I'm starting this thread to discuss methods of making the repetitive parts of our job easier.
Here's some of the things that I do to reduce fatigue:
When cleaning fish I put the guts in a bucket instead of constantly throwing them overboard. This helps keep the boat cleaner too.
When King or Coho fishing I run line from my third spool forward through a block on my poles to my stabies. I can pull my stabies with the gurdy and leave them hanging from the poles if I'm just heading in to anchor. When fishing for dogs I take this off because with drag bags in, it makes for too many things in the water.
I'm interested in hearing what other people do. What is this dehooking method that some are using? Swinging dogs vs gaffing them? Layer icing into brailer bags?
Salty
2012-11-18 23:04:09
Here are a couple of ideas:
1. When landing fish think of "slipping" them aboard over the rail rather than "slinging" or "heaving". Better on your body and better for your fish quality.
2. Actually write down the number of times you handle a fish in your operation, something like this:
i) Pull fish up to boat on leader;
ii) Conk fish once or repeatedly;
iii) Gaff fish, or otherwise insert gaff into head or gills;
iv) Sling fish aboard over back rail, over shoulder, over cockpit, into landing bin;
v) Conk fish vigorously a few more times;
vi) Remove hook with gaff by reefing on hook in an un-ergonomic matter;
vii) Remove fish from cockpit where it fell when reefing on it to remove hook;
vii) Conk a couple of more times;
viii) Reef hook out again;
ix) Throw lure over board, allow to float back;
x) Retrieve and coil leader;
xi) Stick fish in gills with knife;
xii) Reengage gurdy and go to next leader;
xiii) Move fish from landing bin to bleeding bin;
xiv) Move fish from bleeding bin to cleaning troff or area;
xv) Clean fish;
xvi) Wash fish, pump blood, remove lice;
xvii) Move fish to slaughter bin on ice in hold;
xviii) Climb into slaughter bin;
ixx) Shovel ice into icing bin on your hands and knees;
xx) Arrange fish in rows in icing bin;
xxi) Shovel ice into bellies with small ice scoop while on hands and knees;
xxii) Shovel more ice into gills;
xxiii) Shovel a layer of ice on top of row of fish, find bin board and wrestle into place;
ixxx) Shovel ice out of next icing bin into slaughter house to get next bin ready for fish;
xxx) Climb out of hold;
xxxi) Quickly dash to wheel house to avoid collision with other boat, reef, kelp pie etc.;
xxxii) Unload by crawling into hold with unloading tote;
xxxiii) Remove bin boards, throw up onto deck for future scrubbing;
ixL) Put fish into unloading tote one at a time;
XL Shovel ice out of the hold over the deck, over the rail, overboard between totes;
XLi) Shovel ice, including ballast, unused ice, into ice tote;
XLii) Crawl out of hold, tip ice tote over rail, repeat about 5 times;
XLiii) Crawl into hold, scrub bins, scrub shaft alley;
iL) Crawl out of hold, scrub bin boards one at a time, stack bin boards, slip into hold;
L) Replace binboards, shaft alley covers etc;
Li) Climb up ladder, observe weigh up, sign ticket, climb back down ladder, get in line for ice;
Lii) Make appointment with massage therapist.
Or:
1. Pull fish up to boat on leader and slip aboard with one smooth motion;
2. Conk fish quickly before it flops; on King and coho, no need to conk pinks and chums,
3. Dehook;
4. Stick;
5. Return leader to gear setter; You did this without stopping the gurdy in case of pinks and chums;
6. Slide fish into ergonomically situated fish troff(s); notice I said slide, not lift; or
6. Slide fish into slush bags in the case of pinks and chums; or slide cleaned fish from troff into slush tank;
7. Unload by hooking cable to brailer bag and watching ice, slime, and fish all hauled out at same time;
8. Engage hydraulic pump and pump remaining water and slime overboard; while rinsing with hose;
9. Take long handled brush and scrub slush tank with soap, water, and bleach, doesn't take long because most of the
scales, slime, etc. went up with the brailer bag;
10. Insert clean brailer bag;
11. Retrieve brailer bag that the unloading tender has washed for you, roll up, dip in bleach rinse, and store;
12. Dump ice tote into brailer bags in slush bin;
13. Sign fish ticket handed to you by tenderman, or delivered by lift operator in bucket.
14. Pull out and go fishing, you have only been there about 30 minutes.
3. Here is another good idea: Often we will have a few mixed species, like coho, or a few pinks when fishing Chums. Since our fish at troll tenders are weighed in the brailer bags we separate the fish. Sometimes that means finding a place for just a few pinks, or coho. Often it means either having to layer ice those fish somewhere, or starting a whole new tank for just a few fish. I ordered some 300 pound brailer bags from NoMar last year and just insert those alongside the big bag in my tank. Works great, added a couple extra hooks for the straps and it has saved a lot of extra work.
