Commercial Fishing

[RB]

Thought I'd throw a quick update up on the thread while I have a few minutes.

AK king season was short at 5 days.  Decent fishing. I started at the Fairweather Grounds (120 miles from my slip), but moved back to Cape Edgecumbe (12 miles from my slip) for day 3 through 5. 

Coho fishing started out pretty slow right after, and it's been slow right up until now.  150/day is pretty elusive.  Been happy with a 100/day avg in my trips.  And then I had a major breakdown (see diesel gurus help thread), so my July total catch is way behind schedule. Coho has been so slow, in fact, that AKDFG shut us down for 8 days. Which gave me the opportunity to...

Go longlining out on the Fairweather Grounds to pick up the small amount of halibut quota I bought this winter. Was a fun trip, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.  The big hali I'm holding didn't actually get hooked, he swallowed a yelloweye that was hooked and it got stuck in his throat.

Second king opener coming up on the 13th, scrambling to get the boat ready for that now.

Hope everybody's having a great summer!

Awesome pictures! Love those Yellow Eye!

[Skillet]

Thought I'd throw a quick update up on the thread while I have a few minutes.

AK king season was short at 5 days.  Decent fishing. I started at the Fairweather Grounds (120 miles from my slip), but moved back to Cape Edgecumbe (12 miles from my slip) for day 3 through 5. 

Coho fishing started out pretty slow right after, and it's been slow right up until now.  150/day is pretty elusive.  Been happy with a 100/day avg in my trips.  And then I had a major breakdown (see diesel gurus help thread), so my July total catch is way behind schedule. Coho has been so slow, in fact, that AKDFG shut us down for 8 days. Which gave me the opportunity to...

Go longlining out on the Fairweather Grounds to pick up the small amount of halibut quota I bought this winter. Was a fun trip, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.  The big hali I'm holding didn't actually get hooked, he swallowed a yelloweye that was hooked and it got stuck in his throat.

Second king opener coming up on the 13th, scrambling to get the boat ready for that now.

Hope everybody's having a great summer!

  I will be up tomorrow and was going to toss you a barley pop as a show of fisherman solidarity.  Now that you can catch kings and I can’t all your getting is a Sitka full moon!

What an amazing dinner, it was great to hang with "Team 3boys" again. Thank you! 

And to set the record straight, not only was @3boys able to fish kings on his trip up here, they slayed them on their last day.    Maybe he'll tell the story. 

[Skillet]

We've got a blow coming. 40 kts and 15 ft this afternoon and tonight.  That's beyond my desire to fish in. So I came in last night to reset. I'm offloaded, fueled, provisioned, and tied to the boards with every line I own.

Perfect time for an update.

Second kings were just ok, only lasted two days.  With a hungry fleet and  only 25k kings left in our quota, nobody expected it to last very long.  There were some shenanigans trying to get unloaded that cost me two days.  Getting heated just thinking about that again, so we'll let that one go...

Coho are getting bigger, but not as big as last year's. Today's delivery was a 5.99# head-off average weight. 

My ace deckhand, Johnny, is stepping off Sept 1, so I took on a second deckhand to train with him before he goes.  Codenamed "Big Red," she's green to freezer trolling but is picking it up fast and has fresh drive.  I have no worries about her being up to speed when Johnny leaves.  I've not had female crew yet, and at this point regret not recruiting the ladies to work the deck more aggressively.

Couple pics, and an FAS offload vid.

[runamuk]

Jelly so so jelly of all the fish I do not have in my freezer. And my baby brother fishes up there now and still....no fish in my freezer 

I love all the pics though.

[RB]

Awesome! Stay safe!

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Our silvers here on the Copper River are much smaller this year too, and scarce so far. I had 1500 lbs, but the average catch Monday was about 500 lbs.  I had an 8 lb average weight Mon, (whole weight) compared to 10 lb average last year. And the last two weeks last year my silvers averaged 11 lbs.

What's your price this year? We got $1.35 last period.

[Jonathan_S]

Any more group buys on the horizon?

[3boys]

Thought I'd throw a quick update up on the thread while I have a few minutes.

AK king season was short at 5 days.  Decent fishing. I started at the Fairweather Grounds (120 miles from my slip), but moved back to Cape Edgecumbe (12 miles from my slip) for day 3 through 5. 

