Since the show Hook Line & Sisters was canceled I thought it high time to share some personal videos from the premier episode on Sitka herring. This season came with its own share of trials. That’s why we call it fishing and not necessarily catching. Remember, there are no guarantees in this business. We went from catching no fish the first day, to getting rammed the second, hanging up on bottom, then finally striking it big the third. We had a total of 5 openers with the first 3 being the most ‘eventful’. Although it was difficult to video and work at the same time, Brett and I managed to snag some video documentary of the different chain of events. Here are some short videos we made after each opener.

First Opener: Scratch N’ Snag.

Considering how many times we hung up this day we were fortunate to come out with no real damage. This is why I call our net the “Iron Curtain”. Here is Brett and I giving a re-cap on our first fire drill of the season, aka the first herring opener.



Second Opener: Crash N’ Burn

This opener was a wild one. After not catching much of anything the first opener, everyone in the fleet was getting revved up and ready for this shoot out. Lots of fish, meant for lots of risk. We got rammed, again, this time on our starboard stern quarters. Here is Brett getting a video snap shot of the damage after close-up.


Third Opener: 300 Tons later

Here is a snap shot of Brett and I talking about this stage of fishing, and the climactic points before finally bringing in 300 tons of herring.



Fourth Opener: Get me off this boat!

Life on the boat was tight. We had a total of 7 people aboard the boat while fishing. A sonar man, engineer, skiff woman, captain, 3rd deck hand, permit holder, and my mother who ran the hydros.

Living in such tight quarters with several people can get very claustrophobic. Thankfully during the Sitka Herring fishery we could escape boat life and go do things like look for whales. Here is a short video clip of Brett and I with our friend Mike whale spotting around Sitka.



Fifth Opener: Slim Pick’n

After the third opener we thought it would be over but of course we had two more fishing days, both of which were pretty slim picking and not to mention it was snowing our last day. I had to open up the hood of the skiff and sit on the engine to try and keep warm for the 5 hours of being in the skiff. Nevertheless we all finished strong and closed up the season well. Cheers!