TBinKodiak
Member
Well it has been awhile since I posted on here. Got pretty busy this fall with a promotion at work and the birth of my first child, Lily Louise on November 4th.
I did get some hunting in this fall and saw a couple decent bucks that I couldn't close the deal on. Ended up taking a small spike to fill the freezer on the last weekend of the season for the roadsystem. So back to the main story, I was sitting in the hospital waiting for the birth of my daughter and got a call from my buddy who is a fisherman. He asked me if I wanted to go crab fishing again this year ( see this post for last years adventure http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=242234 ). He tells me the quota is double and the price should be 50-70% higher than last year. I run it by the wife, who is in early labor, and she says sure. We figured we'd need some extra cash since her water broke Monday night and Lily wasn't born until Thursday morning. Hospital stays aren't cheap anywhere, but insurance did end up covering most of it.
There was a lot less work this year getting the boat ready since last year we had built the false deck, put up the rails, pot launcher, etc. The main task this year was getting the pots ready to go, which we were able to do on weekends and a couple evenings at the shop. We left town fro Old Harbor on the night of the 13th to beat a storm rolling in. It was a rough ride in 12-14 foot seas, but fairly uneventful. The next day we finished up some last minute tasks for the opener at noon on the 15th.
Sitting at the dock in Old Harbor.
The first 3 days were pretty rough with 10-12 foot swells and winds around 25 which put some teeth to them. Didn't even bring the camera out because the fishing was fast and furious, waves were washing the deck and I was trying to get my sea legs. We were loaded with our first load and on the way back to Kodiak to off load on the 17th.
A ten hour run so we had a little time to enjoy a beverage and some scenery.
Rolled into town around 9pm and were chomping at the bit to get off loaded and back to our gear for another pull before that section closed.
Made it back to our gear the next morning with enough time to pull it before the 2pm closure of that area. This left us enough time to move it to an open area and get it in the water before the 6 pm daily closure.
We hit the crab again and were loaded by the afternoon of the 19th. Actually more than loaded with a 100 or so crab we couldn't fit in the tank. Dumped the last couple pots on dec to sort as we steamed to town.
We were again able to get back on our gear the next morning and found out that area was closing at 6pm. We turned it twice that day with decent numbers and headed to the last area open, Southwest area. We rolled into Deadman the next day and started dumping pots at the 8am opener. Numbers were less than great, but we were still making good money.
Saturday night we were still a little over 1,000 crab from being full. Got hit with 45 mph winds and gusts over 70 mph. Our 1 inch anchor cable snapped in the middle of the night (losing our $2,000 anchor and 60 feet of chain) so we were up most of that night jogging into the waves and wind. We stacked our gear the next morning, tanking another 600 or so crab, and tried to make a run for town. We got turned back by 15 footers on the eastside and ended up tying up at the Cannery in Alitak (only open in the summer for Salmon).
We saw a weather window and made a run for it up the westside the following morning. It was fairly easy going and we made it back to town 21 hours later.
Last load for 2011.
End of the line.
We did better than double the average and the price was about $1.20 a lb more than last year. Baby's gonna get some new shoes...
I did get some hunting in this fall and saw a couple decent bucks that I couldn't close the deal on. Ended up taking a small spike to fill the freezer on the last weekend of the season for the roadsystem. So back to the main story, I was sitting in the hospital waiting for the birth of my daughter and got a call from my buddy who is a fisherman. He asked me if I wanted to go crab fishing again this year ( see this post for last years adventure http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=242234 ). He tells me the quota is double and the price should be 50-70% higher than last year. I run it by the wife, who is in early labor, and she says sure. We figured we'd need some extra cash since her water broke Monday night and Lily wasn't born until Thursday morning. Hospital stays aren't cheap anywhere, but insurance did end up covering most of it.
There was a lot less work this year getting the boat ready since last year we had built the false deck, put up the rails, pot launcher, etc. The main task this year was getting the pots ready to go, which we were able to do on weekends and a couple evenings at the shop. We left town fro Old Harbor on the night of the 13th to beat a storm rolling in. It was a rough ride in 12-14 foot seas, but fairly uneventful. The next day we finished up some last minute tasks for the opener at noon on the 15th.
Sitting at the dock in Old Harbor.
The first 3 days were pretty rough with 10-12 foot swells and winds around 25 which put some teeth to them. Didn't even bring the camera out because the fishing was fast and furious, waves were washing the deck and I was trying to get my sea legs. We were loaded with our first load and on the way back to Kodiak to off load on the 17th.
A ten hour run so we had a little time to enjoy a beverage and some scenery.
Rolled into town around 9pm and were chomping at the bit to get off loaded and back to our gear for another pull before that section closed.
Made it back to our gear the next morning with enough time to pull it before the 2pm closure of that area. This left us enough time to move it to an open area and get it in the water before the 6 pm daily closure.
We hit the crab again and were loaded by the afternoon of the 19th. Actually more than loaded with a 100 or so crab we couldn't fit in the tank. Dumped the last couple pots on dec to sort as we steamed to town.
We were again able to get back on our gear the next morning and found out that area was closing at 6pm. We turned it twice that day with decent numbers and headed to the last area open, Southwest area. We rolled into Deadman the next day and started dumping pots at the 8am opener. Numbers were less than great, but we were still making good money.
Saturday night we were still a little over 1,000 crab from being full. Got hit with 45 mph winds and gusts over 70 mph. Our 1 inch anchor cable snapped in the middle of the night (losing our $2,000 anchor and 60 feet of chain) so we were up most of that night jogging into the waves and wind. We stacked our gear the next morning, tanking another 600 or so crab, and tried to make a run for town. We got turned back by 15 footers on the eastside and ended up tying up at the Cannery in Alitak (only open in the summer for Salmon).
We saw a weather window and made a run for it up the westside the following morning. It was fairly easy going and we made it back to town 21 hours later.
Last load for 2011.
End of the line.
We did better than double the average and the price was about $1.20 a lb more than last year. Baby's gonna get some new shoes...
