This PickFish Friday I wanted to try something different. A few readers have sent requests for poems that were read at Fisher Poets. So, without further ado, here goes. Enjoy!
Fishin’ Again
The seas were high
Yet there was I
Standing upon my boat
Whilst the waves were mean,
Gruff and green
I manage to stay afloat.
Though thoughts turn
Towards headin’ back to town
Where it is safe and warm.
But them salmon keep a runnin’!
And them bills keep a comin’!
So out my net does go.
These waves come a crashin’
O’er my bow
And slap me in my face
I taste the salt
Upon my lips
And ponder ‘bout my fate.
But “keep fishin!” says I!
It’s do or die
Its now, I must keep the faith
And low and behold
What the sea does unfold
A king as big as I!
So I set out again!
And fight with the wind
This struggle to keep alive.
The riggin’ is singin’
Yet in my head is a ringin’
“Something here just don’t jive.”
But if this day looks bleak
By the end of the week
This tide is sure to change.
I’ll stick n I’ll stay!
And I’ll make ‘er pay!
The hour be not too late.
So keep fishin’ I must!
Or this season, a bust!
Then I’d be the one
To pay.
Cuz’ the ocean, you see,
Is intertwined with me
As the same salt runs through our veins.
And I need her
As she needs me
And so I go out
Fishin’ again.
O’ Jelly
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
Do you sting me in my eye?
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
You make me want to cry
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
Oh, the pain
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
It comes again with the rain
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
Are you in every mesh of my net?
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
In every single set
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
You come in by the tons
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
You just ain’t no fun
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
You are such a tease
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
I can’t even sell you to the Japanese!
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
You make me so blue!
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
Oh what’s a gal to do?
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
Do you torment me so?
O’ Jelly O’ Jelly Oh Why?
I guess I’ll
Never know
Halibut Diaries
March 16, 1995
Portage, Bay
Chatham Straights,
Southeast Alaska
Halibut trip #3
7000 lbs to catch
Aboard f/v Ptarmigan
Jack’s 42’ stern-picker
It’s the first year of IFQ’s
Individual Fishing Quota
The season opened yesterday
With gale force winds and snow.
Good luck to us.
Pinta Point
It’s evening and here we are anchored for the night
40 knot winds in Chatham Straights
We had to hang the bait over the side just so it would thaw
The box has been frozen since yesterday.
It’s hard choppin’ bait
But even harder choppin’ frozen bait
But, chopped is what the skipper wants
Me to hack up bait with this old rusty cleaver on that chunk of tree
We haul around for a choppin’ block
But that’s how Jack likes to do things
Old School
Probably because he’s old
He turns 80 this year
I hope he makes it
I don’t want to have to pack him in ice,
Like a halibut.
But that’s how he says he wants to go
Fighting a king salmon or big halibut
I don’t like this plan
Call me selfish, but I don’t want to
Have to fish with a dead guy
March 17
Saganoff Bay
St. Patricks Day.
Woke up to find a card on my bunk
Wishin’ me the luck of the Irish.
Wish I had a whiskey of the Irish!
Goldie, the cook left it for me.
She doesn’t go out on deck, but she’s sweet.
And makes Jack look like a spring chicken
She’s 89.
How’d I get on such a geriatric boat anyhow?
These people don’t look that old.
They should have to wear a sign or something.
We are waiting for the weather to break
Last night the wind sounded like a freight train
Comin’ through my bunk.
30 degrees and blowin’
And that wind just ain’t satisfied
Until it has cut me to the bone
It’s so damn cold.
We celebrate St Paddy’s day with our nightly
Slice of cheese and
Can of cold beer
‘Cept for Goldie
Her Happy Hour starts about 4
She likes her gin.
March 18
Hogette Bay
We took a pounding running, but we made it
Jack says he’s been fishin’ here since 1941
But he’s never fished halibut this early.
Now I know why.
Everything on deck was frozen this morning.
Oh, What a day, what a day.
What a miserable day.
Blowin’ n Snowin’ n fishin’
It just don’t mix
My fingers are numb
My hands are cold
My cheeks are cold
Gusts of wind
Up to 40 knots
It keeps blowing rain in my ear!
Man alive,
what a mess, what a mess
We try hauling the gear from this direction, then that.
It’s all no good
Fighting the gear,
Which is tight as a drum and
Threatening to snap in two
Before we can get it aboard
All that misery for 9 halibut and 3 lousy red snapper
The weather man says tomorrow will be better
I hope he’s right.
March 19
Day 4 and only 700 lbs of halibut aboard
Is this purgatory?
I’m sick of baiting hooks
March 20
Another 17 hour day
And I’m tired.
Worked from noon til 11pm
No break, no dinner
Too tired to by the time we quite eat anyhow
Caught some fish, though
March 21
Patterson Bay
The first day of spring!
Though not here
Everything on deck was frozen
Again.
Even my oil skins
I had to beat them
Just to climb into them
After that
We couldn’t even set the gear because of
The 1 inch prison all around us
Ice
We wait.
Finally! we catch 2000 lbs
It was a big day and
Brings our total to
3500 lbs of halibut on board
The weather came down today but is supposed to pick back up tomorrow.
Forecast is for 35 knot winds from the north
That’s too sloppy to run home so we might as well stay and fish.
Says the skipper
March 22
Day 7
I can’t wait to take a shower
It’s getting harder to keep the dread locks at bay
And I think even my breath smells like halibut now.
I thought today was Wednesday,
But the weather report says Thursday.
Down to tidbits for breakfast, now
Laughable, isn’t it?
That’s the new sayin’ on board
Found a Tums on the floor today
Went to pick it up but Jack said to leave it there.
He said “I like to keep some in reserve.
You never know, you might end up on the floor
Needing one.”
There’s 2 inches of new snow on deck
And they’re callin’ for Small Craft advisory in
Chatham Straight
6 foot seas and 25 knot winds.
Listening to country music hits from the ‘70’s
Is better than the Frank Sinatra we were listening to.
Our 1 hour run turned into 4
But we finally made it back to Gut Bay
And it was frozen.
Still trying to hide from the weather
But am told this is a good bay for northerly’s and westerly’s
But a south east will blow you right out of here.
Lucky for us its blowin’ from the north
March 23
Day 8
Finally, finally, finally
We’ve beat our way back across Chatham Straights
Then smacked ourselves through Frederic Sound,
But made it into
Petersburg!
Sold our halibut for $2.40/ 2.25
With a 25% profit share.
We’ve lost money so far on this, but keep tryin’
Just for the halibut.
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