Commercial Halibut fishing on the Bering Sea

[fishermann222]

Post continued below.

[traveler]

So where are the 8 foot waves?? I guess you get a few calm days, eh? Looks like hard work...but in a very cool place.

[rookie44]

do you guys live on the island all year long?

[fishermann222]

Of course we get some calm days. I would say average seas in the summer (if there is an average) on fishable days is about 4ft, so not too bad. If it gets much more than four foot, you really have to be careful because when the tide switches it can go from 4 to 8 ft in a matter of minutes.

The fall is when the sea is super rough. I do live on the island year round, I teach at the school. Commercial Halibut fishing is just something to do to keep me busy in the summer. It is an awesome place to live.

Oh and it is hard work longlining by hand. Alot of the boats have hydrolic reels that wind up the long line so all you do is sit there unsnapping hooks, and landing fish. The boat I work on it is all done by hand. That means pulling the 28ft boat against the STRONG current. It is kind of like pulling up an anchor line that never ends and is stuck in the mud

[Muskycrazy]

Hi . I lived on Kodiak for about 7 years in the 80's and spent the last two year comm. fishing . Made about 6-7 openers for Halibut , including a 96 hr. opener on the Bering . Don't remember it being so calm . First crab opener we hit 50' seas , knew I was going to love it . Got a question . Last visit to AK. my old fishing partner said that they only had a 6hr. opener for Halibut that year , 1992 , still the same ? I was on a 100' Bering Sea Crabber so the operation was a bit bigger but the kind your doing is what I have always dreamed of doing when my kids are grown and on their own . How long and how many openers are you able to fish Halibut a year ?

Roger

[fishermann222]

Things are alot different now. THey have CDQ's which are essentially organizations who are allotted a certain quota. We are allowed to fish until all the fisherman in the organization (ours is Coastal Villages Regional Fund) reach the quota. In our case it never happens so they have to hire a large rig after about the 15th of August to fill the quota.

The crab fishery has also gone to this way(I believe) of fishing. That way it is not as dangerous, but it has also cut ALOT of jobs in the region.

Doing it small time like this is so much fun I can not even call it work. I just love it. It would be nice to get a hydrolic reel to retrieve the longline, by hand you get pretty sore after fighting the tide twice a day for a week.

[Muskycrazy]

That sounds great . I have always wanted a 30-40' boat , something you could run by yourself or maybe with one other person . Fish all day and be home at night . Heaven . I was there during the 80's like I mentioned earlier but always thought that if it hadn't been such a free for all in the 70's and certainly to a point in the 80's the the fisheries in AK would have stayed strong . I don't remember if it was Red or Brown King Crab but the season for one of those was shut dowm completely due to over harvesting . Back in the day it was a very short sighted industry , everybody trying to get as much as they could while the getting was good . Furthest out we fished was By Adak , maybe , I do remember stopping in Akutan once . We were there long enough to use the phone and then we headed out . Long time ago but seeing your post and the Pics. brings back some great memories . Thank you .

Roger