Commercial Fishing

[quadrafire]

How do you meet up with and decide who you will fish with? Tinder for AK fishermen?

[Skillet]

It's a really interesting dynamic, and getting in with the right group of guys isn't easy.  I'm running out of cell coverage, so will detail more when I get the chance.

[Rainier10]

Boo yah! Skillet asked to have this posted since he is spotty on cell coverage. I asked if it ate a goat.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Boo yah! Skillet asked to have this posted since he is spotty on cell coverage. I asked if it ate a goat.

Dam that’s a big ole ling! 

[runamuk]

Boo yah! Skillet asked to have this posted since he is spotty on cell coverage. I asked if it ate a goat.

I think it ate a greenhorn dang that looks like some yummy fish and chips.

[Duckslayer89]

It's a really interesting dynamic, and getting in with the right group of guys isn't easy.  I'm running out of cell coverage, so will detail more when I get the chance.

You guys dingle barrin?

[Skillet]

Nope, we were longlining rockfish, got a few lings as bycatch.

[bearpaw]

I really enjoy reading about your experiences, thanks for taking the time to share your story! 

[Skyvalhunter]

awesome picture!!

[Skillet]

The best laid plans...

We were chasing "radio fish" (reports you hear through the grapevine, or on the VHF) and got caught looking for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  The catch reports looked really good from the previous week, and we heard it was still going on.  About 100 miles down the coast from Sitka as the crow flies.  At 7 kts, that's a haul for a few fish.  But I had that longline job to do as a backup, what could go wrong?  Amirite??

We ran and fished kings hard, in some hard weather.  I got 5 in three days, slow by any measure. But especially slow when you've just spent 14 hours running to get there.   Sold the trip in Craig, rebooted and regeared for longlining rockfish from the Pacific Bounty, and headed back out with dreams of orange gold filling the hold.

Heading towards San Christoval Pass from Craig in the evening-

[Skillet]

This is what the charts look like going into that pass - narrow in spots, but a pretty easy transit by local standards.

[Skillet]

Ran up into Sea Otter Sound through  Tonowek narrows that night.  In the narrowest part of the narrows there is an old totem to Chief Tonowek.  Tradition has it that to not offend the Chief, you are supposed to toss some tobacco out in the water for him as you pass. I didn't have any on my boat, so asked my running partners to double up their contribution for me.

You can see in the pic (taken tonight a opposed to during the trip - the blue line is my track through on this passage) there are some tricky turns in the approach to Karheen Pass.  No problems, just a bit of a pucker factor gong through there in pitch black. Must have trust your equipment and ability to navigate using it.

[Skillet]

Ended up in Camp Island Bay that night, running partner said he knew of a dock in there we could leave two of our boats at so the three of us could jump on one boat to longline.  It was a sweet float in a protected cove in the SW corner of the bay.  Our boats would be safe to leave unattended for a couple of days.  We slept in a bit, pic of us getting ready to leave on the Pacific Bounty (rafted on the outside of me) for the rockfish grounds. 

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Skillet, have you ever fished in West Port Frederick? When I scaled logs out of Hoonah, they did pretty good This time of year or a little later, sometimes, on kings, right in front of the log yard at West Port. If I remember right it was mostly local hand trollers.

[Camo]

Dude, that looks like a sketchy run in the daylight! Did you run it on a flood?