first year as a salmon troller

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Flatfish
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first year as a salmon troller

Post by Flatfish »

hello my name is josh i am from san fransisco bay area and a longtime reader on this great site.i have commercial halibut fished my own boat for the last 6 or so years and deckhanded on various crab and salmon boats.i am 29 father of 2 boys and married (even after my first season trolling).i got the bright idea i wanted to be a salmon troller so sold my halibut boat and found a great deal on a small 24 foot trailerable sport boat with a salmon permit. this was a month before the season so i had my work cut out.the boat sat for 8 years before my purchase so had a mechanic check everything out mechanically right after purchase so i could focus on rigging this bare boat.many long nights as i work full time i fabricated the aframe davits mounted guirdies installed an elecrric hydraulic system(mistake) and fabricated poles.everything went together well and broke down easy for trailering.had some test runs to try everything out days before the opener and everything went great and that was the last time lol.we had a run of verry bad weather that plauged the fleet for allmost the first half of the season.i made my first trip out of bodega bay on one of the weather windows fishing was slow but we managed to find a pocket of fsh in 50 fathoms landed a few. we then found a large school off of the fleed and it was my first taste of a good bite. i honestly think i had 30 fish hanging at one point went to retrieve the first line ...port heavy and boom no hydraulics. the motor seized handlining every line up every hook had fish .watched sealions pick them off 1 by 1 managed to get everything in and land 7 headed for port.at this point im disgusted and the weather is going to blow. got a hydro pump from a fellow troller and fabbed up a power pack.ready now waiting on weather ok season closes for 15 days maintenance time. ready now opens again first trip out of san fransisco troll all day verry uneventful 3 fish. trip in blow a headgasket crap dead in the water 100 feet from the rocks. luckily had an auxillary motor 4 1/2 hrs later made it to port. pulled head had it redone next weekend did a trip in the bay for halibut to test all is well.saturday morning heading out engine starts knocking bad turned tward port tail tucked and depressed.pulled out the 4.3 v6 chevy because of metal in the pan.rebuilt an replacement motor and spent the next week installing went smooth . another bay trip completed the break in and ready to catch some salmon.next trip altenator blew repaired that then next trip electric clutch on hydros blew. at this point i have 2 weeks left and finally make 1 successfull trip with nuthing going wrong land some fish make a little money and its over. all i can say is wow it was the greatest leanrning experience and even through the battles i had allot of fun. kept my head up and kept fishing brighter days are ahead. back to rigging crab gear and hope to have the boat in tip top shape for next season it cant come soon enough.
latitudes
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Re: first year as a salmon troller

Post by latitudes »

I think the first year for most is tough. My first year was last year. I can tell you that for me, year 2 was better, but not without faults. The tough part is the only way you find out what needs to be addressed on your boat is to go out on it and fish it. Many of the systems that fail, only fail while underway, or can not be fully tested while sitting at the dock.
I know one thing I will be better at this winter is taking the boat out into the harbor and test running stuff more than a week before the season starts. This way I can make sure that things work (at least initially) before losing valuable fishing time.
Be sure to make a list while it is fresh in your mind of what needs to be addressed this winter. It is easy to forget about the bulb that needs to be replaced or other items while you're sitting at the dock, and then you get out fishing and it's "crap, I forgot about that". Write it down, do it, cross it off, enjoy a beer, repeat!
Best of luck to you. And yes, year 2 will be more fun.
Joe
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