Commercial Salmon Trolling Forum

A lot depends upon where are you located. There are some reliable machinists in towns up here in SE Alaska who have experience working on Easthopes, and I know of a couple of different operations that rebuild gurdies down in Oregon.

Good topic, and something I was about to begin exploring myself. This past summer I had my first collision on the fishing grounds in my 40+ years of trolling various vessels. I've had some close calls in the past (and since) - but fishing alone on a boat that has a blind-spot directly ahead of the c...

Once & Future - Glad to hear that you were able to work-out your stove problems. Air supply is critical with most oil stoves and it has to be controlled properly for the fire to stay at the top of the fire ring and burn with that pale-yellow flame. Sealing things up like you describe has probabl...

Once & Future - I'm wondering if the holes in the back of your stove may be access holes for a water heating coil?

Joe. . .naturally there is a lot of information on the Web about dutch oven bread baking/cooking - this site has a great bread recipe m . I had a co-worker at my last State job named Bruce Campbell who taught classes in campfire dutch oven cooking up in the Fairbanks area. He has a slew of different...

Dickinson sells stainless steel barometric dampers (for 3", 4", and 5" exhaust flue). Any marine supply store that sells their brand of stoves should also be able to get their stack dampers. In my experience I found the barometric damper to make all the difference in the world for all...

In answer to your questions above - the brailer bags are useful no matter how you handle your fish. My handling system is very similar to what 'mydona' described above. I try to deliver dressed salmon when my first fish aboard are 3 days-old. On most of of my trips I belly-ice [and layer-ice] the fi...

My cast-iron dutch oven is my favorite galley utensil on my boat. This summer it helped me clear-out my home freezer of venison left over from last hunting season. I have a soft spot for venison ribs and sourkraut and preparing it is easy when you take the time to get it set up and into the stove fo...

To begin with - definately go with slush tanks. That was the single best thing I have done to simplify my handling of both round and dressed fish on my troller. Try to configure your tanks so they are all the same size so that your brailer bags will all be the same size and inter-changeable. Make an...

Thanks for the update, Joe. It reminded me of the month of August in the late 60s that I switched from hand-cranking Coho in a skiff to leasing a small power troller. The "Bronco II" was a wooden Bristol Bay gillnet hull that had a stubborn gasoline engine. All in all it was a "trying...

I have a naturally aspirated 6068 John Deere in my troller. I get an average of 1.1 gal/hour with my engine over the course of a calendar year (both trolling and running). I just finished changing-out my cooling water pump [with a spare pump previous owner had on the boat] after approximately 5,000 ...

I always had very good service from ComNav pilots. On my last troller I found the same 'weak link' to be the ComNav remotes - as mentioned above. I had 2 AP remotes installed - one back in the trolling cockpit and one at the longlining side-station. Neither seemed to be able to last a calendar year ...

joeman79 - Exactly which Johnson pump are you referring to? Johnson manufactures a variety of pump models. The 1.5" engine-driven flexible impeller pump I removed from my washdown system was a Johnson [very similar to a Jabsco], but they make "washdown" and "live-tank" model...

Yesterday I installed a Rule General-Purpose pump on my troller for deck washdown at the dressing station(s) at either side of the troll cockpit. I replaced a Jabsco-style pump that ran off the auxiliary drive on the front of my John Deere. Unfortunately the previous set-up meant that the direct-dri...

In my experience, gumpuckies also keep hoochies from getting torn-up quickly by salmon teeth - especially the brands that are forming their products out of a thinner variety of plastic.

thediverdude - I remove swivels on spoons smaller than a #5 Canadian (my most productive Coho spoon). I leave the barrel swivels on anything larger. I have found that the bulkier ball-bearing swivels [like what is shown in your picture] will pick up more jelly than the common barrel swivels and IMO ...

How you ice in half-totes is your choice. Depending upon whether you unload dressed fish everyday, you can either belly ice or slush inside your half-tote inside the brailer bags. Remember to keep track of your totes' plugs because it is difficult to slush without them. I would belly ice dressed fis...

Robot - I just took my boat south from Juneau to Wrangell's Boat Shop and went through Wrangell Narrows for the first time since '97. I had the Coast Pilot open for reference, but already knew that the place where the tides "meet" in the Narrows is right in the vicinity of Green Point (jus...

Very nice and a great idea for giving both the main engine and your wallet a break. Back in the late 70s I ran a tender with one of those MER Isuzu 7.5 kW plants onboard and I was impressed with how smoothly and quietly it operated. In three seasons of use our only repair job was replacing the origi...

"Hi, my name is Joe. . .and I am an unapologetic hoochie addict." I suspect this is how I should be introducing myself to people who may not already know me. I've been known to buy packages of the ugliest damned things "just in case they start working some day". My condition bord...