Commercial Fishing

[Angry Perch]

Hey folks, just checking in, letting you know that @captkyle97 and I got it done on the Fairweather Grounds.

Good deal. I like hearing about the Fairweather Grounds once you're back safe!

[Boss .300 winmag]

http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_eruption_of_mount_edgecumbe/

Now that’s funny.🤣

Could you just imagine the fines that would incur today.🤯

[Skillet]

Catching up a bit here, quick 2021 lingcod Dinglebar season story -

I decided to do dinglebar the Fairweather Grounds again this year.  The weather heading in was supposed to be really easy, and a lot of boats signed up to fish it.   For this fishery, anybody can do it - but you have to register with ADFG ahead of time and they want reports twice daily on our progress.  This is because our annual quota for the entire East Yakutat area (EYKT) is only 111,000 round pounds, and that can get caught up really fast in nice weather with a lot of boats working on it. 

Interestingly, the EYKT area that encompasses the offshore bank of the Grounds is primarily a north-south area, from the shore just East of Yakutat down to the Canadian Border.

[pianoman9701]

Catching up a bit here, quick 2021 lingcod Dinglebar season story -

I decided to do dinglebar the Fairweather Grounds again this year.  The weather heading in was supposed to be really easy, and a lot of boats signed up to fish it.   For this fishery, anybody can do it - but you have to register with ADFG ahead of time and they want reports twice daily on our progress.  This is because our annual quota for the entire East Yakutat area (EYKT) is only 111,000 round pounds, and that can get caught up really fast in nice weather with a lot of boats working on it. 

Interestingly, the EYKT area that encompasses the offshore bank of the Grounds is primarily a north-south area, from the shore just East of Yakutat down to the Canadian Border.

This is not a very good sea story. No white whales, no surprise squalls which threatened your very existence, no desperate battles with a bucket against a gaping leak in the hull. Instead, it's an area with a small quota and it's East of Yakutat. Skillet, you know I love you, man. But, you're never going to get a TV show with sea stories like that!

[Skillet]

I called up my old pard from HuntWa, @captkyle97 , and made him a deal he couldn't refuse to come up and fish with me.  Really had to twist that guy's arm, haha.  Kyle is a hard worker that loves to fish, so it was an easy deal.

It was going to be just Kyle and I, starting out on the Grounds for the opener on the morning of the 16th.  But one of my fishing partners' mother was killed by a drunk driver in Washington (please, don't drink and drive) and he had to take care of all of that.  So I adopted his stray deckhand, and the three of us set out for the grounds on the morning of the 15th.  It's typically a 20-22 hour run to get out there from Sitka.  That morning, however, the weather was starting to get a little snotty and the report started to grow, so we adopted a "let's get out there and see what she's doing" mentality. 

We got out of Neva Straits into Salisbury Sound and the swell was apparent.  It took a few hours to get out over deep water where the swell was not stacked up as much, but it was still pretty apparent.  I'd guess we were running beam-to in a 6-8 foot swell on 8 seconds.  Definitely noticeable.  There was a 15 knot westerly along with it, which added a foot or so of wind chop on top of the swell.  We were rolling pretty good, and the decks were definitely not staying dry.

At 4pm, with the new weather report indicating backing winds and what would probably be a sloppy sea, I decided to hold up on the Yakobi shore and wait to see what the weather was doing the next morning.  If it settled down, even a little, we'd shoot out to the Grounds first thing and get to work. If it didn't, we'd just work around the Cross Sound area until the next night, then run out overnight.   We anchored up in Takanis Bay under Cape Cross, made a nice dinner, then had some guitar and sing-along fun before hitting the rack.

[Skillet]

Catching up a bit here, quick 2021 lingcod Dinglebar season story -

I decided to do dinglebar the Fairweather Grounds again this year.  The weather heading in was supposed to be really easy, and a lot of boats signed up to fish it.   For this fishery, anybody can do it - but you have to register with ADFG ahead of time and they want reports twice daily on our progress.  This is because our annual quota for the entire East Yakutat area (EYKT) is only 111,000 round pounds, and that can get caught up really fast in nice weather with a lot of boats working on it. 

Interestingly, the EYKT area that encompasses the offshore bank of the Grounds is primarily a north-south area, from the shore just East of Yakutat down to the Canadian Border.

This is not a very good sea story. No white whales, no surprise squalls which threatened your very existence, no desperate battles with a bucket against a gaping leak in the hull. Instead, it's an area with a small quota and it's East of Yakutat. Skillet, you know I love you, man. But, you're never going to get a TV show with sea stories like that!

 
Could you imagine me welcoming a TV crew on my boat??

[Skillet]

3:30 am wake up call to get the weather.  It's pretty bright out at that time of morning these days. 

