Commercial Fishing

[Skillet]

Day 3 was rough.  Really rough.  We had a SE 30 roll in, and for anybody who knows this shore that can churn up a confused sea.  Hanna was getting a little green, but she is tough as nails and pushed through it.  By noon we had a really short period 5-6' wind wave going on top of the swell, and it was slamming us pretty good - especially in turns.  The catch rate fell of a lot, in part because the fish moved and I didn't stay with them, in part because everything is just harder when it's that choppy.  I needed to drive the boat a lot more so we were running the gear less, we always lose a few more fish at the back of the boat in weather like this, and frankly by the end of the day you are worn out with all the extra effort it takes just to keep your feet under you on a pitching deck. 

My pard up at Edgecumbe just kept catching.  I had him beat on day one, he barely beat me on day two.  But day three he waxed me.  There were fish at Edgecumbe, and it sounded like they were staying put.

I truly detest fishing Edgecumbe, though.  The charter fleet was back in business, and they'll anchor anywhere - including right in the middle of the traditional troller drags, as deep as 60 fathoms.  It's their right to do so, and I don't get mad at them about it, as long as they don't drop the hook right in front of me.  That and if they fly their anchor flag (Round black ball indicating they are anchored), they are in the right per the Coast Guard rules (COLREG'S) and have right-of-way.  But the whole situation is annoying as heck, since you have a lot of trollers weaving in and out of the anchored boats, making it near impossible to do anything but sit at the helm and drive through the chaos.  I had traveled to Europe in years past, and it reminds me of the insanity of navigating traffic in Rome.  Not my type of fishing.  Unless I was in Rome.  Then I would do as the Romans do... But this is Alaska, and we are a noble fleet.  So I don't mess around there unless I have to.

I felt like the fish were still around, so that evening I moved offshore and drifted in that slop.  Crew wasn't super happy about it, but they get it and went below to sleep.  I had a plan to fish outside of everybody on a super deep edge the next day.  Anything to resist the siren's song of Edgecumbe.

[Skyvalhunter]

 

[Skillet]

Days 4 and 5 out on the deep were pretty good.  I was a few miles outside of everybody, the weather was calming down, and I found fish.  Day 5 was my best numbers day in the second season, as I had figured out where those fish were hanging and was pounding away at them. They were not the bigs I was getting on day 2, but a decent class of fish. Probably 11-12# average carcass weight, so 14-15# round.  The weather was so nice on day 5, and Hanna had been such a good sport, I decided to let her try her hand at running gear and landing fish.

Here's a vid of her landing her very first king.  I was pretty proud of her, and she was totally jacked.  You can tell the pure joy of the moment for her!

*Edited to be more realistic about average sizes of fish those days!

[h20hunter]

Looks like a bad a$$ woman with a gaff.....don't mess with her....no deck princess there. Very cool.

[Skillet]

5 days into the season, and no hint of a closure yet.  Word was that the entire south fleet struck out and they were coming north.  Some had shown up at Edgecumbe on Day 3 and 4, and I witnessed a parade of boats trolling through on their way as well.  Glad I didn't make that run.

So with half the fleet not on fish, and the average catch rate down because of it, that means we would get a few extra days to fish!  All good, since I need it and I'm on decent fishing.

Crew was kind of a problem, however.  Scott needed to get back, and although his contract specifically stated he was obligated through the end of second king season, the reality is that nobody expected it to last much over 7 days.  He and I chatted, and decided that we would call it good if he stayed on through 10 days of kings, if it lasted that long.  It thought we'd get maybe 7 or 8 days at this point, so 10 was a safe bet.

So fishing we went, and kept moving as the fish moved. The next couple of days were kind of a blur, with one notable happening - Fish and Game announced that since the charter, seine and gillnet fleets weren't going to come even close to their quotas of kings, they were going to let the trollers whack away at it as well until it was all caught.  That was up to another 13,000 fish added to the mix...  This thing was going to go way over 10 days total.

I started working my way north towards Sitka on day 8. As soon as I got to cell coverage near Biorka, another monkey wrench was thrown into the plan.  Hanna's family had an emergency, and she had to go.  She was very torn about leaving the boat and me in the lurch, knowing Scott was leaving as well.  I suppose I could have made her stay to honor her contract, but man - I've been in that situation before myself.  I couldn't do it to her.  So we all agreed she would fish through day 10 with Scott, and we'd unload on Day 11.  She and Scott then could take off and I'd be running solo, looking for crew for coho and now Spot Prawns.

It was a pretty terrible blow.  Having come off a near "highest of the highs" by saving my season with decent king fishing, I was instantly staring into another "lowest of the lows"...

[Encore 280]

Jeeze nice weather on the Fairweather Grounds! Did she just rip the gills out of that fish?!

[Angry Perch]

Brutal. I imagine it's pretty slim pickin's for crew mid season.

[Skillet]

We unloaded on Day 11, and we all parted ways. It was tough, I was feeling pretty abandoned.  But, this is the life I chose, no whining.  Get a plan together - fast - and execute.  Fishing had fallen off to the point I was debating on whether to switch to icing and go myself.  The prices paid by the processors were criminally low - "covid" is the excuse for everything this year - but I thought I could pull it off.

There is another aspect of fishing solo that is really attractive to me.  That is... I don't have somebody in my space 24-7.  I live on this boat, and as the years go by it is getting really tough for me to welcome strangers with open arms into my tiny little space.  Remember back to when you had a roomate you didn't know very well?  It's a little like that. But it's a 200 square food studio apartment, no showers, they never leave, I pay for 100% of their food, and I rely on them to work tirelessly for us both make a living.  Sounds pretty glamorous, no? 

