Commercial Fishing

[Bango skank]

If youre around chatham swing by and toss a couple of those suckers over to me! 

[Skillet]

What part of Chatham are you in?? 

[Bango skank]

Hell, i just stepped out of bed for a minute... not up to sisters yet.  Well be heading out spencer maybe 0100, going to be a fun ride to red dog.

[7mmfan]

Great video, and slab of a coho! Wanted one like that yesterday but all I got was fish that one would be tempted to eat.

The video really does a good job of showing how well that method works.

[Skillet]

Hi all, checking in here. Just rounded Halibut Point, should be tied up snug in my slip after 21 days out of town fishing Spot prawns.  Probably gonna sleep for a whole day, then get these buggers offloaded and on their way to Washington.  Story and pics coming soon!

[pianoman9701]

Nice, Skillet. How many lbs did you end up with?

[Skillet]

C'mon @pianoman, you know I can't give out numbers like that on here.  Don't want a bunch of HuntWa'ers opting out of the WA rat race and crowding my spots.

But seriously, what a bunch of work to make a pile of prawns.  They're tasty buggers, tho. 

A short story-

I now own the prawn permit, but not the gear.  So I had to make a lease deal with a the guy that I took fishing last year, as he wasn't going to go this year.  He bought 20 or so pots to get a full complement of gear (I'm allowed 140 of the 39" Ladners) for me, with the understanding that I replace all gear I lose during the season.  No problem - I'm not going to lose a bunch of pots, right?  Ha. Ha. Ha.

One caveat was the groundline I was using last year was on loan and not available for this year.  So I had to invest in a full set of groundline, tubs to hold it, and C-links. Plus shipping to get it to Sitka in time.  I've paid more for nice used cars.  It's usable for several fisheries, but man - it was a big financial hit I wasn't expecting to take at this point.  This is a recurring theme in commercial fishing - you pays your money and you takes your chances.

We spent a few days rigging the pots and splicing C-links into the ground line. I bought 28 ea 150 fa shots of ground line, and C-linked each end.  That's 56 eye splices on 4.2 nautical miles of ground line and about three cases of beer for two guys in the gear loft.  We went through all the used pots and checked/replaced the rot cord, rubber clips, bridles, snaps.  We retied the top pot lashing on those that needed it, retied the bait cup lids and spent plenty of time trying to get the blood flow to slow after we cut ourselves with the Vicky (we each got one good slice).  My gear locker floor looks like an axe murder took place up there. 

[Skillet]

I also had a sweet deal on a pot hauler fall in my lap just in time for the season.  But, I needed to install it and run hydraulics for the lift (including the valve).  This included cutting down the hours-old wave wall I had just spent a full day fabbing up and painting, and cutting four 1.5" holes in my deck to have the sparky weld in some flush threaded plugs to mount it.   Such is life.

 

[Skillet]

Test run - looks like I didn't completely waste the money.  It was rough and needed a ton of grease/cleaning, but it worked.

More story as time allows-

[rainshadow1]

Had a block rigged like that on the Avenger, it had a ring sleeve on the upright with some flat bar stays to the bridge. Necessary when we buried 120lb Dungeness pots in 6' of sand! Don't thing the deck mounts would have handled that torque.

[Dan-o]

WHERE ARE MY PRAWNS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

4 bags did not last long.

Will you be in my neighborhood?

[Skillet]

Had a block rigged like that on the Avenger, it had a ring sleeve on the upright with some flat bar stays to the bridge. Necessary when we buried 120lb Dungeness pots in 6' of sand! Don't thing the deck mounts would have handled that torque.

I bet!  A sanded in pot like that is more like a mooring anchor.  My work was a lot less intense.  Between the wave wall and the floor mount, I was able to put enough torque on the line part it against sharp rocks 85 fa down... more on that later 

[Skillet]

WHERE ARE MY PRAWNS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

4 bags did not last long.

Will you be in my neighborhood?

Trying to put some really neat stuff together for a HuntWa Christmas special group buy, stay tuned!

[92xj]

Please put me on that list if you make it this way...

[Woodchuck]

Please put me on that list if you make it this way...

Me 3 please.