Coho fishing started out pretty slow right after, and it's been slow right up until now.  150/day is pretty elusive.  Been happy with a 100/day avg in my trips.  And then I had a major breakdown (see diesel gurus help thread), so my July total catch is way behind schedule. Coho has been so slow, in fact, that AKDFG shut us down for 8 days. Which gave me the opportunity to...

Go longlining out on the Fairweather Grounds to pick up the small amount of halibut quota I bought this winter. Was a fun trip, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.  The big hali I'm holding didn't actually get hooked, he swallowed a yelloweye that was hooked and it got stuck in his throat.

Second king opener coming up on the 13th, scrambling to get the boat ready for that now.

Hope everybody's having a great summer!

  I will be up tomorrow and was going to toss you a barley pop as a show of fisherman solidarity.  Now that you can catch kings and I can’t all your getting is a Sitka full moon!

What an amazing dinner, it was great to hang with "Team 3boys" again. Thank you! 

And to set the record straight, not only was @3boys able to fish kings on his trip up here, they slayed them on their last day.    Maybe he'll tell the story. 

Great to have you over for dinner again this year Skillet. That was an amazing grub fest of Snake River Farms Waguy steaks that had been smoked and then seared in the cast iron skillet. This was our 23rd year fishing in Sitka and I never get tired of the fishing and the raw beauty of SE Alaska. It was a 4 days of fishing and they closed kings on August 1st. On our first day of fishing Aug 14 they announced they would be closing it for commercial fishing (sorry Skillet) and opening it for sport! The fishing was amazing with limits in the high 20# class. We actually had to move from a king spot to go after our 6 silver limit. Good times as always.

[Skillet]

Our silvers here on the Copper River are much smaller this year too, and scarce so far. I had 1500 lbs, but the average catch Monday was about 500 lbs.  I had an 8 lb average weight Mon, (whole weight) compared to 10 lb average last year. And the last two weeks last year my silvers averaged 11 lbs.

What's your price this year? We got $1.35 last period.

I think the ice guys are getting $2.50-ish for troll dressed coho.

[Skillet]

Any more group buys on the horizon?

It's looking more unlikely that I'll be able to do a fresh coho buy this season.  The low volume of fish and high prices for FAS fish are forcing me to keep the freezer program going.

[Woodchuck]

Any more group buys on the horizon?

It's looking more unlikely that I'll be able to do a fresh coho buy this season.  The low volume of fish and high prices for FAS fish are forcing me to keep the freezer program going.

Strike while the iron is hot my friend.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Our silvers here on the Copper River are much smaller this year too, and scarce so far. I had 1500 lbs, but the average catch Monday was about 500 lbs.  I had an 8 lb average weight Mon, (whole weight) compared to 10 lb average last year. And the last two weeks last year my silvers averaged 11 lbs.

What's your price this year? We got $1.35 last period.

I think the ice guys are getting $2.50-ish for troll dressed coho.

We're up to $1.50 plus a 10 cent loyalty bonus we'll get in the spring.  That probably equates to about $1.85 - $1.90 troll dressed I'd guess.  We are still way behind where we need to be overall, but I got into them Monday.  Had 3,700 lbs.  which was about 450 fish.  Trouble is, we are still only getting one day a week. Rain started today, so hopefully that will help.

Saw two boats come in from the Kaliak river last week with huge loads of very nice silvers. That is a special area which includes the Tsiu River, where set netters from both Yakutat and the Cordova area can fish silvers.  The problem is getting your fish to market as there are rarely tenders there. Sometimes they charter planes to fly their fish out and this particular time, these guys filled a couple large bowpickers and ran them to Cordova themselves. But if normal fall weather comes, they won't have that option.

[Jonathan_S]

Any more group buys on the horizon?

It's looking more unlikely that I'll be able to do a fresh coho buy this season.  The low volume of fish and high prices for FAS fish are forcing me to keep the freezer program going.

Best of luck to you sir. We look forward to the next time around 

[Skillet]

Wanted to share a quick pic and vid of Sept ocean coho up here in Southeast.

Pic is of my deckhand with a decent fish, headed& gutted weight about 12#.

Video link below is of that fish being pressure bled.

Coho season is almost over, then it's a scramble to get ready and in position for my spot prawns on Oct 1.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Sweet!  A buddy of mine, Bill Webber,  in Cordova invented the first pressure bleeding system for salmon that I know of.  Here's his website.

https://www.paradigmseafoods.com/