July 3: The greenhorn groks the gillnet!

As I watched AJ tackle the net and the salmon caught in the net today, I realized that something has happened and he now understands the net. I did realize that he was getting better and better with each opportunity to interact with the net and the salmon, but as of this morning, he consistently put the salmon on the correct side of the net and knew where to focus when picking one out.

He already was fast to see a few things that needed to be done: bail (always), pull in the anchor, set up the brailers, keep Rohan in the boat when he's leaning over the roller to pull out floaters! But the nets and the salmon caught in them... those are tricky. Happily, he stayed with it and now understands the fundamentals of how they work. After that, it's just a matter of practice (and maybe opening a tiny little can of... uh... aggression) to get the fish out quickly.

Rohan has been great at volunteering to run our kings into town and generally do town errands. This time, he planned to take the 45 hp Evinrude up to John at Charlies - to get it out of the back of the truck. He first stopped at AGS to put the kings into the freezer. Luckily, he was standing near Roy when the rear seal on the white truck just let go. I think Roy used the verb, "pour" in his text to me. He poured in some "mechanic in a bottle" to try to preserve it. I'm not sure what to do next. Can we drive it if we check the oil each time? Do we have to park it until we get it fixed? I'm not sure, but I guess I'll find out.

One of the things they did while in town was pick up a package that had been mailed to AGS for me, with some delicious cookies (I think there may be a half a cookie left, and only because Rohan advised AJ not to eat the last of my cookies). Thank you, Meredith, Steve, and Acadia! It was such a welcome treat, packed with so much love! It was just what we (I) needed.

We planned to go out at 7:15 pm to pick the afternoon flood, but luckily, my brother is watching out for me. He called me at about 5 to say that he was getting lots of fish and he thought they would be coming my way, advising us to treat this flood like the run.

So we went out about an hour earlier and it made a big difference for us. Thank you, Harry! We were able to go through the nets three times on the flood, with more on the second pick through than the first.

When we deliver, we run up to the beach, Brad sends over the "pelican" hook for us to attach a brailer of fish and then he pulls it up and over to the beach truck, waiting there with six totes of slush ice. Then he comes back for more. It's a little tricky for us - when the tide is coming in, we can be calm (unless the weather is rough) because if the tide is continuing to rise, we won't go dry. But if the tide is falling, it can be a very iffy proposition for us as we really can't afford to have our fishing boats out of commission early in the tide. So one of the common things the crew will hear is, "keep us floating!" Tonight, delivery at the end of the tide was a challenge, but thanks to the ranger, it went fairly smoothly.

While we were waiting for the Bathtub and the ranger at the end of the tide, we turned and saw this sunset. The sun itself has already gone down in this photo, but we can still see where it was.