June 28: The season is upon us

I think posts will be short for a while. We fished yesterday, starting at 7:30 am and ended up with something like 23,000 lbs for that tide, most of it on the ebb (and yes, I was right to be confident in this crew - they did great. Even when we needed to pull the last of the fish into the net without picking them. When the nets are heavy with fish, it's really hard. But we were racing the tide - we did not want those fish left in the mud because the buyer doesn't like it and I was outside the boat in knee deep water, lifting. It was a real race). We individually handle every one of those fish. It's very demanding. This picture shows us with a full boat. This is the biggest boat in our "fleet," the Ambi (short for Ambi-fisher referring to when we also used it for drift fishing and setnetting and I was ambivalent about the drifting part. We weren't very good at drifting, but David was really good at maneuvering the skiff and the net.)

We got in from the tide at about 8:30 PM, knowing that we had another opening at 10 that night, to continue into the next tide - 19 hours. That means only a few hours sleep between tides. We ended up with almost 10,000 lbs on the night tide and a little more than 6,000 for today's tide. We got another opening starting at 11 tonight and going till 5 tomorrow afternoon, again two tides.

We've also been having very strong winds and cold, wet weather. The winds started offshore, from the northeast and swung around from the south and then southwest. They feel about 25 mph. (I estimate that by trying to imagine what the wind feels like when I'm in the back of a pickup truck going 25 mph). We're told to expect 35 mph winds directly out of the west tonight.

I heard about the possibility of a strong wind during an overdue trip into town and I started considering not fishing the tide then, wondering how the crew would feel (and wondering how much of the thought about not fishing was due to my growing fatigue - here, where sleep is for sissies). (Even though we're here for the fish, we still have all the regular things of life to tend to - we were low on drinking water and gas, and we needed advice or help on the Grayling's outboard (no help available; advice was to drain the carburetor), update on the New Boat (the needed part has been ordered), advice on the power pack for the power roller which seems stuck in low throttle (new carburetor), and to process some kings we've been saving out. It took a long time - but less because Yin came with me and was wonderfully helpful.) It turns out that the crew also heard about the weather and their discussion came to the same conclusion I did. I guess that decision was easy even though I hate not fishing when I have the chance. Still, I hate beating up our crew and equipment even more.

There are many problems with fishing in really heavy weather: 1) it's scary because it can be dangerous. The waves are high and sometimes water crashes into our boat; when we have to beach it, it pounds down on whatever is underneath it - rocks, which the outboard doesn't like and if we're struggling to control it, assorted body parts may be in the way. It's possible to swamp which approaches disaster when the outboard is on it and all the gear and fish and people are in it; 2) it's hard. Setnetting calls for working against whatever elements are in play, usually wind and tide. We're stationary and we struggle to stay on our nets, while the effects of wind and tide are to move us along. We have to hang on; so 3) it's exhausting. Fighting against the wind and tide wears us out tremendously and I have a feeling that we haven't really seen this year's run yet; 4) we're sort of stuck in the boats even if there are no fish - it's too hard to get into shore with the rough conditions and surf break; and 5) things tend to go wrong and those conditions make it really hard to recover.

Additional problems, as we learned with last night's tide, is that we have few options for delivering any fish we do get. The drivers who came to pick up our flood fish did everything they could to take our fish, but they were pinned by the tide and the giant forklift couldn't move to the skiffs to offload the fish and if it could, it could move to the truck to deposit them. I guess the weather was too rough for our tenders, which is disappointing because that's when we need them. And there we were with a boat full of fish in very stormy conditions, carrying about 5000 lbs of salmon in really rough weather with no place to deliver it. And now they tell us the wind will be stronger, there'll be no tenders, and the trucks won't be out till even later? I found myself thinking that we would be safe only if we didn't get many fish. But if we weren't going to get many fish...

We definitely had our mishaps during the dark 20-25 mph tide. One of the rings we use to connect the corkline with the anchor must have had a flaw or just too much strain so it cracked and the corkline slipped out, leaving the leadline to do all the holding of the net. We really couldn't fix it during the tide and the process put quite a few big holes in the net. Josh fixed it as the tide went out. Also, we are required to have one red buoy and one white buoy with a black stripe to let drifters know that we're a setnet so they'll know which side to pass the buoy on. That white and black buoy is important (and the fine is big if we don't have it). As we were putting on the buoy lights, I noted that the line that was holding the buoy on was frayed and would need replacing. As we were struggling to try to fix the disconnected corkline on the other net, I saw a white and black buoy floating by. We chased it down and indeed, it was the one with the frayed line.

In preparation for the big wind, we've moved everything as far out of harm's way as we can. Three-wheelers and rangers have climbed partway up the cliff; one truck is in town, another is at the beach access road, and the boom truck, which runs on propane, ran out of propane part way to higher ground. That one might cost me sleep tonight.

We'll put our nets out tomorrow at 8 and sleep now, hoping we're not missing much but still feeling OK about the decision even if we do.