How Many ex Commercial Fishermen Out There ?

[Lancerbye]

I Salmon trolled on the Canadian side as an inside or Gulf troller from 1983 to 1994. Retired the 34 ft. troller in 1994. It was a good time but it didn't last.

[norsearayder]

commercial blue fin tuna,min size for selling 73 inches,still carry gear ready to fight the true giants of the fishing industry

[hummingway]

I have deleted several posts. If you have an urge to fight amongst each other please take it somewhere else.

[Wireless1]

Originally Posted by Astrid

As a young girl I used to work aboard my brother's fishing trawler out of Iceland (not full time but it did earn me a little money)--does that count?

Icelandic trawler fishing? Yah gotta be kiddin' right?...

[Jonathan Reiter]

In the '60s, went fishing on a 350 ton wooden purse seiner w/ the Yugoslavian fleet out of San Pedro, on a 1/4 share. Main job was dropping the bombs over the side to keep the tuna from escaping under the boat. Best bunch of guys I ever went to sea with..in the '70s mated on then got license and ran Sportfishing boat, Nomad out of Ft. Lauderdale, built a 26'x 10' pocket fisherman w/55 gal. livewell built in, powered by 534 c.i. Seamonster, specialized in kite fishing w/spinning reels loaded w/20lb.test. Last comm. gig was in Cook Inlet on a 34' gillnetter in '95. Worked 18 hr. days all season and made a whopping $3700 bucks-hung it up for good. Never considered myself a fisherman; just getting life experience. Oh, in the '70s, when I worked for Moss Landing Marine Lab, we developed traps for Ling Cod and tried to convince the local Salmon Trollers it was a viable alternative to the dying salmon fishery. We were most likely too sucessful, 'cause Ling Cod now are on the endangered list?

[JayCall]

Long time ago, mid-60's, fished for snapper off the mid-Fla coast 20-40 miles offshore. Now, not a snapper within 1,000 mile of there. Paid for the first year of college. Mate on a sportfishing charter for a few years out of Wrightsville Beach, NC. My first wife had a lot of shrimpers in the family in that area. Remember my first trip on an 85' shrimper built by her uncle. I thought you pulled up the nets and all the shrimp fell out! The first time the nets were pulled and all the trash, junk, mud, crabs fell out of the net, I was wondering "Where the hell are the shrimp?", If you can cull shrimp in 10' seas and not get seasick, you will never get seasick.

[Geoduck]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Reiter

In the '60s, went fishing on a 350 ton wooden purse seiner w/ the Yugoslavian fleet out of San Pedro, on a 1/4 share. Main job was dropping the bombs over the side to keep the tuna from escaping under the boat. Best bunch of guys I ever went to sea with..in the '70s mated on then got license and ran Sportfishing boat, Nomad out of Ft. Lauderdale, built a 26'x 10' pocket fisherman w/55 gal. livewell built in, powered by 534 c.i. Seamonster, specialized in kite fishing w/spinning reels loaded w/20lb.test. Last comm. gig was in Cook Inlet on a 34' gillnetter in '95. Worked 18 hr. days all season and made a whopping $3700 bucks-hung it up for good. Never considered myself a fisherman; just getting life experience. Oh, in the '70s, when I worked for Moss Landing Marine Lab, we developed traps for Ling Cod and tried to convince the local Salmon Trollers it was a viable alternative to the dying salmon fishery. We were most likely too sucessful, 'cause Ling Cod now are on the endangered list?

Up off the Wash coast is a bank we call the ''Prairie" It used to have a high spot in 60 fath that was loaded with Lingcod. Over the years this rock pile disappeared probably due to draggers grinding away unchecked for years!

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Reiter

We were most likely too sucessful, 'cause Ling Cod now are on the endangered list?

Ling are better eating then salmon in my opinion but they are territorial rather then migratory and very easy to fish out. Size and catch limits and seasonal closures are essential for there survival it seems. I believe they breed in the winter.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Ling are better eating then salmon in my opinion...

Agree 100%. I ate so much salmon in Oregon in the 70s, I wouldn't mind if I never saw it on my plate again. We would also catch Spanish makeral sometimes as well, and it was the best eating fish of the bunch, IMHO. But it was a "trash fish" and you couldn't sell it even if you wanted to.

[Geoduck]

Here's a story that none of you will believe - I was trolling for salmon off Port Orford, Oregon years ago when I caught a 75lb Lingcod. I pulled it aboard and it puked up a smaller Lingcod, which puked up a smaller Lingcod, which puked up the little one that was hooked on my squid baited hook!
Not bad, huh? 4 fish on one hook!!!
True story!

[Tripod]

Part-time for one winter season on a long-liner out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Learned four things: 1) how to cut bait; 2) how to bait hooks; 3) how not to get seasick; and 4) that I'd much rather be a marine biologist than a commercial fisherman. As for number three - not possible with tons of bait, no wind, ten-foot rollers, and diesel exhaust.

Oh, that was in the seventies and I haven't been seasick since.

[bobconnie]

Yea it's terrible the way uncontroled dragging has ruined some of the fishing on the west coast. I saw it happening, worked in it, had no idea the amount of draggers would ever grow so large!! in the early 60s before I went to VN there were maybe 75 80 true draggers up north, when I came back in 69 that number had grown many many times I can,t even guess at the number working then ! but it was huge ! even the fish that were on the no no list (halibut) were getting almost impossible to find so what happens Black cod traps, a short while later I realized comm fishing in the lower PNW was done and changed my line of work !! I hate to think that a fine fish like Ling Cod are now endangerd!!

[JayCall]

B&C-

Uncontrolled dragging, back when roller nets first started being used, is what killed the bottom fishing industry (grouper, snapper) off Fl. You used to go to the 100 fathom drop and we could catch 3,000 lbs using six lines in about 2-3 days. Our old chart depth sounders showed the bottom in good detail, you could see the rock structure, etc. Go now and the bottom is dead flat. Only took about 10 years for that to happen. Now, you cannot find a snapper or grouper within about 500 mile of the Fl east coast.