Commercial Fishing

[Angry Perch]

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.

If you were fishing kings for fun (remember that?!) would you tie on that same spoon?

[Skillet]

The grounds were a little more crowded this year, and the shrimp were a little thinner and smaller than they were the year before.  I had a couple of boats fishing around me, one of them was trying to push me out of the area by doing some ridiculous moves like following just off my stern while I was setting, setting gear right on mine, etc.  They must not know me, because that's only gonna make me fish harder where you don't want me 

It's getting pretty competitive, all in all.  I told my crew to just ignore the 60' boat tailgating us while we set gear and focus on getting it off the boat.  I get it, some of these guys have been fishing the same areas for years and don't like guys like me coming in and trying to make a living.  I've only been shrimping for three years, but my limited entry permit allows me to fish the same ground as anybody else with that permit, so they're just going to have to get used to it.

The shrimping gig is another derby fishery.  It can be a bit of a grind, but it's over quickly.  Our season ran 11 days, and while I didn't put up the numbers I did last year I still got my "share" of the quota.  Didn't really move the ball forward much on this one, but it wasn't a fail.

Couple of pics of my crew with the classic "Deadliest Catch" pose with the GIANT tanner crabs we got in our pots 

[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.

If you were fishing kings for fun (remember that?!) would you tie on that same spoon?

Depends if I thought the bait profile was close enough. This spoon would be a little too big for Puget Sound king fishing, but I have used it off the coast of Washington with success.  I can run an unlimited number of lures on 4 wires for kings, so I run about 75% spoons and 25% flashers most of the time.  If the fishing is really scratchy, I'll increase the flashers to about 50% and reduce the total amount of gear in the water.  If it's wide open fishing, I'll jam spoons down there and only have a token flasher or two per wire.

But I always have at least one flasher, no matter what.  It is my belief that the flash simulates feeding fish, and "calls" in fish from a distance to check out what's going on.  Once you get a few fish hanging on your hooks, they act like flashers themselves. But you gotta get that fish in a feeding mood near your gear to bite it, so if I was forced to run a single spread as a sportfisheran - it would probably be a flasher hootchie combo.

I would be seriously tempted to run a flasher w/out a lure off the dowrigger ball and run my spoon off a clip just above it, though...

*Edited to add pic of big herring next to spoon

[7mmfan]

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.

If you were fishing kings for fun (remember that?!) would you tie on that same spoon?

Depends if I thought the bait profile was close enough. This spoon would be a little too big for Puget Sound king fishing, but I have used it off the coast of Washington with success.  I can run an unlimited number of lures on 4 wires for kings, so I run about 75% spoons and 25% flashers most of the time.  If the fishing is really scratchy, I'll increase the flashers to about 50% and reduce the total amount of gear in the water.  If it's wide open fishing, I'll jam spoons down there and only have a token flasher or two per wire.

But I always have at least one flasher, no matter what.  It is my belief that the flash simulates feeding fish, and "calls" in fish from a distance to check out what's going on.  Once you get a few fish hanging on your hooks, they act like flashers themselves. But you gotta get that fish in a feeding mood near your gear to bite it, so if I was forced to run a single spread as a sportfisheran - it would probably be a flasher hootchie combo.

I would be seriously tempted to run a flasher w/out a lure off the dowrigger ball and run my spoon off a clip just above it, though...

*Edited to add pic of big herring next to spoon

Dude. Stop letting out the trade secrets!

[Skillet]

Dude. Stop letting out the trade secrets!

Naw, I'll share it all.  If I start seeing a bunch of HuntWa'ers out jousting with me on the drag, though, I might have to reel it in some.
 

[7mmfan]

I laughed at your reference to charter guys anchoring wherever they please. I've been that guy, and I've been the guy almost run over by a troller up there too. He wasn't very happy with me.

[Skillet]

Oh ya, there's no love lost between trollers and the charter fleet up here.  You can get mad about it, or you can just realize they're a guy out there trying to make a living, just like you. 

Lots of guys get mad about it, though. I wish people could listen to the VHF for a few hours on the first Saturday morning after the July 1 king opener.  I may have someone record it next year and stitch a clip together. 

[7mmfan]

It's funny I'm sure. We always took July 1-5 off to let you guys have your crack at them.

Not my fault the main 50 fathom drag was also a great halibut spot!

[Skillet]

It's funny I'm sure. We always took July 1-5 off to let you guys have your crack at them.

