Crazy Beard

Post your adventures, anecdotes, amusing, funny, or scary stories here.
Post Reply
Carol W
Member
Posts: 286
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:32 am
Location: Ketchikan

Crazy Beard

Post by Carol W »

July had been a very frustrating month, seems like it was continuously foul weather, and I had the zig when I should of zagged syndrome. We had started off Noyes I caught a few Kings but there were very few signs of coho. My deckhand Crazy Beard bought a rifle at JT's in Craig when we finished up Kings, I didn't think much of it for he had fished with me the season prior and we got along ok. We started chasing coho and before I knew it I was along the Baranoff shore but there wasn't much around in either fish or boats. The weather continued to be foggy and lots of SE slop and it seemed everywhere I went I was just a step off the fish, my frustration level rising all the while.
We delivered into Sitka and a good friend told me Cape Cross was where I wanted to be, so off up the hill we truck. We threw the gear in off Imperial Pass Crazy Beard ordered me into the house after setting gear, I was totally dumbfounded and pissed. I said to him pointing at the cockpit combing that the bank and my wife owned from here forward on this boat and I owned from here back, and he had a lot of balls to kick me out of my end of the boat. Slamming the pilot house door I informed him he was not to leave the cockpit until I told him to. Well we trolled on up to the Cape and joined the infamous circle which put me further in a bad mood fishing in somebodies floatbags, along with the typical gouging and fun that is associated with that drag. We put in the trip and actually was one of the better trips to date that summer. We ran backdown and delivered into Sitka, did our turn around chores. As I was motoring thru the channel I saw the Alice Rocks unloading I yelled a hi to Capt Wildman. "Turn that boat around, and meet me at A&B after you get fuel!" was his response. So we tied up outside the Alice Rocks and Wildman and I headed for the P bar, I didn't start off lite I ordered Gin and Tonics, we rehashed the season so far. Neither one of us was very happy with production so far we slammed quite a few drinks and somewhere late in the evening I came down a little hard on the table with my glass and got kicked out of the P bar. Now some of my friends consider being thrown out of the P bar a badge of honor I didn't see it that way as I was still thirsty. So Wildman and I headed off to Dirty Earnies after my first drink I realized I was beyond my limit for going fishing in the morning, so back to the boat I stumbled.
About 4 am there is banging on the wheelhouse and Wildman is yelling it is time to go, "oh man I feel like $&!#" so I steer us thru Ogla channel and on out until we were in open water north of Salsbury. Then I told Crazy Beard to follow Alice Rocks then I laid down for a boozy snooze. Four hours later I get up to see where we are and everything is fine so I hit the bunk again. I get up again off of Lisianski and call Wildman and ask where he is going he replies Fairweather, now that isn't quite what I had in mind. So we anchor that night south of Cape Cross. The next morning we fish the Cape but fishing isn't that hot and as the day wears on there is a steady stream of boats coming from the north so that didn't seem like the direction I wanted to go. We fished out the day and tried the morning bite but it was slow. So along about noon I pointed the bow south, the weather started getting cranky and by the time we got to Salsbury, it was rude. "Aw the hell with it I am sick of this ocean" was my thought as I set a coarse for Peril Strait. The next day is the last day of July and I set a coarse right down the middle of Chatham Stait thinking fish and not much else. As I near Kingsmill boats are leaving headed for the otherside of the strait, so I change coarse and anchor in Red Bluff Bay. We encounter some fish and managed to half ass put a trip together, we deliver down in PA after unloading and tying to the dock a well known PA troller tells me to come over for a beer. He informs me that there is a bite in Larch Bay, however it is an early morning show. I tell Crazy Beard that there is a bite around the corner and he needs to be up and be square 1st thing in the morning.
The next morning as we steam past Poor Mans I get him up and tell him to get coffee and breakfast as we have a bit of a run to Larch. As we sail inside of Wooden Is I can see the fog bank, I inform Crazy Beard that he is going to have to handle the back deck and he needs to hop to. My tip had left out one piece of valuable info and that was there was a big fleet in Larch, the fish were there, and it was a radar morning. Crazy Beard set the gear, and immediately fish were biting I watched as the lines loaded up and pulled back, in the mean time Crazy Beard was stuck in granny gear, boats were tacking in all different directions and the fog was quarter mile visibility if that. My stress level rose as Crazy slowly engaged a gurdie and stopped it at the first leader to sip from his coffee. By 9;30 am we had less than 50 fish and the fog was lifting so I stepped out on the back deck saying "get out of the pit, go into the house get some coffee do what ever you need to to wake up," Crazy threw his gloves down and asked what my problem was.
"You've been half asleep and haven't hopped to all morning, and who knows how many fish you have cost us," was my gruff reply.
He slammed the door and started yelling from the house I was an @$$&*!( and that it was deerhunting season and I had run down the middle of Chatham so he couldn't look for deer on Baranoff. He continued to rant and rave and then headed for the focsle where his rifle was, I started pulling the gear as he came out on deck and got in my face again. I stomped into the house and told him to sit on the hatch cover while I ran back to PA. upon tying up to the dock I ordered him off the boat to go hunting, silently hoping that he would encounter a brown bear. I unloaded my paltry morning catch and tied the boat up again.
When he returned from his hunt there was no remorse on his part, and I made my decision then. The next morning I untied the boat and off to Ketchikan I steamed. Later that fall Crazy Beard was arrested for attempted murder when he beat somebody up with that rifle cause it was jammed and wouldn't fire, the altercation was over a pouch of tobacco. Boy was I lucky.
Post Reply