Commercial Power Trolling for Salmon
Commercial power trolling for salmon has been called the “Gentleman’s Fishery”. It is as much a lifestyle, as a living, for many. It is at times beautifully serene, and at other times, full of swashbuckling adventure. Possibly a cross between gold-mining and cattle rustlin’?! Salmon Trolling is acknowledged to be the commercial fishery requiring the highest level of skill & sophistication. It is exactly like sports fishing for salmon, except you are trolling 40 to 60 lures in the water at one time, instead of 3 or 4! 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”, and they are called “Highliners”! When you have worked your heart out all-day-long for only a half-dozen king salmon; while your fishing partner has caught 30 or 40...well, life just does not seem fair...when this happens too often...well, in my experience, you aren't partners anymore!
But, we are "DUDE FISHING"... and this is for fun!
A commercial power troller drags four stainless steel wires through the water. These SS lines have a 50 or 60 pound cannon ball attached to the bottom (like down riggers...think BIG DOWN RIGGERS on steroids!) The boat moves through the water at about 2.5 knots (3 MPH) dragging these cannon balls very close to the bottom of the ocean. These stainless steel lines have stops every few fathoms (fathom = six feet) and at each stop we snap on a 3 fathom (18 foot) leader. At the end of each leader is attached either a flasher with a tail leader or simply a shiny metal lure. When all four SS lines are deployed you may have as many as 60 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!
We Dude Fish on the Fishing Vessel Pelican.
The F/V Pelican is a beautifully finished 50' yacht equipped to power troll for salmon and long-line for halibut, and other bottom fish. “Dude fishing” is either a live-a-board experience, or you may return to the lodge each evening. This is not the "Deadliest Catch" ...there is 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 getting the gaff pulled out of your hands by the fish! I promise not yell at you if you loose a fish... this is strictly for fun. I will instruct you, you will grow proficient and it will be fun! The blood lust runs high... and people get hooked on this very quickly.
The crew & I do the heavy lifting; run the boat, clean & ice the fish, and you guys get to run the gear and land the fish! We can overnight on the boat, tucked safely away in a little cove, or you can be taken back to your suite at the Highliner Lodge on a fast boat, have a shower, a fabulous dinner and come back out in the morning. At the end of the day we split the catch: one for you, one for me, one for you, two for me...and so on...
This fishing has much more action than sports
fishing...after all, we are trolling up to 60 lures in the
water at the same time! It's not uncommon to have fish
biting continuously for hours on end. Very exciting!! A
great way to bring a lot of fish home for the freezer!
"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 and like "Curly" in the movie “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 in-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. When the whales take too many fish...it may turn an otherwise reasonable man into a Captain Ahab!
Related Future Topics:
Commercial vs. Charter Halibut Politics
The Deadliest Catch
Steve Daniels: No Friend to Sports Fishing?
Fillet Willy