pete Dahl homesteaders (guys who never leave) are famous locally for being doom and gloom on the radio to discourage other fishermen from coming to the area. You'll hear them complaining they only had a flounder on the last set, or the caught a snag, or the sea mammals are stealing all their fish. They have it down to a science and Mick was one of the best, whining all the way to the bank. I used to tease them that they were like one of those furniture stores with the continual going out of business sales.  Pete Dahl fishermen......... Going bankrupt in the same slough for over 40 years. Then another friend flipped his boat on the Kokenhenic bar.

After that combined with the poor fishing it didn't take much to convince me to go to the Sound to try my luck at catching dogs. Usually if you get there early, there are few boats and some decent build up near the hatchery to work on. That wasn't the case this ear tho. In spite of few boats, there were hardly any fish and we fished for two week without hardly making anything. Usually I figure to make half to 2/3 of my season's pay the first month of the 4 month season when we get the highest price. If that was the case, then this year was a total failure. Then disaster hit again.

I was delivering at the end of the period and when I finished I took gas. As we were untied from the tender my oldest son who was fishing with me put our paperwork in the cabin and remarked he smelled gas.  There were a dozen boats waiting to deliver and we were drifting along side the tender and without thinking I hit the key to get out of the way. BOOM! The explosion blew the windows out of my cabin and blew the bolted on engine hatch from the roof and it went 30 ft in the air and landed on the deck of the tender. Luckily my son and I were outside and no one was hurt by the explosion. There was a small fire in the cabin which we put out in short order. So we got towed to town to replace or repair my boat. Turned out the fill hose into my tank was old and had cracked allowing gas to leak into the engine compartment under the cabin. Miraculously the damage was limited to the blown windows and hatch and some singed bedding and clothing and melted wires. I had a fabrication company in town repair the fuel tank problem, a friend installed new windows and I repaired the wiring and bought new bedding. We ended up only missing one period and got back out on the grounds, thankful it hadn't been worse. But by then, a month into the season I was thinking this was the season that was going to be the end of me.

Another week of poor fishing and my wife and youngest son came up to join my and my oldest son went home and got a town job. And then the dogs finally showed up. For six weeks we slayed them. Wife and son then went home and I picked humpies for two more weeks, then had a very decent silver season. So what had appeared to be a horrible year turned into a very good year. Except for the loss of Mick.  Oh, and there was another fellow who fell out of a setnet skiff in Main Bay and was never found this summer.  Definitely made for a somber season. My heart goes out to the families of those who didn't return.  Puts things in perspective.

But that's fishing, You never know how a season will turn out until it's over.
 

[Skillet]

Thanks for sharing Sitka.  Sounds like you went through it this year.  I had an old timer tell me that he kept coming back to fishing because it offered the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  After being on it for a little while, and reading your story, that rings true with me.

RIP Mick.  He went down with his boots on.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Thanks for sharing Sitka.  Sounds like you went through it this year.  I had an old timer tell me that he kept coming back to fishing because it offered the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  After being on it for a little while, and reading your story, that rings true with me.

RIP Mick.  He went down with his boots on.

Thanks Skillet.  Mick had told his wife if he ever died he wanted his ashes spread at Pete Dahl Point. It turn out, that's where he passed.

By the way, how was your Sept? We were hammered by bad weather during silver season, but it seemed to be just good enough to fish each opener. But there were a couple I quit early and got up the slough as it was coming up. Blew 100 in town one closure but I don't think it got over 50-70 where I was hiding. A friend's seiner broke loose from the dock and went aground on spike Island and rolled over and flooded when the tide came back in and several roofs were damaged.

[WSU]

Terrible deal about Mick.  He was one of my best friend's dad.  Great family and great people.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Thanks WSU. You are right. Mick was a hard one to lose. I will miss his dry wit.