An ass kickin’ silver season

Which has really been more of just an ass kicker,  than ass kickin.  This past week especially, when not one but two storm systems swept through Alaska.  They gave the seas out west of the Aleutian chain 70-knot winds and 17’ seas.  They ripped through the Anchorage bowl earlier this week with 100+ MPH winds tearing out trees, flipping small planes and left 30,000 people without electricity.   Three days later, some 4000 homes are still without power (http://www.adn.com/2012/09/06/2613732/thousands-still-without-power.html).

NOAA's weather graph for 9/4/12

By the time these storms got to us on the Central Gulf Coast, Prince William Sound and the Copper River Flats, it was merely blowing a steady but relentless 40 knots or so.  Of course, this was Monday and there was a silver opener so guys and gals were out fishing.  Most fishing boats faired without too much harm, just tales of close calls of sailing down the channel while picking up the net, catching trees, snagging down and ripping up.  Most guys stayed inside the protection of the barrier islands instead of fishing out in the open ocean where seas were probably over 10 or 15 feet, at least.

The tenders, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of staying inside.  Their deep drafts prevent them from running all the way to the east end of the fishing grounds inside so they are forced out into the open ocean.  Also, once they have fish on board, they are pretty much committed to getting those fish back to town.  So, come hell or high water, or both at the same time, they usually go. 

Tender Alaskan Pacific

 

One tender, the Alaskan Pacific can attest to that. Coming out of the Bering River, the east end of the fishing grounds, they took a “30 year wave” one that ages you 30 years in an instant.  That wave that broke out both front windows and knocked both guys out of their helm seats.  Their windows must be about 12 feet or so above the water line and they said two-thirds of this wave completely washed over them.  It probably would have flipped a bowpicker like a toy in the tub.  I don’t know what electronics it knocked out, but I know they were lucky enough that it didn’t drown the mains so they were able to come in under their own power.  A 65 nautical mile run in big seas and 40 knot winds with no front windows.  No thank you!  They made it to town all right patched themselves up with plywood and Plexiglas and went back out, in still shitty weather, to buy more fish for Thursday’s opener.  

Usually, it’s the little bowpickers that get their asses kicked, this week it was the bigger boats. 

bowpicker

The Sound Pacer, an 80 foot tender with a green skipper was following fellow tender Tamar into Soft Tuk on the east end of the Flats this last opener, a place where this skipper had never been, with this boat anyhow.   The boat hadn’t been there either this year so the GPS didn’t have any current track lines.  These channels change on an annual basis, so there are no current nautical charts and track lines need to be changed every season.

tender Sound Pacer (picture by Chris Salmon)

After a snotty crossing on the Flats they finally duck into Soft Tuk, missed the channel and promptly ran aground.   They dented in their keel coolers and over heated an engine while getting pummeled by breakers.  Breakers that ripped off their rudder and caused them to start taking on water.  Hopefully, this all happened to the same engine so at least they would still have one engine and could limp off the sand bar when the tide came in. 

View from Sound Pacer (picture by Chris Salmon)

Last I heard, which was last night, everyone was OK and the pumps were able to keep up with the incoming water. They were able to limp in under one engine and were up on the grid last night! 

But fishing boats weren’t the only ones getting their asses handed to them this week.  The Chenega, our 220’ ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway took a pounding last Sunday crossing Prince William Sound from Whittier to Cordova, with 50 Girl Scouts on board.  Evidently, everyone was seasick and they didn’t slow down while getting hit with wave after wave.  They took such a pounding that structural damage was caused!  As of yesterday, September 6^th, inspections reveals that further welding to the framing will be required to meet regulatory standards.  The vessel has been out of commission all week and the soonest estimated date of service is Monday, September 10^th.  We rely on the ferry for transportation of not only people, but also cargo (such as salmon) in and out of town, produce and groceries. 

You can keep posted on that at https://www.facebook.com/cordovabuzz?ref=ts

Lets just hope next week will bring better luck.  And weather. 

It's here!

You can feel the change in the air.  It is a bit crisper. The days are getting shorter.  We are losing five minutes of daylight every day.  Sunset and sunrise are now during normal waking hours.  There is actual darkness to the nights. Actual darkness still in the morning.  Northern lights have been spotted.  And then there’s the weather.  That is usually a good indicator that is FISH WRESTLING SEASON!  Otherwise known as silver season.

Yes folks, it’s officially official.  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) started its silver management on Monday.  They are no longer managing the escapement of reds (sockeyes) they have already come and gone, done their thing.  They are managing for silvers now. Typically, silver season starts with one 24 hour opener a week then as the fish come in and the ADF&G get their escapement goals, it will open for 24 hours twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. Also typically, Mother Nature schedules blows and snotty weather for those two days. Looking out my window, She must have thought there was an opener today.

Monday’s opener was the standard 24 hours.  Typical to silver season the forecast was for SE 30 and rain.  However, it turned out to be not that snotty and eventually, even, a nice day.  The scuttlebutt is that the fish are small and not too many of them, yet.  When I asked Hammer if he went out, he smirked and confessed “I didn’t go.  And I didn’t feel good about it until everyone got back”.  The fish haven’t really shown up yet, but are on their way.

Silvers are fun to wrestle, I mean catch.  The average silver weighs 8-12 lbs but can get up to about 15 lbs.  Most guys fish inside the barrier islands and this kind of fishing is done by making “fliers” or short sets with the tides.  Since the sets don’t soak very long, the fish are, more often than not, still quite alive.  And fight.  Hence the commencement of the wrestling matches.  In addition to short sets, the water is pretty shallow, too.  So, instead of your net laying straight down in the water, its laying on the bottom and gets all accordion like.  Fish become real tangled.  And wiggle.  A lot.  A fisherman’s job is to tussle them out of the net.  And mind the teeth.  I usually forget this part but am reminded quite quickly.  Reds don’t have teeth like silvers.  I mean, they have teeth, but just in front, like a horse.  Kings and silvers have little razors evenly spread though their whole mouth.  With reds, sticking your finger in the fishes mouth to clear the web is mostly a good idea.  Not so with silvers. 

There is a natural loll between the run of reds and silvers.  This year, it seems like it was a long one, about three or four weeks.  I like to take this time to mend all my aches and pains caused from picking reds.  Sore hands, carpel tunnel, achy wrists and knuckles, those shooting pains the run up your arm, hands going numb at night.  I almost shit the bed one night when I rolled over and felt a strange hand laying next to me. I grabbed it and felt it before opening my eyes.  Only then did I discover it was my own hand, completely numb.

A few weeks off and these complaints tend to mend themselves. But fish wrestling season always brings something new for me, tennis elbow.  I don’t know why, but I get it every year.  I used to just bust out the Bengay. But I find as I get older, I no longer like to make an olfactory announcement of my ailments.  My new thing that I’m trying is to take an old wool knee sock, cut off at the foot, and pull it up my arm.  It makes a nice warm sleeve and seems to help, so far.

Another reason I like silver season it that the fleet is smaller.  Most guys who don’t live in Cordova go home.  Less boats, bigger slice of the pie.  But my favorite thing about silver season is the light at the end of the tunnel.  It means the season is winding down and going to come to an end.  Something I start to think would never happen.