Good neighbors

This morning's tide was busy. We were out on the nets for the flood pick at 4:30 - and it was darker than I expected because the clouds are still thick. And it was cold, cold, cold. Picking fish is hard when we have frozen stumps where fingers used to be. But we ended the tide with almost 4000 lbs. Here we are with about 1/3 of that in the Grayling. 15,300 lbs to go.


(I also just added some photos to yesterday's post and the Binge Sleeping post - of the night delivery. I'm late adding them because I kept forgetting to bring my camera back in from the boat.)

As the Ambi was going through the inside site, we noticed someone's buoy had gotten loose and stopped on our net. My policy is to return lost buoys if we know who they belong to; otherwise, keep them in a sort of cosmic accounting system where we lose some and we find some and maybe it comes out sort of even. The New Boat came over to say they needed help - the neighbor's net had migrated over to ours. Not a good thing.

Oh boy. The outside end of their net had come loose - the screw anchor had pulled up, so anchor, buoys, buoy light, assorted lines, and about 1/4 of their net had gone under and become entangled with ours. I think we were the only setnetters on the beach out there on the flood this morning. The crew on the Jill Anne I said we were the diehards - the grinders. So the neighbors weren't around to resolve it for themselves and they are delightful neighbors, so we didn't mind helping.

We first detached their net from the buoy and asked the New Boat to disentangle the buoys (and anchor, as it turned out) from our net and go put it in the neighbor's boat. Then we started to pick up their net. The idea was to pick it up as a roundhaul using our power roller and then raft up to their boat and using the power roller in reverse re-haul it into their boat. The net along with the buoy and anchor would tell the story. The only snag we hit (beside the fact that they have tremendously heavy lead lines) was that their net was under ours. That meant our boat had to go under our net - and dump it off over the stern. The only problem with that is that we have a big post in the stern with a picking light on it and an antenna for the radio (that only receives these days; doesn't transmit). We were able to go under the net at the tagline, so at least we didn't have to deal with getting web over all the stuff in the stern of our boat, but the current was running so hard - the tide rose more than 26 feet in 6 hours - that the lines were very very very taut. But Jake is strong and he muscled it up over his head and over the post. We laid the antenna down, but the pressure of the line snapped off the mount anyhow. Bob says it's not an expensive fix.

We went on to pick up the rest of the net - which had many more fish in it than our net did. I figure it was either their behemoth leadlines or the fact that their net had been fishing sideways, making a wall for the fish coming in to the beach, and pretty effectively corking off our nets. ("Corking" is a term used in fishing to indicate that someone else is fishing too close and diminishing the catch of the one who is corked.) Hard to say which it was - I might try out some behemoth leads.

The rest of the operation went smoothly enough. We got the whole net, fish and all into their boat, along with the buoys and anchor that had been deposited earlier. Then we set about the cold business of waiting for the New Boat crew to finish their net so they could deliver and we could go in for a while before coming out to fish the ebb. We made it in by about 7 AM and were back out by 8:30.

The ebb was busier and we barely got all the fish out before the nets went dry. We had some on the flood that were caught late in the ebb of the previous tide - one in particular was a beautiful fish and the seagulls had taken an eye, the gills on one side, the guts, and part of the neck. We couldn't sell that one, but I figured that we don't eat those parts, so we could use the rest to make dinner. I cleaned it and it was beautiful. On the ebb, we also saved a partial salmon - a seal had taken the head and much of the skin (bears do that too - do they know something I don't know?). But again, there was plenty left for us to use. Here is a photo of it - wouldn't you eat this? (Maybe I'm just getting tired, but isn't the color of the salmon the same as the color of the rain gear that the crew wears?) Anyhow, I figure we share the salmon with other creatures. Why not? I suggested using one of these fish to make a delicious salad brought to us by Erik with cumin coated salmon, black beans, orange chunks, feta cheese, and pine nuts. But even though that salad is delicious, it isn't warm, so chowder and more chowder is the demand.

I'm hoping for a good tide this afternoon. We'll be out for the flood pick at 4:30, 1 and 1/2 hours before high water. If the morning was this good and the afternoon is usually our better tide...

Now, a nap.

The afternoon flood pick was slow. We saw that our friends on the Goat Roper were nearby and Jake has been jonesing for a cup of good coffee. Every year we are told of the wonders of the Goat Roper's coffee - this year they said that they have an inverter that is dedicated to their coffee grinder. So under the guise of being sociable, we went to visit and just wouldn't leave until Phil offered Jake some coffee. He had to promise to make some after he finished his set for us to be willing to go bother my brother Harry who was fishing a small distance away. Harry has been reading the blog from time to time and suggested that given the conditions we're working under my comments about the marvels of my crew might be disingenuous. I'm glad he said that because it made me think about it a lot and it gave me the opportunity to be really clear here.

While it's true that there have been minor frustrations and training opportunities that I haven't written about, and not every crew member has every strength, and I'm sure, there have been times when each of us wanted to quit (and still, we've kept going), my comments about this crew have been completely honest. Jake remarked earlier that one of the really cool things about our crew is that we're a rag-tag group that works. Many of the crews on the beach pretty much consist of college guys. Ours has two sisters past 50, an old guy, a one-armed guy who is also a dancer, some football players, some intellectuals (and some who are both), modeling material (look at the photos - you can see who I mean) - all of us silly on lack of sleep. One of the things that's great about the football players (besides being strong and not afraid of physical work) is that they understand about protecting their team mates. And we have some lone wolves that need solitude. Some of the crew are great teachers (sadly, I'm not really in that group), some are nurturers - we have people with diverse interests and competencies. To me, that's a big part of our strength - we are very different from each other, and we respect one another's strengths (and weaknesses). Each crew member has shown up every time, front and center with heart, mind, body, and soul. What more could I ask for? As a whole, this group is hard-working, courageous, fun, funny, helpful, smart, determined, strong, interesting, willing, good learners, good-humored, supportive, thoughtful, and skilled in various ways. Together, we are a force. I'm proud of us; I'm thrilled with them; and I'm certainly proud of what we've accomplished and the good cheer with which we face the blistering cold tides that are slow as often as they are busy. So yeah, I mean it when I say how great they've been. This crew will live in my personal crew hall of fame with some of you who may be reading this now.

Phil made a cup of coffee (in his words, "...and Phil Lansing poured...") that made Jake the Jake he knows himself to be - he said it gave him some liquid sunshine and made his season. And then Phil played a tune on his concertina for us. It was a lovely interlude. Then, back to fishing.

Our total now stands at 215,069.

It's Fishtival weekend! I hope we'll have time to go in for a little while. It's a local celebration of the fishing season. David has been trying to get me to enter the fish splitting contest for a long time, but I'm sort of shy that way.

We get to sleep for a while now. It's 10:30 PM and I think we need to be out on the nets again at 5:30. At least it should be light!