Commercial Fishing

[WSU]

Looks a little breezy but not too rough.

[Skillet]

Yep, that's a normal day at the office.  There's so much water moving across the prairie though, a wind shift or tide change can churn it up fast.

[7mmfan]

Theres a picture on the wall of the P Bar of a troller swinging a big king over the rail like that. I always wanted a picture like that. Someday maybe.

[Skillet]

Theres a picture on the wall of the P Bar of a troller swinging a big king over the rail like that. I always wanted a picture like that. Someday maybe.

I know exactly which pic you're talking about. 

I know a guy, if you find yourself with some free time in May/June in the coming years.

[7mmfan]

Theres a picture on the wall of the P Bar of a troller swinging a big king over the rail like that. I always wanted a picture like that. Someday maybe.

I know exactly which pic you're talking about. 

I know a guy, if you find yourself with some free time in May/June in the coming years.

I'll have to get his contact info.

[WSU]

How long are your trips in this May/June fishery?

[Skillet]

Anywhere from 2 to 5 days.

[Skillet]

Thought I'd throw a quick update up on the thread while I have a few minutes.

AK king season was short at 5 days.  Decent fishing. I started at the Fairweather Grounds (120 miles from my slip), but moved back to Cape Edgecumbe (12 miles from my slip) for day 3 through 5. 

Coho fishing started out pretty slow right after, and it's been slow right up until now.  150/day is pretty elusive.  Been happy with a 100/day avg in my trips.  And then I had a major breakdown (see diesel gurus help thread), so my July total catch is way behind schedule. Coho has been so slow, in fact, that AKDFG shut us down for 8 days. Which gave me the opportunity to...

Go longlining out on the Fairweather Grounds to pick up the small amount of halibut quota I bought this winter. Was a fun trip, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.  The big hali I'm holding didn't actually get hooked, he swallowed a yelloweye that was hooked and it got stuck in his throat.

Second king opener coming up on the 13th, scrambling to get the boat ready for that now.

Hope everybody's having a great summer!

[bearpaw]

Glad you're getting a few fish. I'm calling dibs on a chunk of halibut!

[h20hunter]

That's crazy! Nice haul.

[Goldeneye]

Great trip.  All those yelloweye make me hungry for some.  LOL!  Glad that trip worked out at least.   

[Alchase]

Looks like that huge halibut still has the yellow eye in his mouth!

I miss grubbing on yellow eye, it has been way to long since I have had any.

Thanks for sharing those pics are impressive!

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Here in Prince William Sound/Copper River we've had a strange season. Season started decently on the Copper River Delta and I actually had my best king season in 5-6 years.  Then things slowed down so I moved to the Sound to fish chums and reds. Management was protecting the area around the Esther hatchery because they needed to take over 6 million pounds there for cost recovery. So they locked us into small postage stamp areas away from the hatchery. Fishing wasn't great, but the kept giving us extensions so that we were basically fishing 7 days a week. For over a month we had only two 12 hour closures a week. So we kept grinding away, and even tho we didn't have any big days, by the end of the week we'd have put in a real good week.  We were catching enough reds I didn't feel the need to try to get in on the big dog derbies.  Down at Port Chalmers on Montague Island the dogs came in hot and heavy. Guys put in big seasons there, but it's the type of fishery where you need two or three crew men to get through all the fish. Boats were putting in 10 to 20 thousand lbs a day there, but I knew at my age it would hurt me to even try there. So we kept plugging away in our little spot and ended up with a very decent season.  Towards the end of July, I took a tow back to town from on of my tenders and have been on an extended break since. Been working on nets, fixing up the boat and doing a little sport fishing. Have a couple buddies just came up and we are heading out today for some halibut/ling cod/rock sport fishing. We'll probably put out the shrimp pots too. In a week, I'll get into silver salmon mode for the rest of the season, hopefully two 24 hour openers for a month. 

Here's a 180 lbs halibut I caught a couple weeks ago, sport fishing.

[Dhoey07]

I'd love to see the cheeks on that sucker 

[3boys]

Thought I'd throw a quick update up on the thread while I have a few minutes.

AK king season was short at 5 days.  Decent fishing. I started at the Fairweather Grounds (120 miles from my slip), but moved back to Cape Edgecumbe (12 miles from my slip) for day 3 through 5. 

Coho fishing started out pretty slow right after, and it's been slow right up until now.  150/day is pretty elusive.  Been happy with a 100/day avg in my trips.  And then I had a major breakdown (see diesel gurus help thread), so my July total catch is way behind schedule. Coho has been so slow, in fact, that AKDFG shut us down for 8 days. Which gave me the opportunity to...

Go longlining out on the Fairweather Grounds to pick up the small amount of halibut quota I bought this winter. Was a fun trip, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.  The big hali I'm holding didn't actually get hooked, he swallowed a yelloweye that was hooked and it got stuck in his throat.

Second king opener coming up on the 13th, scrambling to get the boat ready for that now.

Hope everybody's having a great summer!

  I will be up tomorrow and was going to toss you a barley pop as a show of fisherman solidarity.  Now that you can catch kings and I can’t all your getting is a Sitka full moon!