3:30am The alarm rings and you roll out of your bunk still half asleep. All your muscles are aching. You slowly put on your sweats and boots as your skipper yells at you to hurry and pick the anchor. You rush outside on the bow, begin pulling up the anchor, then realize it's pouring outside. After you take care the anchor, you go back inside the galley and change into dry clothes, hanging up your wet clothes next to the stove to dry. You start a pot of coffee and yawn a lot.
4:02am Your boat makes it's way from the sheltered bay to the open ocean. It's still dark and you realize that you'll be spending the day working in 10-foot seas and 30-knot winds. You wish you were home. You check the coffee and realize the stove went out a half-hour ago. When you open the stove, there's a half-inch of diesel fuel sloshing back and forth. You grab a roll of paper towls, clean it up, relight the stove and wish you were home again.
4:05am You arrive at the fishing grounds and your skipper tells you to let the net go. The net is pulled off the deck by the skiff and stretched out for about 1,200 feet in the shape of a hook. While the net is out, the skipper has you hit the water repeatedly with a large plunger pole to scare the fish into the net. Your having a hard time standing while your plunging because the swells are so big. When the net has been stretched out for about 25 minutes, the boat and skiff meet, completely surrounding the salmon with the net. Once this happens, you help to connect the skiff end of the net to the boat. Then you pile the net on the back deck while the power block pulls it in for you. This operation takes about 20 cold, wet minutes. Your rain gear keeps you dry, but it so windy your face gets drenched. Finally, you get to the end of the net and see you've caught about a 100 sockeye salmon. (thats a good haul)
5:00am The first glow of sunlight is creeping over the mountains. While you're pitching the fish into the hatch, your automatically calculating how much you've just made. Let's see-one hundred sockeye, at an average weight of five pounds, equals 500 pounds. At a dollar a pound*, the boat just made $500. Since you're getting 10% of whatever the boat makes, you've just made $50! That's not bad for an hour's work! Your skipper tells you to let the net go again, so you do. You smell something burning and realize that the clothes you put next to the stove are now a little bit drier than you had previously intended.
5:15am You sit on the hatch cover in your rain gear and enjoy a nice, hot cup of coffee. Your fellow crew member volunteers to temporarily oversee the operation, allowing you to take a little break.
5:25am Your break is over and the skiff is making it's way towards the boat, which means you'll be piling the net in a matter of minutes.
6:00am The net is brought aboard and you didn't catch one single fish. Therefore, you made nothing. Your boat travels to a different fishing area, so you go up to the tophouse to help the skipper steer the boat.
7:03am When the boat arrives at the new area, you climb down to the deck and let the net go. While it's being released, the net gets caught on a nail, ripping a huge hole in it. Your skipper screams and yells, but all you can do is hope that you don't lose any fish because of it.
8:00am The net is brought aboard and your lucky! Even though there was a hole in the net, the fish didn't escape. You caught 100 fish, so you made another fifty bucks! You quickly fix the hole and let the net into the water again to catch some more fish.
8:30am The sun is out and it's getting a little brighter. You're finally fully awake. Breakfast is ready, but you only have five minutes to eat because you have to bring the net aboard soon. The eggs are only half-cooked because the stove isn't working. You wish you were at IHOP. Then you remember how tough you are, living life on the egde in Alaska, so you eat every raw morsal of your breakfast.
8:57am This time you bag only 10 fish, so your skipper decides to move to a different area to catch a special tide.
11:15am You arrive at the new area and let out the net.
12:13pm You bring the fish aboard. This time you caught 200 sockeye. Very Good! You just made $100 with that set. So far you've made $200 since you woke up and it's only noon. You move to a new spot and let the net go.
12:45am The rain is coming down in sheets again and the wind is picking up. As you haul in the net, a jellyfish blows into your face, stinging your face and eyes. But you have to tough it out and work for the next few minutes, even though you feel like you're on fire from the neck up. Eventually, you face stops stinging but your eyes remain sore.
1:10pm The fish are brought aboard. There are only 50 of them. It isn't a huge payday, but it's still 25 bucks an hour. Your skipper decides that you'll spend the rest of the day in the same area. You let the net go again.
2:13pm This time you catch 75 salmon, which is more than last time. So you let the net go again.
3:20pm You bring the net aboard, bagging 1,000 pollack and only 25 salmon. Since you don't get paid for pollack, you throw them over board. Then you let the net go again.
4:10pm While you're stacking the net on the deck, you have to stop to pull a huge wad of kelp from it. Once you manage to do this, you continue bringing the net aboard.
4:25pm Fifty fish are brought aboard. You let the net go again. The rain hasn't stopped and your feeling miserable.
4:35pm You realize a whale just swam through your net.
4:50pm As your bringing the net aboard, you find a hole about as big as a semitruck. You see the whale swimming off in the distance.
5:12pm You haul in the net and there are no fish in it. They must have escaped through the hole. You wish you were lying on a sunny beach somewhere. You fix the hole and let the net go again.
6:05pm The next set brings in 100 sockeye. Very Good! You let the net go again. Dinner is ready, so you eat while the net is stretched out. You gobble down your baked salmon and get ready to pile the net.
7:10pm You bring the fish aboard. This time you caught another hundred. Very Good! That's another 50 bucks and it adds up after a while! The rain stops and the sun peeps out from behind the clouds. Everything is going good and everyone is happy. You let the net go again.
7:15pm The net gets screwed up on the way out. Your skipper is screaming at everyone and the crew is mad. You back-haul the net and let it go again. Hopefully there won't be any complications this time.
8:22pm You bring the fish aboard. There are only 25 in the net. Even though it's almost 8:30pm, there's still plenty of sunlight left so you continue to fish.
10:35pm You bring the net aboard, and there are only five salmon in it. It's not very inspiring, so your skipper calls it a day. It's still amazingly light out even though it'll be midnight in less than 90 minutes. You travel back into the bay.
11:15pm You arrive at the tender, which is anchored in the bay. It's an 80-foot boat operated by the cannery that buys your fish. You begin unloading your catch. You throw the fish in a large net basket called a brailer so they can be weighed. When the fish are unloaded, you rinse out the hatch. Then you untie from the tender.
12:15am You drop anchor and shut off the engine. You sit at the galley table to unwind and figure out how much money you made that day. Since you caught 4,300 pounds of salmon, and are paid a dollar a pound, your boat made $4,300. Your crew share is 10 percent, so you just made $430 for the day! That's not bad money for a day's work! Your skipper tells you to set the alarm clock for 3:30am. You'll only get three hours of sleep, but hopefully you'll make another $400 tomorrow. You scrub fish scales off your arms.
12:22am You lie down in your bunk and close your eyes.
12:23am You're fast asleep.
12:24am-3:29am You dream of fish, fish, fish-and more fish.
3:30am The alarm rings, you don't want to get up, but you do. You put on your sweats and boots and start a brand new day!
If you are a commercial fisherman and you have any information about jobs, links, contacts, skippers, or any info/advice for a young green horn on his way to Alaska to make career change-Any help is good. Feel free to email me with information Thank you! gazillionairepaper@yahoo.com
