June 13: One Clean Foot

That's the complete inventory of clean stuff. I was wearing last year's waders and had an inkling that there was a hole in the foot... it didn't really matter until we were in water, and today, we were in mud. Lots and lots of deep mud. When I stepped into the pond behind the cabin to clean off, though, that was when the full memory of that worn spot on the foot of my wader came, er... flooding back. Ahem. So that foot is clean, anyway.

Trevor came in today! I was glad to see him. We got another couple of totes of groceries from the cannery and another net so we could do a little fishing. We also stopped by a couple of fishery supply shops so he could put up signs - "6'4", 250 lbs, 1 year experience, smart, strong" gets attention and by the time we got down the beach, he had his first bite. That interview will be tomorrow morning.

Nothing got stuck today!! Except us. We put out the buoys today, which meant putting out most of the anchors. The mud is no better than it was when I was first out there and if anything, it's worse. Hips and thighs.

There is a lot of work to putting out the buoys when we can't find last year's anchors. Not only must we put haul the buoys (a total of 11) and 100' cable anchor lines (7 of them) and the shackles and caribiners and tools to put them together, when we can't find the anchors, we have to take new anchors out and a turning bar. We used the ranger - it was a tough decision but it was definitely the right one to use it. I felt that we didn't really need it and I'm afraid that there is a limited number of trips out into (and more importantly, back from) the mud. Plus, whenever the ranger is out there, especially when the tide is coming in, it is nerve wracking. We're just depending on the ranger to keep going and with our recent track record with vehicles, it's not easy to have that confidence.


This illustration shows how the sites are laid out. The regulations say that setnets can fish 50 fathom or 300' of net, 29 mesh deep. The nets must be 300' apart. The beach isn't all that long, so only a limited number of sites can fit along it. In 1969 my mother had the brainstorm that 300' can also be measured in a seaward direction so she had us march out there and set out two "outside" sites - 300' outside our original sites. Jay Hammond, beloved former governor of the state, had the same idea the same year. The Board of Fish stopped that from spreading to other districts, so our area is the only area that has outside sites. The regulations further stipulate that the sites and must be fished reasonably perpendicular to the beach. This illustrates our little section of the beach. We have four sites - located in the white circles. Our neighbors - and they are all wonderful neighbors - are in the blue. Each site must be marked with one red and one white buoy (with a black band) on the seaward end.

When we can't find our anchors - and that was the case this year, we have to figure out where they go and our method for that is to pace around. Our first hope is to find someone's anchor that the ice bergs spared and pace from that. A lot of pacing back and forth - not too close, not too far. When we're marching through mud like this, it's exhausting. Here are Chris, Patrick, and Evan, putting down an anchor. It is about 5’6” tall. It has a blade on one end that is shaped like a screw and an eye on the other end, through which we put a stout turning bar, about 5-6’ long. The with one person on each end of the bar, they go around in circles, turning it into the ground until it sticks up only about a foot.


Here is Evan, pacing off to the neighbor’s site to be sure we aren’t too close.
This photo shows two things: 1) the mud is impressive; and 2) Evan can walk a remarkably straight line in adverse walking conditions.

We have a new buoy apparatus this year. The buoy itself is much larger than what we used last year, and it’s sort of like a donut, with a chain through the middle and rings on either end. It requires many shackles and we wrap a wire through the eye of the pin and around the arm of the shackle to prevent it from turning back on itself. The has a bigger end – the bottom – and a more slender end – the top. The ring at the bottom is attached by a shackle to one of the 50’ wire ropes and the ring at the top is attached to the other one by a caribiner. The eye where the two 50’ lines come together is attached to the anchor by a shackle. When we set the nets, the corkline will attach to the ring at the top of the buoy and the wire rope will be moved to the leadline. That will hold the leadline down so the current doesn’t push it out of the water. It’s a much harder way to fish, but we do better that way.



The last two photos today are just to show what interesting weather we had today. Standing out there on the flats, I saw there was lots of fog – it was all around us and blowing through. The skies were blue, only obscured by the fog. So to the north was Pedersen Point, shrouded with the fog, and from the south came Ranger Jeff, returning from fixing one of the buoys on the first site.

Everyone was coated in mud and for me, anyway, everything hurts. I think tomorrow may feel worse. Oh well. This may not be the hardest thing we do all summer, but it's up there. Everyone was wiped out. But Jeff and Patrick were willing to take the ranger down and clean it off. I am as happy with the crew this year as I was last there. They are great: willing, hard-working, patient with me, and so dang much fun! We didn't get a net out as we hoped, but we'll put one out tomorrow morning and fish one tide before we have to pull it in for the weekend. Maybe we'll get some dinner!!