there arent enough actual catchers even in the bass/3 8'' trout threads to post fish more often than like three times a thread. I don't even see posts involving trolling strategies/other strategies from boats on the literal fishing threads, but you think there's enough people here to talk about fuckin commercial fishing? motherfuckers dont even mention kayak fishing on this board and u wanna talk trawler experiences? do i have this right?

Ya. There’s got to be a few around here that spent time working on a fishing boat. Show yourselves you salty fucks!

>>2882357
are you Filipino?

>>2882366
God no. Not factory slave fishing, like crew in a small fishing boat. 2-6 people.

>>2882363
I've posted about kayak fishing many times, including this year. You just haven't paid any attention at all. I got an anchor wizard because of 4chan.

I work on a USCG SAR helicopter in Alaska so my opinion of commercial fisherman is quite mixed

>>2882424
Always appreciated knowing you guys were available. Thankfully never had the need, but it was comforting knowing you guys were listening on 16.
>switch channel 2-2 ALPHA
Back in the early 90s a USCG heli fished my skipper out of the water in Chatham Strait.

>>2882357
I've always had this belief that you have to grow up surrounded by boats and commercial fishing in order to get that profession, and that if you're an inexperienced 30+ man it would be either impossible or next to impossible to make it, is this true? Also, if you've recently discovered a passion for fishing as a hobby, would a profession ruin it or empower it? I grew up on a farm and it wasn't until I moved into the city for my education that everything went to shit. I just want to go back to small nit communities and traditional work like I used to. I'm used to agriculture, husbandry and hunting but now I'm thinking about something new. Scandinavian and live closed to both the coast and our largest lake.

>>2882443
>is this true?
No but you do need to be capable of working and standing for long hours and have spatial awareness so you don't fucking die

>>2882443

> I've always had this belief that you have to grow up surrounded by boats and commercial fishing in order to get that profession, and that if you're an inexperienced 30+ man it would be either impossible or next to impossible to make it, is this true?

To an extent. Where I’m at, you can probably find a job as green crew but you’re going to be limited to shitty to mediocre boats. The top guys are going to have long time crew, and those slots are hard to come by if you’re not related to the skipper, or already in the industry and known as a reliable, efficient worker. The top guys don’t have time to train new folks.

> Also, if you've recently discovered a passion for fishing as a hobby, would a profession ruin it or empower it?

I can only speak for myself. I still go sport fishing occasionally, but it’s no longer exciting. It’s a take it or leave it kind of thing. I go for the social aspect, but don’t give a shit about actually catching anything, I’ll usually give away anything I catch. For the species we targeted, I don’t buy or eat them but maybe 3-4x a year. After being out for 15-20y I’m still sick of seeing/dealing with/eating them.

> I just want to go back to small nit communities and traditional work like I used to.

You will get that small community feeling in the comm fish industry, but you sacrifice a lot. It’s very difficult to have a wife/kids when you’re gone for months at a time. It’s not just the time you’re actively fishing, it’s all the overhauling, loading, unloading of gear, boat maintenance, bottom painting, etc. A lot of time that’s also unpaid work.

>>2882447
It’s not just that. You’ve got a crew that’s depending on you, you fuck up, people can get hurt. Even if it’s not grave, there are no doctors, you’ll have to deal with it until you get to town. Even minor injuries can become bigger problems. Couple all that with super long hours, little sleep, sharp shit everywhere, the boat moving, heavy shit shifting, you really need to mentally present, mistakes can be very costly.

>>2882357
how would one even get into this trade without knowing anyone

>>2882465
Find somebody involved in the fishery you’re interested in and express interest.

>>2882443
>I've always had this belief that you have to grow up surrounded by boats and commercial fishing in order to get that profession, and that if you're an inexperienced 30+ man it would be either impossible or next to impossible to make it, is this true?
I can't speak personally to how it is in scandi-land but in the pacific northwest the amount of fisherman who are drunks, addicts, thieves, sex pests or some other flavor of inconvenience is well above average and I would be surprised if it was any different where you are. Experience helps but not being a shitheel is easily the most important qualification; fishing is a job that tends to attract people who are too dysfunctional to work a 9 to 5 and sometimes they're not so harmless.

>Also, if you've recently discovered a passion for fishing as a hobby, would a profession ruin it or empower it?
I've worked as a commercial fisherman and I still enjoy recreational fishing.

>I grew up on a farm and it wasn't until I moved into the city for my education that everything went to shit. I just want to go back to small nit communities and traditional work like I used to. I'm used to agriculture, husbandry and hunting but now I'm thinking about something new. Scandinavian and live closed to both the coast and our largest lake.
Assuming that you're not lying about it, you're already more qualified than most people.

bottom of the barrel "profession" lmao
like logging or farming yeah man anyone can rape and pollute for profit you ever tried to actually MAKE something?

