Commercial Power Trolling for Salmon
Commercial power trolling for salmon has been called the Gentleman's commercial fishery. It is universally acknowledged to be the commercial fishery requiring the highest level of skill & sophistication. It is exactly like sports fishing for salmon by trolling, with the distinction of purpose and scale. As much art as science, locating and catching salmon to earn your livelihood can be an exercise of extreme humility. As in sport fishing, some fishermen seem to have all the "luck". When you have worked your heart out for 18 long hours for a half dozen king salmon, while your fishing partner and best friend has bested you by a factor of 3 or 4...life does not seem fair...when this happens most every day of the season...well, in my experience you aren't partners or best friends anymore!
But, we are "DUDE FISHING"... this is for fun! (sometimes, I have to keep reminding myself of this!)
A commercial power troller drags four 5/64" stainless steel wires through the water. These SS lines have a 50-60 pound cannon ball attached to the bottom (like down riggers...think BIG DOWN RIGGERS on steroids!) The boat, a troller (NOT a trawler!) moves through the water at about 2.5 knots (3 MPH) dragging these cannon balls very close to the bottom of the ocean (not too close! or you will snag the bottom and break off your SS line and loose all of the gear on that line...$500 lost in a flash). These stainless steel lines have stops every 5 fathoms (for kings) and at each stop we snap on a 3 to 5 fathom (18-30 foot) leader. At the end of that leader is attached either a flasher with a tail leader (with a hootchie or baited herring attached to it's end) or simply a shiny metal lure. When all four SS lines are deployed you may have as many as 40 lures trolling through the water at once!
Now, that was the easy part...next you must locate the fish and then...stay on them...that is the essence of all fishing... locating the fish and staying on the fish. Nothing else matters if you can't locate the fish! But remember, Steve, this IS...FOR...FUN!
The F/V Pelican is a beautifully finished 50' yacht equipped to commercially power troll for salmon and long-line for halibut, sablefish and other bottom fish. This is either a live-a-board experience, or you may return to the lodge each evening. This is not exactly a "Deadliest Catch" experience...No danger, No Drama, but is a real, hands-on adventure in commercial fishing. You get to run the hydraulic gurdy (think BIG, POWERFUL fishing reel) and YOU get to land the fish (club the king salmon in the head and gaff it, then pull it on board...the trick is doing this without the salmon getting off the hook or pulling the gaff out of your hands! I won't yell at you if you loose a fish... this is strictly for fun. I will instruct you and you will grow proficient and it will be fun! The blood lust runs high... and people get hooked on this very quickly.
I run the boat, clean & ice the fish, you guys run the gear and land the fish! You can overnight on the boat, tucked safely away in a small cove, or you can be taken back to your suite at the Highliner Lodge, have a shower, a fabulous dinner and come back out in the morning.
This fishing has much more action than sports
fishing...after all, we are trolling up to 40 lures in the
water at the same time! It's not uncommon to have fish
biting continuously for hours on end. Very exciting!!
"Dude Fishing" Slide
Show
Commercial Long-lining
for Halibut & Black Cod
We can also "Dude Fish" long-lining for
Halibut, Black cod, Lingcod, Yelloweye and many other
species of rockfish. We accomplish this by hand baiting a
few hundred circle hooks and then setting the long-line
gear by running out about a mile of 5/16" line with the
baited hooks placed on gangions (leaders) every 6 feet.
This line sinks down 100 to 500 fathoms to the bottom of
the ocean floor (6 feet per fathom...yes, that is up to
3000 feet deep!) and is marked on each end with a set of
anchors, buoys and buoy line so that we can retrieve it
later. After it has "soaked" 3 to 8 hours, we start to
"haul the gear" by pulling the buoy line up with a
hydraulic sheave (think REALLY BIG FISHING REEL). After the
buoys, buoy line and the anchor is hauled up...we are
continuing to haul the "ground line" (the line with the
gangions and baited hooks and now...fish!! attached to it)
up over the side roller and onto the boat. We must gaff the
fish and help them over the side. Imagine retrieving
hundreds of baited circle hooks in an hour or two!
Again, this is real commercial fishing...but for fun.
"DUDE FISHING" (think City
Slickers meets Deadliest Catch during a Perfect Storm!!)
Well, we don't do this unless the weather is really nice.
No one has ever been injured* on my commercial boats in
over 35 years of operation so there is nothing really
deadly about it (except for the fish!) and like "Curly" in
City Slickers... I'm really a pussycat. Hmmm...(can't
believe I said that).
This is NOT the target fish!
My son Jon (on the right) hanging upside down to pose with
the imposing shark he has inadvertently caught while
long-lining for halibut and black cod.
Sperm whales are almost always next to the boat while we long-line for sablefish (black cod). The smart ones eat our target catch. Some sperm whales, the dumb ones (is it politically correct to call a sperm whale "dumb"? Would that constitute harassment of a marine mammal?) haven't yet figured out how to get a free lunch...but they are learning. This could turn an otherwise reasonable man into a Captain Ahab!
*ask me about the one exception
Related Future Topics:
Commercial vs. Charter Halibut Politics
The Deadliest Catch
Steve Daniels: No Friend to Sports Fishing?
Fillet Willy