Thursday, July 16, 2009

Flounder, the most tasteless fish you could ever eat.

we catch bunches of these indestructible fish in our net, we toss them back and they get caught in the net again. They have terrible texture, taste like mud, and smell real bad when dead.

Filling a Cargo Container.

Fishing is done for the season. Worked real hard. Caught a lot of fish. My hands are all thrashed and my left arm is numb. I put both my crew members on the plane today. Brandon in the morning and Marc just an hour ago. Eric and his crew got out on standby this morning, a couple of days earlier than they were scheduled. The weather has been wonderful and my boat is cleaned and my gear is all put away. I went to the processor to settle and they based my earnings off of a $.68/lb price, the same as last year. Not very good for the whole profitability of the venture. Maybe they'll decide to give me more money later. One can always hope.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

No, we dont use fishing poles.


My Skiff and the Slough at High Tide.

we fish out at the mouth of the slough. you can see our sites as a thin ribbon of water in the second picture.

So many things to say and no time to say them.

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. Here is a short summary of it all. Two mondays ago the fish hit hard. Marc, Brandon and I fished like crazy and picked 20,000 lbs of sockeye out of the net in one day, a new record. That brought us to 30,000lbs. That night peter pan put us on limits of 5,000lbs per 24 hour period. We caught that in three hour and went in to sleep for a good long time. The rest of the week we were on limits as well. Fishing dropped off by friday. The next week was slow and filled with an uneasy kind of rest. One that had me in the cabin wondering if that was it. I was sitting at 42,000lbs on wednesday a far cry from my goal of 65,000lbs. With a bit of providence another school came in that morning and we picked another 10000lbs out in 8hrs. It was just what I needed. Scratch fishing begins and I hope to pull another six thousand in the following days. Brought a load of cabin stuff to the containers last night and spent all day in the blazing sun cutting up salmon and vac packing them. This summer has been hot almost every day. It has been nice.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Crewmember getting suited up

Off-shore processing plants

These boats are tied up in Lake Union during the winter and process fish up here during the summer. I like walking around the docks in Seattle looking at the ships. Sometimes I see these two.

The rest of the week

After the tide put us in the cabin for 18 hours we picked up our boat and went back to work. My crew is solid and they didn’t let the previous day get to them to much. We got our net out and we were pretty much fishing run style. Around the clock with about an hour to two hours of rest after the tide switches. We got about 10 hours of sleep total in four days. Tired and worked over we came to town Friday night, took showers and slept. Our total is 12,000lbs. only 53,000 more to go. More next week.

old school fishing boat.

This is a sailboat that was fished in the bay from 1884 to 1951. This year is the 125th year of the Bristol Bay Sockeye salmon fishery.

I can't believe this is happening to me!

On Sunday we picked up marc, my third and final crew member and made our way across the bay to the cabin. We fished the three hour opening and caught seven fish, all sockeye. The next night fish and game opened it for ten hours with red gear. We dropped both the nets out deep in the site about where we usually fish. Four hours after the beginning of the opening was a high tide of 23 feet which allowed us to fish on the flats near the grass. Fishing on the grass can be kind of dicey because you have to watch the tides closely. Otherwise the tide can leave you stranded for 24 hours.
We set out a net and went to go get gas from a tender. The tender was pretty busy taking deliveries so we went back to check the net and it was plugged with fish. I asked my crew if we should get the other net as it was only four and the tide would be changing at six. We dropped the other net up in the grass and started picking the first one. We got three brailers out of it about 1600 lbs. We started picking back and got through about two third when I looked at the clock and it read 5:30 am time to get hauling. We started frantically pulling in the net fish and all. I was kicking up mud all the way to the next net it was so shallow. This is usual and many seasons I had jumped out of the boat to push it out of there. Started to round haul the next net and got half of it in when we hit a mound of grass that grounded the boat we tried to push off and it wouldn’t budge. I called my dad on the radio. And he came over to toss us a line to pull the boat off. It didn’t work. We still had a bit of net out so my dad fired his power roller up and flaked it in fast. We got it in and abandoned ship. My boat was high and dry the whole day until 3am with about 3500lbs of fish going bad. It broke my heart. We got to the cabin at 8 in the morning and I slept the whole day we were exhausted.

Some pictures of the wildlife.



Some pictures a bald eagle we saw near town.

Leaving for fish camp.

