Commercial Fishing

[Skillet]

Those shootouts are crazy.

[Skyvalhunter]

Yes Sir I was at Main Bay took
3 of us about 45 min to snag our limits. First time I have ever participated in something like that.

[pd]

Those shootouts are crazy.

Derby fishing at its worst!  I can't believe folk still would drop line like that.  No thank you.

[Skillet]

Sitka Sound chum fishing is going full bore for the troll fleet now.  While the carcasses do get sold into the fish markets, they're primarily after the eggs to make ikura with. Chum eggs are a golden color and command a premium in that market.

Price is currently $.50/#, way up from last year's $.20/# and way down from 2022's $1.20/#.

We are seeing a phenominal return and catch rates this year.  Opportunity is good for the grinders in the fleet. I'm seeing average catch rates at 250-350 fish per day for most serious guys. I've ranged from as low as 220 on a short 8 hour run to yesterdays 568 fish on a 15 hour fishing day (all times are gear-in-water, not counting run time, daily offload, scrub down, re-icing). 

To fish for chum, I drag a lot of "chum bugs" on short leaders behind flashers, very slowly. 1.0 to 1.5 knots is typical.   My current setup is for 42 fathoms (252 feet) of wire, with 1.5 fathoms between flashers.  Wire is basically loaded top to bottom, with each of my 4 wires carrying  26 flashers, for a total of 104 hooks in the water.

My rig is pretty standard - .75 fa Neptune braid leader from the snap to the flasher,  an 18", 100# test monofilament tail leader, and a chum bug with a 5/0 black hook.  I use two flavors of bug - dark purple and a dark blue/hot pink. I set them up on opposite sides of the boat this year to see which actually fished better, or caught less pinks*.  So far,  I've not noticed a bit of difference.

Hopefully,  I'll get some action vid this year.  Pretty hard when I'm running solo, but i think I've got an old GoPro somewhere i might be able to set up.  For now though, this vid is what the chums looks like right before I unload.

It's a bloody, messy business, but fun fishing.

*Pinks are only $.15 /# this year,  and with limited on-deck storage capacity, I choose to save my space for the more valuable chums.  I typically catch between 75-100% as many pinks as chums per day, and every one gets released.

[Skillet]

Here's a couple of nice boats that were seen out on the drag recently!  One is definitely nicer than the other - but the guy with the helo shouldn't feel too bad about himself.

[Angry Perch]

So does a 568 chum day mean you caught ~1000 fish including pinks?

[Skillet]

So does a 568 chum day mean you caught ~1000 fish including pinks?

Yessir.  My first gear turn yesterday was only for 14 chums - but I'll bet I released 75 pinks.  I got out of that area quickly!

[Angry Perch]

So does a 568 chum day mean you caught ~1000 fish including pinks?

Yessir.  My first gear turn yesterday was only for 14 chums - but I'll bet I released 75 pinks.  I got out of that area quickly!

What do you do with your other hand? 

[Skillet]

Take my vitamins

[ctwiggs1]

I don't get it.  Down here you could just say that the pinks identify as kings and ignore the whole chum fishery.

[7mmfan]

At least the bells are always ringing! Kinds of like being at the casino, enough going on to keep you pumping quarters into the machine.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

So does a 568 chum day mean you caught ~1000 fish including pinks?

Yessir.  My first gear turn yesterday was only for 14 chums - but I'll bet I released 75 pinks.  I got out of that area quickly!

They don't buy troll pinks?  They have to be better than gillnet pinks.

In PWS the hatchery run of chums bombed out. So far, hatchery pinks are bombing out too.  Quite a few seiners already giving up.

[Skillet]

So does a 568 chum day mean you caught ~1000 fish including pinks?

Yessir.  My first gear turn yesterday was only for 14 chums - but I'll bet I released 75 pinks.  I got out of that area quickly!

They don't buy troll pinks?  They have to be better than gillnet pinks.

In PWS the hatchery run of chums bombed out. So far, hatchery pinks are bombing out too.  Quite a few seiners already giving up.

SPC (my co-op), issued a "no-buy" on pinks last week due to capacity issues on the plant floor.  The chum run is so strong here this year they are only cutting chums right now.  Sitka Sound Seafoods is still buying troll pinks, but I just heard they lowered the price to $.10.  That's a polite way to say "Thanks, but no thanks."  With my setup in totes on deck, I can cap out my capacity on a good day - and would be a bit foolish to trade a $.50 pound for a $.10 pound.  One of my good friends up here offered me $.40/# for unbled humpies to use as halibut bait, but even then I can't justify the differential, or afford the extra time to deal with delivering them to him. 

I'll admit it is a good problem to have, needing to choose how to best make use of the space and time available.  Most of the time, I'm just keeping everything I can sell at any price.

I did hear from a friend that tends PWS that the chums were a no-show, but surprised to hear the pinks aren't there either.  PWS pinks are usually the highest volume pink harvest in AK, yeah?

[tmike]

In Cook Inlet we had big healthy Reds and lots of them but the silvers pinks and chum were virtually non existent as of when I left. It wasn’t a pink year but we usually get a few. Kind of concerning along with the bay having 4 pound average reds. They want the pinks because evidently the pink eggs are the hot market now for my processor.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

I did hear from a friend that tends PWS that the chums were a no-show, but surprised to hear the pinks aren't there either.  PWS pinks are usually the highest volume pink harvest in AK, yeah?

From the newest seine announcement for PWS.....

"Cumulative pink salmon commercial common property harvest through August 6 is at 4.80 million compared to a 10-year, even-year average (2004-2022) of 17.01 million fish for the same date."

So yah, it's bad. Same in Kodiak. A buddy has two tenders there. One has worked 6 days this year and the other 11 days.  The Northwestern is in Cordova, but they weren't sent out on the last opener.