Not my fault the main 50 fathom drag was also a great halibut spot!

Appreciate that.  You think I could get the charter fleet to take off July 1-Sept 20? 

[7mmfan]

I'll work on it

[Skillet]

I'll work on it

Appreciate that man, let me know how it goes. 

The final installments - after the fishing season.

Fellas, it was a hard-fought year, and I feel like I made it through. As always, the ups and downs defined the year. The first king season was pretty good, slightly above average overall thanks to my Hail Mary being successful.  The coho season was absolutely forgettable.  In fact, I'm actively trying to forget it and will hopefully do so after this post. My halibut trip mid-season was a journeyman-level education of "how not to do things," and that's about all I got out of it.  Still have the payment on my quota, though  .  Thankfully, the second king season was good enough I was able to fill a large FAS commitment I had, and the Spot Prawns were good enough I could satisfy my commercial accounts and still have enough left to offer them up to HuntWa and other buying groups in our winter group buy.  (Still looking for a good name for our December group buys.  Fishapalooza?  Merry Fishmas?  Happy Prawnakah?)

After we offloaded all the prawns and I got the crew off the boat (Cesar got a job at a local small processor), I decided to take the boat out to deer hunt, decompress, read some books, and generally mess around for a few days.  I've always wanted to spend a week doing nothing up here, and that's just what I did.   

The basic idea was to walk through the woods bordering Peril Straight and Hoonah Sound with my 25-06 and custom .75 MOA handloads from an unnamed source (@H20hunter), make some meat, and explore all of the inlets and bays I've had to run past over the last few years.

First encounter was a few does just off the beach in Deadman's Reach.  I held fire, even though I have 6 deer tags - because why would you want to start ending a trip so soon for does? 

So I made my way back to the boat in the skiff, bounced around from place to place for a day or two, read books during some rough weather.  Then, I headed for a place I've always wanted to check out - Appleton Cove in Rodman Bay.

[Skillet]

Appleton Cove is a big shallow bay behind a narrow inlet.  There is a lot of old logging infrastructure there, as well as a Forest Service cabin you can rent by the night.   I anchored up as far to the West as I dared (in about 5 fathoms of water, which is hair-raisingly shallow for me), which was close to the shore and the big river flats that fed the bay.  It was incredible, and there was a big old clearcut just under two miles to the south and 1000 feet of elevation I that I set my sights on.  Perfect blacktail territory. 

But there's always them grizzlies...

[Skillet]

1000 feet up and 1.8 miles away is a big lift though the Southeast Jungle. I was sure I'd cut a game trail along the way, and I did - but SE game trails duck under 2 foot high brush every 100 yards... it was a real slog to get up there.

I saw a couple of does on the edge of the clearcut, and thought about popping one, but realized I passed up easy does 100 yards from shore two days ago.  This represented real work to harvest a doe, something I wasn't into at that exact moment 

So the fat doe got her walking papers, and I just enjoyed the scenery from up there. I could just see my boat when I was up on a berm, pretty cool.  I made it back to my skiff just before dark, and noticed the wind shifted to the east and it was getting really cold...

[RB]

Oh ya, there's no love lost between trollers and the charter fleet up here.  You can get mad about it, or you can just realize they're a guy out there trying to make a living, just like you. 

Lots of guys get mad about it, though. I wish people could listen to the VHF for a few hours on the first Saturday morning after the July 1 king opener.  I may have someone record it next year and stitch a clip together. 

 

Local buddy I fished with referred to them as the "Charter Nazi" hahaha

When the fishing is hot it is absolutely amazing though! We fished Vitskari one morning and were done with 8, 20 plus pound kings in less than an hour!

[Skillet]

One thing about Appleton Cove, and the entire Peril Straits area, is the ducks and geese.  Incredible numbers of Surf Socters, Barrow's Goldeneye, redhead mergansers, hooded mergansers, and even a fair number of harlequins.  Canadian geese around too. 

Appleton Cove was loaded with all of the above, and mallards as well.  I need to duck hunt this place - nobody seems to be doing it?  I saw thousands of goldeneye and scoters, and not a single duck hunter.   The seasons and bag limits are pretty liberal, too - 10 sea ducks and 7 "Ducks" per day for a resident.  Plus 4 geese. And even 2 sandhill cranes per day...

Anybody interested in chartering with "Diamond Lil Ducks Unlimited" next year?