We were up at 0330 and on our way toward Schooner Beach by 0400. After baiting up the last of the gear we dropped both sets and took some breakfast and a nap. We still have a little down time while the gear soaks. We drift while we sleep at night with the anchor light on and timed checks. Just now when I awoke we rocked right on the line where the green glacial water meets the dark blue of the sea. The St Elias range is all in its glory today and the sun is full ahead.
Tom uses “stuck gear” on the Godwit as opposed to “snap on gear” that I was familiar with when i did this for a brief spell long ago. He also runs “third skates”which are 600 feet long instead of 1800 feet. Hooks are attached by a threaded ganion over two of the three splices in the running line at 18 ft intervals so we have 33 hooks per skate. We dropped 2 sets of 10 and 11 skates apiece this morning and now we are all awake and motoring to pick the first set. Actually I think “haul” is the proper term for pulling long line gear and “pick” is more suitable for Gill Netters. There is quite a bit of nomenclature in this fishing business. Buoys can also be called “bags” and whatever you do try not to make an asshole. Since the hooks in Stuck gear go out with the line, the end of the hook must be concealed within the bait or it can catch on the outgoing line and creat an asshole. This is not an issue with snap on gear. My first two totes were not baited appropriately and i essentially had two skates full of assholes, which required me to go back and rebait all 66 hooks.
We’ve been using Herring, Pollock, Squid, and Chums for bait primarily, supplemented with Cod that we catch and Halibut gonads we keep after dressing the halibut. It takes quite a bit of time to bait the skates as you coil all the line and hooks into individual totes. Jim ties each lead and end line together and positions the totes as the lines are fed out through the aft chute. A buoy set and anchor are on each end of the ten or eleven skate set.
When we haul the gear the line comes in on the port side over a hydraulic roller operated with a foot pedal through 2 posts, a set of brushes which strips off most of any remaining bait and around the Fairlead roller and Gurdy where the line drops back into a tote. Halibut are assisted over the roller with a long gaff, unless they appear to be under 32 inches in which case we don’t want to harm them before returning them to sea. The bigger ones slide right into the port hold and the smaller ones I toss white side up into the aft hold after the coup de gras of one stick in the gills to bleed them. When a big one comes up or a particularly fiesty fish is thrashing about, Jim calls “help here” and I sprint around from my station and grab the long gaff to help guide her over the roller and keep the tail on the deck side of the boat. This requires me to wedge one foot under the slide and the other on the outside gunnel and lean against an upright post which is the cause of the large bruise on my inner right thigh. The real big ones we simply cut the ganion and they can hopefully go make more baby halibut. Most of the bycatch has been Skates which resemble a Ray, Salmon sharks, also called Spiny Dogfish due to the sharp spine near the adipose fin. And sometimes a Rock fish. We have caught a few Ling Cod and one Wolf Eel, a Yellow Eye we ate, and about a half dozen other rock fish which we are required to turn into the cannery.
When we coil and bait is the time to replace any bent or missing hooks and to attach any new ganions. Tom ties up ganions in advance which have a loop in each end. One end is attached over two of the three strands of the running line using a Fid which allows you to separate the strands and slide the new ganion through the crevice in the Fid. The loop in the other end makes it easy to attach a new hook.
Well, we pulled quite a bit of gear after I wrote the previous and delivered our second batch of fish to the cannery this morning. Cleaning the boat took most of the day and I am glad to have some time over here on Explorer to clean my rain gear and have a shower on the back deck.
What an experience this has been, so full of riveting work and learning new things. Time to time I just had to force my self to stop and take it all in – a beautiful Halibut coming over the roller and the many toothed spectacular St Elias Range in the background. What a place!
