Back and mending

Well here we are back in town. We actually have been back for a few days at this point, because we decided to leave the Southwestern district and come back home.

The length of our trip was a bit absurd. We ran 12 hours over there on Friday, fished Saturday and then ran another 12 hours back to town on Sunday. I suppose it was still worth it because we did make some money, but that's just about the most inefficient fishing you can do.

Man the fish down there were so nasty. They are all very dark now with big humps on their heads, and are basically floppy sacks of eggs at this point. As they get closer to spawning, a salmon's body will consume it's internal organs to sustain itself rather feeding. That's why we try to catch them before they get dark, because as they age their bodies lose a lot of muscle. In fact, we were catching salmon in Southwest for their eggs instead of their meat.

The past few days seen us over on the net mending dock working on restoring our poor seine. We really haven't worked on it very much at all this summer, and you can tell. It is so beat up and pitiful-looking that it makes me sad.

As we are working on our net it seems like everyone else is putting theirs away. Not many boats fish for silvers, because at this point of the season everyone is so tired that they just want to quit. I find it amazing how fast some of these boats got put away for the winter.

Basically that has been it. We're just recuperating, waiting for silvers to start on the 4th. We will head over to Valdez on either Sunday or Monday, and then probably fish for 3-4 days, or until the fish disappear. Since Jonathan is leaving for college on the 2nd, I will be promoted to skiffman for silvers. Having responsibilities is a frightening prospect; I'll actually have to pay attention now instead of mindlessly stacking corks.

-Jack