NOAA weather radio report had the Grounds at 15 knots and 7 feet, so we hoisted the anchor and headed offshore.  I knew we'd lose a few hours of fishing, but I figured with these two tough young guys on the boat we could catch up with hard work.

Once we got out on the Grounds, it was pretty mellow.  Very light wind, easy swell.  I've since learned that the weather was really choppy between the Chichigof shore and the Grounds, but out past 40 miles it was really easy.  Probably should have pushed through overnight on the 15th, but... the few of you who remember my Fairweather Grounds butt kicking of 2016 will probably understand why I do not trust that place in quickly changing weather patterns.

Gear went in early afternoon, targeting a nice 50 fathom (300 feet) edge on the ocean side of the Southeast Bank. We lost a little gear getting everybody on point, and decided to fish shallower the next day.  We didn't put up a lot of pounds, but I was encouraged by the crew's quickness learning the dinglebar game and had high hopes for the following day.  After all, we'd have two or three more days at least to get the fish we needed...

[Skillet]

We drifted about 4 miles overnight and got a little out of position, so the guys had a few minutes to wake up before the gear went in the water.  We started a little slow, but once I found the fish we started picking up steam.  I set a goal for 200 fish this first day, but we only had 60 by noon - and then the bad news came.  Via my inReach, the biologist said that out of an abundance of caution he was going to close the EYKT area at midnight that night - making it a 48 hour opener!  Not good for my bottom line, but it is what it is. I shared the news with the crew, and we focused on making the most of the rest of the day.

With only a few minutes of time to eat a quick sandwich, the guys put on a total of 151 lings for the day.  That's a light bit of work for two crew, but the fishing wasn't red-how where we were and the only reason we got that much was Kyle and RJ (orphaned crew) never let up while I stayed focused on keeping us over fish.  I definitely wouldn't have gotten that much myself.

The next day we moved inshore and tried our luck in NSEO, but the fish were less dense and much smaller.  After a half-day's effort for not many fish, I called it and started in towards town.  We offloaded the next morning and started focusing on the next thing.  It was a good trip to shake the cobwebs off the ol' Diamond Lil, even if it wasn't very productive.  Always good to get back out on the ocean.

Here's a few more shots, and a pic of a nice little king we caught out there on our trailing spoon.  Kings aren't open for retention, so it didn't come home with us.  Forgive the trashed deck - I had a lot of steel work done back there this winter, and it is getting done before salmon season. Freshly painting my deck before longline and dinglebar season is like putting on a brand-new hoodie to go tuna fishing in.

Thanks for checking in fellas, hope to have some more pics and better stories in the next few months!

[Skillet]

By the way, if any of you Bristol Bay captains need a hand this year I can't recommend Kyle enough.  He's a "get it done with no complaints" guy that is always welcome back on my boat.  Doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs, and I'd never worry about him quitting on me.  Kyle is down for the fishing and can grind as good or better than any I've had.

Our schedules don't align this year, otherwise I'd have him chained to my deck for salmon and shrimping season. 

Feel free to PM me for a recommendation or PM him on here - he's @captkyle97

Good fishin!

[NRA4LIFE]

Dang that's awesome.  And I thought I had the greatest first mate of all time.

[h20hunter]

Nice.  Love reading the recaps and seeing dead fish and a bloody deck.

[Taco280AI]

Nice pics 

[bearpaw]

@Skillet
Hope you are having a great season?

[Skillet]

Been a long time since I checked in here folks, and it’s for good reason.  Been a tough year on the ol’ Diamond Lil. 

I’ll pick up where I left off – the end of dinglebar season.

I don’t know how much of this I’ve shared, but I have a house down in Everett, WA that I’ve been renting out the last few years.  The short story is – it didn’t end really well, but at least it ended.  I’ll never rent my house again, at least not without a property management company that has an absolute bulldog for an enforcer.  Being an absentee landlord in this state is a recipe for disaster, IMHO…  I headed down to WA to clean up and figure out how to move forward before the king season, which opens July 1.
Back to AK with what I though was plenty of time to prepare for the opener, my freezer tech and I were working on the evaporator.  Thought we had it all handled, and freezer was pulling temps down to -36 as it should.  But I didn’t check the defrost cycle…
Where to fish?  I love the Fairweather Grounds.  It is only open to salmon fishing for these few days in July, always has the greatest potential, and in anything but flat calm weather you’ll find the least competition out there.  Only a certain class of boats can get out there year-in and year-out, and my boat just crosses that line.  Of course, in years like 2016 when I got rocked in a surprise storm no boat wants to be out there, but for the most part my 47’ steel steed of 37 tons dry weight (100K# fully loaded) will be perfectly fine.   Just got to watch the weather.

There was another compelling reason to head north out of Sitka, and that was I had a stowaway for half the trip.  I won’t name him here (he can jump on if he wants to be outed), but a member of HuntWa hitched a ride with me from Sitka up to Pelican.  We planned to drop him off to do his business and then run out to the Fairweather Grounds. He would catch a float plane from Pelican back to civilization in Juneau, and then commercial back home.