So I was mentally prepared to go solo.  But, Hanna gave me one fantastic parting gift on her way out of town.  The night before she flew out, she ran into a couple of guys that were working the cleaning station on a freezer troller and had just gotten off.  They were both looking for work - so she gave them my number.

I met with them and decided to take one of the guys, Cesar, on for a quick tryout trip.  He is a giant "Texican", competes in strongman competitions, and about one of the nicest guys I've met.

[Skillet]

Day 13, I think, and no hint of a king closure coming yet.  Cesar and I went out and fished Edgecumbe, where my pard had been parked the entire second season so far.  He was steadily catching fish, and putting together a fantastic second season with his grinding away.  I got into a medium bite of big fish and Cesar and I went to work icing fish.  He was a quick study (except knots, I still tease him about not being able to tie his way out of a wet paper bag in the beginning), geat attitude, and truly seemed to appreciate being out there.  We fished for two days, he cleaned fish and learned how to do it with the head on (for ice fish deliveries), and generally kicked butt.

On the way in, however, I had decided I just didn't have it in me to teach another greenhorn how to run gear, land fish, etc., etc..  There is a lot that goes into getting the technique down, to do it safely, and to do it without damaging the fish.  I know what it takes out of me to not turn into a raving lunatic when yet another fish is lost at the back of the boat, when another flasher and hootchie spread is lost because it didn't get clipped on to the wire, when another snap is run up into the block because attention wasn't being paid. 

I was going to finish out the salmon season solo.

I explained this to Cesar, and he understood.  If I had him at the beginning, he would be a stud by now. He definitely has the desire to do it.  So, I started calling my buddies that needed crew to see if I could find him a job.  Turns out one of my friends on my dock needed crew, his guy hurt his shoulder.  So I put Cesar and Blair together, and they got along great.  Cesar ended up finishing out the salmon season with Blair, and both guys were very grateful that I helped get them working together. 

And I, finally, had my boat to myself. 

[gramps]

Really enjoying the write-up.   

[rainshadow1]

You're really covering the coast up there! Enjoying your stories!

(Have you run across the Avenger? It's very similar to Lil. 47' steel tracci. I've always wondered what became of it since Dad sold out and it headed up there.)

[Skillet]

My ice fishing program was pretty easy since the fishing had slowed dramatically, but fishing around Cape Edgecumbe was good combination king/coho fishing.  There was finally a few coho showing up in the last few days of august, and we heard of some 150 fish days up in the shallows at the cape (20 fathoms is shallow to me).  I would have a few days of 25-50 coho, but mostly it was 10-20 coho mixed in with the kings out over deep water.  I couldn't stop fishing for kings, though, since they were worth so much more per pound and I was CERTAIN they would close it any day now!   

So, I ice fished kings solo until the quota was caught, which didn't happen until Sept 8.  That is an incredible 25 day long second king season.  A bit longer than the 5-7 days I originally anticipated!  The problem was that the tiny shot of coho that came through was gone, and I needed coho really bad for my markets.

I flipped back over to coho fishing, and chased a few local bites.  I even got cocky and offered up a quick fresh group buy on HuntWa, which I ended up having to pull since there were just no fish around.  They would pop up in one place for a day or two, then it would be a desert.  Most guys were done trolling after the kings were over.  I pounded it out until the end, just scratching away and trying to put up some pounds for this winter's sale.

All in all, the summer troll season can be summed up for me this way - Best king season I've ever had, worst coho season I've ever had, and a hard and very expensive lesson learned about trusting other folks to catch your halibut for you.

Or, as we all know by now - The Highest of the Highs, and the Lowest of the Lows

Next up - Spot Prawns!

[Skillet]

Keep forgetting add in the pics as I go -

Here's a couple. 

First is a nice bait ball on the second king season.  You see this and let the crew know to get ready to run gear in a minute.

Next is a couple of pics of a particularly photogenic king.  Not a big one but really colorful. 

[Skillet]

Top pic - my favorite spoon, bar none.  I've caught almost as many summer kings on this thing the last two years than all my other gear combined.  It is a killer.  If the sun is bright and there is no wind rippling the water, I'll switch up from the hammered finish to the same spoon with a smooth gold finish. 

Next is the result of a lot of blood (admittedly, from the fish) sweat and tears - a tote full of FAS Kings.  This is the final product, ready to ship south and wow the chefs at fine restaurants, high-end fish counters, and a very few individuals who know what they are.

Finally, a pic of an old woodie, the Maja.  We were all anchoroed up for the morning in Whale Bay during a big easterly blow that was ripping through. 

[Skillet]

Got a few short post here about the spot prawns.

My buddy Tyler, the guy that went lingcodding with me back in May, was going to shrimp with me.  Hanna was supposed to go too, but she was down in WA...

Shrimping starts on Oct 1, and I had a few days to round up the second crew member I needed.  Two-manning it is possible, but would be a lot of late nights popping heads and freezing shrimp.  Having 2 crew plus myself is best.

After coho closed (Sept 20), I go visit Blair and chat with him about Cesar.  How'd he do, etc.  Blair gave him a rave review, and Cesar was looking for his next gig.  I knew I could work with the guy, so offered him the job and he readily agreed.

Time to start getting the boat ready.  Building the livewell (Thank you @ 3boys for the tank!), plumbing, electrical, changing over hydraulics from gurdies to the side pot hauler, enclosing the stern (Built a temporary half-shelter on the back of the boat, what a difference that makes when it's blowing), loading on 140 pots, 4.2 miles of 3/8" line in tubs, 28 bouys, 500# of shrimp pellets and 3500# of hanging bait.   

We left Sitka on Sept 28 in bad weather and took the LONG way to get to Craig, where we go the last of our gear ready and launched for the fishing grounds down in Cordova Bay.