Philosophy of Fishing

We started this morning's tide by setting the nets at 4:30 (the early one). I was surprised by how deep the water was by then. We set all three outside sites at once, each out of a different boat. In the Ambi, we did a "running set." That's where we drive the skiff along using the outboard allowing the net to pop out the back a cork at a time. It's similar to a deep water set but much less stressful, for three reasons. 1) it's optional - we could walk the boat from one buoy to the other, letting the corks pop out from the side of the boat if we wanted to; 2) when it's not optional, that's because the water is too deep for us to stand in without getting wet (or worse). When the water is that deep, the net tends to do what the current wants it to (swing to the north, on the incoming tide). The more water, the stronger the current. Our nets are about 12' deep. When the water is less than 12' deep, the leadline of the nets drag along the mud flats, slowing down the effect of the current. The shallower the water, the more of the net that's dragging along the mud flats, the less the influence of the current. In short, when the water is only waist deep, the net will pretty much stay put for a while. 3) when it's shallow enough to do a walking set, a person can hold the other buoy in place and can help the skiff crew catch it.

We had a decent showing on the flood - not a repeat of yesterday's ebb, but decent. We also had some wind. As the tide progressed, the number of fish grew. We thought that the ebb would just be a mop up, but again, most of the fish were on the ebb. And it was as if we just accidentally caught them, for a total of 5869 lbs this tide.

We had a brief emergency with the steering on the Honda outboard on the Ambi. It jammed. Late in the ebb when we still had nets to pick up. Yikes! I called to our neighbor for help and he was on his way when - of course - Bob got it working again. I think the moral of the story is to not try to straighten out the outboard before lowering it.

I elected myself to do the town run today - take in mail, check mail, get drinking water, get gas, get food from the freezer, take the kings to freeze in the walk in freezer. It's very hard to go to town and spend less than 2 hours. I did my best.

We go again at 5:30 this evening till 2:30 am, though we won't be fishing that long because we'll run out of water first.

Today we started a discussion of fishing philosophy. One position encourages the fisherman not to take it so seriously. It holds that crew should have more rest, that the enterprise should be more fun even at the cost of getting fewer fish. Another position takes the fishing part very seriously and holds that we are here to fish, this is an opportunity fishery meaning that the fish are passing by and as long as we're allowed to fish on them, we'd better do it because tomorrow they may be gone or the permission to fish may be retracted. Another aspect relates to mindset: comfort or extreme challenge. One holds that this is like an extreme sport - that it benefits from and nurtures a mindset of challenging yourself, seeing how fast you can go through the mud, or how fast you can pick a fish, how many fish you can get - can you break last year's record, how many you can carry at once, or what adversity you can work your way out of. The other considers fishing one of the activities of life here, but only one. Other activities are also important - and even more important, like interacting with the people and environment around you, self-care, creative pursuits, and others. You can see which mindset/ philosophy positions probably go together. Anyway, that's our debate for the day.

For me, I take it seriously, I welcome the opportunity to challenge myself and see how far I can stretch now and I'm proud to provide that opportunity to others on the crew. I think Charles Kettering's comment applies here "No one would ever have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm." I think people who make it through a challenging fishing season get to know that about themselves for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, there are all kinds of ways people learn about themselves - it isn't necessary to participate in an extreme fishery to gain a broader perspective on yourself. But I think it's a pretty good way.

I'll try to get a better understanding of the other perspective so I can report it here. I'm pretty sure it prioritizes people's all around welfare - and that's a hard position to argue with. But for now, I must get ready for the next tide by getting an hour or two of sleep.