Before you embark on being engulfed in a flurry of slimy and scaley stories about the fishery, it is worth noting our special 2 hours when we were finally put into the water. We had the diesel mechanic and another mechanic onboard as we tested the new engine. Within 10 minutes the diesel mechanic, who is pretty damn good with engines but is 19 yrs. old and still has braces, opens our water coolant only be to baptized with 10 plus gallons of glycol/water coolant mix.

I swear brackets on his braces slid down the enamel because of the heat.

So here we are, the crew, on the back deck, looking into our cabin and cannot make out the whites of the eyes of the two mechanics inside because of the glycol steam/death mix. What was your reaction you may ask, did you freak out? What. Me? Freakout? I’ve never been known for my temper. Additionally, for the betterment of the world, my dad stayed upstairs steering the boat trying his best to close his eyes to the chaos below. Of course, here we are, the crew who just took out and installed a new engine, watching our entire cabin fill with the serum of sure paralysis.

Luckily, it was just a burp in the engine and brace-face went up to my dad and verbatim said “its all good, its all good.” Of all things to say to my father, this was not the brightest nor tactful. To all those listening, it is not wise to tell a fishing captain whose entire cabin is filled with teak wood and was engulfed in glycol that “its all good.” By the time we docked at the cannery, we had an audience watching from other boats and onlookers completely mesmerized by the volume and amps of two men. First, swearwords I didn’t know exist were being pumped out by the vocal cords of the other mechanic trying to get our refrigeration system to work. The second was my father versus braceface.

Nushagak District, Bristol Bay

Back on the grounds we enjoyed some very solid fishing, albeit we were late to the start. Finally we put in some pounds and began the long, lonnnnnnnng climb back into profitability. One of strangest aspects of this fishery that I am not used to are the fishing boundaries that are permanently set up so that fishermen can only fish in a designated area. Basically, the only way to keep track of the boundary lines is with your Garmin GPS because they are latitude and longitude points you obviously cannot see.

Everyone always panics when they get close to the line because once you are over, you are subject to a $10,000 fine by Fish & Game if they catch you. How do they catch a boat you may ask? Fish & Game has a fairly pimptastic set of wheels including fast twin engine skiffs and airplanes that cruise the lines in hopes to hand out a ‘here’s a sharp and hot poker in your eyeball’ sucks-to-be-you ticket.

We experienced our first line scramble on one of our best fishing days of the season.

As we laid our net out, it exploded with fish hitting it.

It really is quite a site because your corkline is barely visible amongst the splashes of all the fishies getting caught who just met their death. Oooo, so sorry for you fishy, we win.

As my dad basked in the glory of the other fishermen watching us haul in our net but failed to realize that we were sneaking up on that invisible ball-buster boundary line. So what is the solution when you have almost 3/4 of your net, roughly 900 feet, still in the water and the line is only 300 feet away? To the weary dismay of the crew he yells “Lets roundhaul this piece of s*#%”

A Bristol Bay Deckload!

That means instead of getting the fish out of the net in a steady manner and the net goes back empty onto the drum like normal, we had to put the entire net, full of 6,000 lbs of salmon, onto the back of our stern so we didn’t cross that damn line. The pile was about 6 feet tall and it was up to the joyful luck of us crewmembers to individually pick out all the fish. This process took nearly 5 hours and to this day, I can’t make a tight fist with my left hand. In fact, my hands have began to resemble some five-legged insect going through its molting process. There is dead skin everywhere. Please note the picture below of the pile and the Red Bulls we consumed beforehand so as to lift us up and give us wings.

Oh, and to some overly cautious people who may think this is a lot crudeness for a personal blog, my response is: Yep. I don’t think you readers would be nearly as entertained if I described the pansies and lupin that are flowering. Its fishing and you can literally drop the ef bomb in as many ways to cover most verbal concepts of the English language.

Quotes of the day:

“I think my body is confused because my hands are harder than rocks.”

“He’d be quicker than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.”