July 7 2016: Fishing is closed for the tide

Everyone but Inku and David D (who had the tide off) went out for the morning flood pick at 4 AM and came back just in time for sunrise.

It was nice to have the sunrise as fishing was slow.

At 8 AM we went back out for the ebb pick and possibly to pick up the nets by 10:30. It was a beautiful and very very calm morning. I actually prefer just a little bit of wind - enough to be refreshing and keep the bugs off.

Here are Oksanna, Patrick, and Austin picking up the inside net to go through it for the first time on the ebb. To do this, the pilot eases the skiff up to the corkline and the crew hangs over the bow and picks up first the corks, then mesh by mesh, the leads. They haul it back to the center of the skiff, hoisting it up onto the roller and between the fairleads.

After clearing the nets the first time on the ebb, we went to deliver to the AGS truck parked over by the Williams. It was a breeze because of the calm weather. It's hard to understand what this picture shows. To the right, Bray in the Gehl is holding our second bag of fish, preparing to take it to the big red truck (over on the left) where Jack will receive it. Patrick is trudging up the beach to take the brailer from Bray once he empties it. You can see the Williams' cabins up on the cliff.

We still didn't know whether we'd be fishing next tide. Fish and Game will give us a fishing period which they may extend or close as scheduled. Until yesterday, they've been giving us 25 hours extensions. Yesterday, they gave us a 13.5 hour extension and told us to listen at 9 for the next possible announcement. That could be an extension (meaning we'd leave our nets out), or if we didn't get an extension, we'd need to pick up our nets so they wouldn't be fishing in closed waters.

We motored to the New Kid and used them as an anchor while we waited the few minutes till 9 AM. We did not get an extension - another opening was announced for the next morning tide and they told us to stand by for possible short notice announcements, though they were expecting to make the next announcement tomorrow morning at 9. They reminded us that things do change quickly.

So, time to pick up the nets. Both crews pick up the nets from two sites. We have #1 and the inside. The New Kid crew picks up #4 in the New Kid and #3 in the Bathtub. That way, each of the outside sites can be set at once, limiting the possibility that any of them will need to be set as a running set (though we are doing that voluntarily more and more just for the practice).

After picking up the nets (and taking out whatever fish have been caught since the last pick), we anchored the Ambi and the New Kid at the outside of #1 and #4, respectively, where we'll need them next for setting. This photo shows Austin and Patrick watching for Jeff to come over in the Bathtub to collect us and any straggler fish. The fish are in the bow bin of the boat and the nets are stacked in the middle bin. Jeff will run us in to the beach, and then return the Bathtub to the outside of #3.

Ah, here they are - Davey, Jeff, Matt, and David coming for us in the Bathtub.

Now it's time to try to catch up on some sleep.