>>2882713
>I've worked as a commercial fisherman

Which fisheries, anon? You weren’t some chump working for a daily rate on a tender, were you? Selling wilted vegetables to weary fisherman and giving them less per lb for their fish.

>>2882751
50' freezer troller in northern SE Alaska chasing kings and coho.

>>2882357
Dragged for albacore for a bunch of years. did rod caught halibut for quite a few seasons for a buddies boat. worked rod caught rockfish aquarium boats (live fish) for a number of seasons. worked 2 years doing QC as a process manager. worked coon shrimp, dungeness and did a few years diving for urchins. made a lot of money and wasted a lot of money. thats life.

>>2882783
Oh damn. I worked on a lowly poke ice troller in SE. We had halibut in 2C and black code in 3A. You poor fucks had super long trips and were up all fucking night long glazing, plus the aux was always running to power the freezers. I always loved pulling into a cove, dropping the pick, and shutting down the main. I’d wait all day for that silence. Were you selling to SPC or somebody else, or one of the direct marketers?

>>2882788
>rod caught halibut
Like just running a shitload of sport rods? And like rockfish, those spiny fuckers usually barf up their stomach and are dead by the time that they got to the rail. Hated being jn the hold with those damn things, was shaking one with a gaff and the dorsal spine got me underneath my thumbnail.

>>2882790
>running a shitload of sport rods
Sorta.. we bounce ball, dodger hoochie trains. when they get set up right, the rods get a rhythm to them, so it easy to pick bites. over time you learn where hali's congregate to mate, basic shit like, look at the tide knowing that they line up, and they face into the tide to eat. we do runs up and down the depth lines. it's surprising how productive it is for the active swimmer males. Later we do chunks of humbolt, salted mackerel, herring & sardine. Power drifting over the same warmer flats & our usual waypoints for larger females.
The rockfish we get are not deepwater rockfish. usually in under 150' along with a number of other rcg complex, they all go in pressure tanks. This is mainly for the chinese market. They want them alive. we dont do processed rockfish because the per # rates are far too low to daily operate. Our money grab as a smaller company is the holiday market. Live dungeness, we got a permit for direct sales (live & cooked) to the public. It has been a great thing for us. Like farm to table. Keeps the company afloat around the thin times. Again it was a up and down rollercoaster for us, two different partners who were good friends, a divorce. CG thought we were running shit up and down, constantly being sweated. we had a major turn around during covid.

>>2882860
Cool. I imagined a boat with 20 stubby rods, all strapped into rod holders, and a couple guys sprinting across the deck when a rod tip went crazy. I can imagine keeping shit from getting all tangled up is a challenge, assuming you have to vary weight sizes, drift, or somehow keep things going in a set direction. We just did a standard longline and would either snap on when setting or snap on as we baited and send it out a chute. Set one, set another, set a third, then run back and pull the first assuming they’d soaked long enough. Sand fleas were a problem, so you didn’t want things in for too long.

We’ve got some direct market crab folks here, some do dungies, but mostly it’s gold and red. I do miss the days when the local processors were cooking, you could get tails for nearly nothing.

We never targeted rockfish, but were allowed a certain % as bycatch. I remember one year we got more per # for the yellow eye than we did for the halibut. We set over a pinnacle on accident and had so many they looked like red corks and floated damn near 10fa of ground line if we let it slack. Weird rules now with rockfish, I guess they’re super old and you have to release them with a special tool that sends them back to depth, not certain if that’s for commercial too or just sport.

>>2882892
yeah. the rcg regs can get nuts, because they switched up depths and capped time for all of us. Now every year it's the same for our crabbing, early testers go out on a dfw survey and the grounds are full of whales. so they hold season back which kills a lot of business for the big boats. some now dont even go on the opener. being a smaller operation we're flexible, and switched up to rings early. my boy is a rep down south for promar so we scored his first big sale. we store the pots and kill it with hoops for early months. gets all of out vendors hyped. but really we're doing it to keep money flowing. Live prices are nice for us and the investment was scary at the time but it paid for itself the first season. As far as rocks and rcg. we see the type of schooling patterns on the finder to kind of guess the type, though the occasional yellow eye and cow cod gets taken, we have some expensive descend devices to limit barotrauma effects on them, which is regs for live catch. Cows and Yeloeye are commonly deeper than where we target and they dont do well in the tanks anyways.. mf'ers are older than i am.. we prefer survivors for the tank not half dead meat and we dont leave floaters they all get dropped down. its easy now with an electric reel. I used to do it with a 9/0 senator LOL..

>>2882715
You're right, fruitcake, art is for real men

>>2882896
What’s the soak time on rings? Hours? Always seemed appealing since you can stack a ton more vs pots on a deck. Still use bait boxes with rings?