We have four days of fishing this week - "free week." 9 AM Monday till 9 AM Friday. We were very confused this morning with the tides. My main concern looking at the tide book yesterday was that it would be too deep to set the net, even at 10:30 which was low water. But at 9, the tide book said 9' of water at the 0' low tide mark which should be well over our waders, but it was not even to our waists. So we set on the outgoing tide -- forgetting to mark the corks. Oops. We are required to mark the corks with our permit number every 10 fathoms - 5 times in a shackle.
This photo is of my net, set, with the tide out and the Ambi clipped on to the inside buoy. You can see the buoys on either end and the net strung between them. It's odd that it's swinging to the right, since the tide goes out the other direction, but that just tells you how much stronger the wind was than the current today. The wind is down from yesterday, but it's still brisk.
This second photo is the same thing, but zoomed out to give an idea of how far away it is from the foot of the ladder... or at least, from the gravel-y part of the beach.
We had a couple of hours before we needed to go out and pick the flood, so we ate and then I went into town on the four-wheeler to get hydraulic fluid, hoses, wire nuts... and assorted other supplies for the various projects in process (including fishing). It was so cold that even though I was bundled up with rain pants and a down parka, I got a brain freeze. Usually that just means it's time to slow down on the ice cream consumption, but I didn't even get ice cream out of it.
I didn't get into town early enough to beat the noon lunch bell when everything stops, so it took a little longer than I hoped. Coming back, that little four-wheeler was loaded up with hydraulic fluid and four packages from the post office, as well as the assorted products of the shopping efforts and me with my gigantic backpack.
The crew went through the nets on the flood while I was gone -- 25 fish. It takes a while to get combobulated. They anchored the boats out by the nets and ran into shore using the Bathtub which was waiting for parts for repairs. That much makes sense. But it would have been prudent to bring those 25 fish in with the Bathtub -- it's 25 fewer fish that we'll have to bring in later.
During the lull, I may have fixed our Internet access. It has been spotty - and that's being generous. My friend and ex-husband, Scott, gave great support over the phone when I called for help that the local ISP couldn't give. And he was able to find a replacement WISP (Wireless ISP) device. That was in one of the packages at the post office. So between picks, I slathered silicon on anything that wasn't solid and asked the ISP to change the MAC address to the new device. Too late, I realized that I should have first just changed out the cables, the old one having a considerable amount of green where I think electricity and information should flow through. The WISP itself didn't get a signal, but when I asked the ISP to switch back to the original MAC address and replaced the original WISP with the new cable... I think it works!! I hope it works!! Thank you, Scott.
We waited a bit too long to get out to pick the ebb fish. At first, I thought we'd have to go through the nets only on foot. We have some snow machine sleds that we can put the picked fish into then drag through the mud to the delivery point. But once we got out there, we were about waist deep, which is deep enough to run the skiffs - if we're quick, because the tide is falling quickly too. And even then, it takes time to communicate the change of plans, and round up the walking crew and deposit them into their respective skiffs before getting back to our net to go through it.
We ended up with 564 lbs in 3 nets. (When David gets here, we will fish 4 nets, but he must be present when we're fishing his net for us to be legal.) It was hard to drag them in. But this was the experience that will keep everyone thinking about preferred delivery options as the season goes on, so it's probably worth it. (It was the non-aching parts of my body that typed that -- if my back or legs were in charge of writing, I think they would have written a different sentiment.)
Finally, because it seems a shame to keep this just on my camera, I'll post last night's sunset. Last night it was still quite light at 1 am, despite the 11:41 pm sunset. We are edging toward the solstice. This year, the solstice falls on my birthday at 6:09 PM, Alaska time - I love when that happens.
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