June 26 - My hired gun, Jake, lands in Sitka and works with me to get the boat ready.
June 27 - HuntWa stowaway landed in Sitka.
June 28 – Untie lines, head north, steaming for Pelican
June 29 – Arrive Pelican, drop HuntWa stowaway, watch weather – which has gotten a little snotty.
June 30 – Untie lines, leave safety of the Harbor, head for the East Bank of the Fairweather Grounds, roughly 60 miles due west.


We crossed into the ocean from Lisianski Strait early in the morning on the 30th.  There was a not-insignificant wind wave and swell coming in from the west.  It was going to be a bash to get out to where we were going.  I was making 5.5-6 knots most of the way until we got all of 20 miles offshore, then the pounding started in earnest.  We were lucky to make 5 knots average, pounding into a 5 foot wind wave on top of a 5 foot swell.  The boat handled it fine, the crew just as well – but it takes a lot out of you right before a big season where 3 hours of sleep a day is standard, 4 is a luxury.  I was trying to catch naps as I could, when I noticed the freezer temps were climbing far higher than they should be.  I started a defrost cycle, and nothing happened.  Shut everything down, started defrost again… nothing.  I had just arrived at the east bank of the Fairweather Grounds, 60 miles out of Pelican, 120 miles out of Sitka , 12 hours before the season was to start – and the damned freezer was giving me fits. 
I called up my freezer guy on the sat phone, and we did some quick trouble shooting.  Sounded like the electronics that controlled the defrost were not electronic-ing the way they should.  Did I have a heat gun I could manually defrost with?  Nope, left that in town.  Could I open and close the valves in the system to force a “hot-gas” defrost? Nope, that takes a special tool that I don’t own.
Well, hell.  At 6 pm on the 30th, after bashing into this weather and making all of this mileage to get out to where I wanted to start the season, I had to make a call.  Do I stay out and try to troubleshoot the system so that I can successfully freeze my catch at sea the next morning as planned?  Or do shut down the freezer, turn and run back the 60 miles to Pelican to get ice as soon as the ice chute opened at 6, and then fish for kings right outside of Pelican at Cape Cross and Yakobi rock? 

[Skillet]

I had a sneaking suspicion that the king opener would be great for me, and I can always put more pounds on icing fish than I can freezing them.  The processing time for freezing fish is much, much higher per fish. In addition, you have the glazing issue, and then the unloading can be a hassle if the dock we unload FAS fish at isn’t open when the season ends.  I had my buddy Jake on, an experienced freezer deckhand, but I knew with his attitude we could crush the kings if we found them en masse.  The downside to ice fishing is that he clock starts ticking as soon as you land the first fish. No processor wants fish older than 5 days delivered to their docks, and where I would be ice fishing the tenders want 3 day old fish at a maximum.  There are no tenders on the Grounds, so ice fishing out there is usually a dumb move.  If I ice fished, I’d have to start at Cape Cross and see where the season took me.
I chose to run back to Pelican for ice.  That means a whole night of not sleeping again…
On July 1, at 6am, while the entire fleet was landing the first kings of the summer, I was under the ice chute in Pelican taking on a load of ice.  4 tons should do it, I thought.  We untied and “black stacked” it (the marine equivalent of rolling coal) out to the fishing grounds.  I had gear in the water by 10 am.
The fishing fleet was pretty scattered around the area, and we caught some fish.  I don’t have my log in front of me, but I know it was a very low number – 20 kings.  We went and anchored in Takanis Bay (just south of Cape Cross) that night, and I mulled what to do if the fishing didn’t pick up for me the next day.
The next morning at 3am found us setting gear on the Cape Cross/ Surge Bay drag, and while the weather was improving, the fishing improved only slightly.  A full 19 hours of effort only put 34 kings on the boat.  With iced fish worth 2/3 what an FAS fish is worth, that doesn’t get the job done.  I needed to find fish.  We were anchored in Takanis again, and I had a plan.  If it didn’t pick up significantly, I would pitch what I had to a tender and run out to the Grounds.

July 3 dawned with far fewer boats on the drag than the day before – the fishing was poor, and the fleet had moved.  I gound the usual drags for a few hours in the morning, and saw on my radar that the fleet was fishing south of me.  If I moved south, that would take me farther away from the grounds – but if I stayed here, I’d go broke.  At noon, with 10 kings on, I called the tender and scheduled a 2 pm offload.  We’d be done by 3pm, which would give us enough time to run out the Grounds overnight and be fishing there at dawn on the 4th.  I called the Biologist in Sitka about the catch rates, and he predicted the season would close on the 7th, all factors considered.  Good enough for me, we’re going to the Grounds.