The boat is loaded and the bay will open for fishing tonight. We have a three hour opening from midnight tonight till three Monday morning. It is a short fishing period with king gear. The mesh size on the net is 7.5 inches. Our red gear has a diamond that measures 51/8 inches from knot to knot. It is good to go fishing and it motivates us to get things done but I don’t expect to catch much. I also think that it will be the only time I use king gear this season. We will be going to the cabin in about an hour clean it up and unload totes onto the bank. Then we may get a nap before fishing tonight. Or will set the nets and snooze. It will be a long day with the worst part of fishing in it; hauling canned food totes through mud that sucks you in to your knees. It must be done.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

My dad starting his motor and hydraulics.



Two Major Accomplishments.

The motor because we don't have oars or a sail.

The Hydraulics because well a power roller is a nice thing to have.

Work, Work

Our middle container was full of rubbermaid totes containing food. About 120 totes that had to be gone through. I brought them all out and stacked them in front of the container. I also went through the fish bins in the front which had all the supplies that we shipped up from seattle earlier this year. I got my nets from the net loft today and put them in my boat. As soon as I load my boat with totes and supplies I'll be ready to go to the cabin and set it up.
Eric and Paolo are flying in tomorrow. It will be good to have the crew starting to trickle in. The last people are coming in on the 25th of June including one of my crew members. It seems late but then I got here earlier than I usually do. I hope to have fished two openings by then.
I went in to fish and game to register my permit in the combine section of the Nushagak bay. There was an aquarium with salmon smolt in it and one blackfish (a relative of the pike.) It was novel to see the little guys just swimming around. I'm thinking it would be a good idea for the apartment. I'm sure the cat would like it. Maybe she could feed herself then. Yeah I could teach her how to set a net and pick fish!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Another Beatiful Day Ends.

Pulling da nets. Subsistence net on scandinavian beach. four fish this morning.

Today was about problem solving. Fixed the bike, fixed the container electrical that kept tripping the breaker, fixed the bilge pump. Not much forward progress but I knew that and I was okay with it and I got all my problems fixed and took it easy. I did get a bunch of gear in the boat. Tomorrow I will do new work. My dad had major achievements today he started his motor. It sounded good. Tomorrow I will get my old boat to start work on it and organize 120 rubbermaid totes of gear. I may even launch my skiff! But that may be pushing it.

Today woke me up with rain pelting the roof of the container and ended with the sun in my eyes.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Today I ...

Sunday, I woke up at 7:00. He actually asked me what was wrong because I was up so early. I made him breakfast because I thought it was fathers day. Turns out it wasn't. It was nice to have eggs, potatoes, and cantaloupe. I started in on the boat. The most important thing that I have to get ready besides the net. Figured out the battery system which was a little more complicated than my old boat (two on a switch versus one hard wired.) Had to get a battery cable made at the cannery shop. Traded three jokes for the labor. Got it all set up. I set the gas lines for the engine and turned it over. It took a few times and blew up a cloud of dark smoke it was alive. I sounded rough and it wasn't pissing. So I turned it off. afraid I would have to take the lower unit off and clean the impeller I was a little dejected before lunch. Its a 2 to 3 hour job. I got some advice and went to get a hose attachment to back flow water through the system. It a small $43.00 part but it worked! the engine on the next try was expelling water in all the right places. It was a good day.

Pictures around Town

Subsistence nets below the town bluff.
Talking to a guy today at the grocery store, he said he caught 16 king salmon and three sockeye.
They are coming!














Containers at the dock waiting for the Barge

Saturday, June 13, 2009

New stuff



I opened up my new storage locker on the 10th, It was clean and empty with three cots to sleep on. I built a bunk on wednesday. It was 85F out and in the storage locker it was even warmer. I was banging nails and sweating. Here are pictures of my town house and yacht.

I think I like it here!


Oh man it is good to be here. The plane landed, and I was hit by a wave of sunshine. After being delayed at anchorage for five hours I was happy to finally be here. It was eleven at night and the weather was magnificent. I met up with a couple of other fishermen I knew on the plane. We were met by my Dad and a few local youngsters who were roaming the town. Six of us plus our totes piled into the jeep. Going to my other home, the cargo container at PAF boatyard. I have a new container to live in and boat to work in. It makes something I've done for the last eighteen years new and exciting. I feel really good about it all.