Thanks for the idea for this thread: I am sure we will see a lot of good ideas.
Salty
2012-11-18 23:29:12
The first example of over 50 steps is based on personal experience when I started power trolling. It is not intended to slight anyone else who may think I was watching them.
kjwelder
2012-11-19 05:31:30
Anybody have a cleaning knife sheath or holder with a sharpener built into it? I wanna be able to sharpen my knife as I put it into its holder and also sharpen it as I remove it from its holder.
Do you really sling all of your fish aboard? I can see where when the bite is on for dogs or cohos that keeping the gurdies running and getting them back down will result in more fish even if you lose a few to not gaffing them. I can't see why you would swing kings aboard even on good days. April, May, and June I'm pretty happy when I get more than 10 in a day.
2012 was my first season and at first I tried swinging dogs aboard as I had seen people do that in videos. But as soon as I lost a few, I switched to gaffing everything. I felt like it was more work looking at every fish and trying to make a decision whether the fish was hooked well enough or if it was too big to swing. Then the fish were already bleeding and I didn't need to stick them either.
Is there a technique to it? When I swing fish aboard, I lose fish at a higher ratio than I am ok with.
3. Here is another good idea: Often we will have a few mixed species, like coho, or a few pinks when fishing Chums. Since our fish at troll tenders are weighed in the brailer bags we separate the fish. Sometimes that means finding a place for just a few pinks, or coho. Often it means either having to layer ice those fish somewhere, or starting a whole new tank for just a few fish. I ordered some 300 pound brailer bags from NoMar last year and just insert those alongside the big bag in my tank. Works great, added a couple extra hooks for the straps and it has saved a lot of extra work.
I always thought part of the not mixing cohos and round fish was because the round fish ruined the quality of the dressed fish. The slush water from my dressed cohos is perfectly clean, from my dogs it's pinkish red. Does it make a difference to the quality?
Salty
2012-11-20 01:36:19
Great questions Drew.
1. We almost always conk big king salmon in the water, gaff them and slip over the rail. 11 pounds and under we sometimes slip them aboard, measure, then conk and bleed.
2. With Chums so valuable the last few years we take a good look at how they are hooked before slipping them aboard. We have the small gaffs right there hanging by the killer cord if we decide to gaff instead of slip aboard. There is a technique to "slipping" them out of the water and on-board into the de-hooking and bleeding tub. We do not jerk or sling them aboard.
3. It is easy to spot the chum troll green horns so to speak, they are the ones conking and gaffing.
4. It is absolutely better to keep the dressed salmon and round salmon in different tanks. I sell my coho's round whenever I can, better product because they are chilled quicker, less handling, easier to deal with.
It really doesn't make much difference chum and pink handling when we are only talking 100-400 or so fish a day. The difference comes when you are handling and unloading 1000 plus fish a day for a week or two. Then, all the little ergonomic ideas really start to make a difference. I, of course, have not seen pink and chum fishing like that for years. I doubt I ever will again as the pink and chum troll fleet is just too big. But, that is fine, without 2-300 trollers targeting chums the troll share of our hatchery fish would be even worse than it is now.
And then there comes that rare day when you really run into the coho or kings and all that ergonomic stuff and efficient handling systems you put in for chums and pinks pay off and you turn a great coho or king day into something truly amazing.
I am still waiting for that to happen on the kings.
carojae
2012-11-20 17:09:29
"Hanging from the poles"? Interesting.
I think this is one of the most frustrating parts of daily activity while trolling; pullling stabies to clear kelp. Anymore ideas on this?
Jim
Salty
2012-11-20 21:37:50
Great question Jim,
I have gone from retrieving the stabies with a grappling hook, to a block about three feet out on the pole to the third gurdy spool. The problem with that was having to jump out of the cockpit to cut the kelp etc out.
Now I pull the stabies back to the pit off the gurdie and a block set up on my hayrack. It makes it so much easier to deal with kelp etc. and they are right there for setting in the morning or stacking at night. The stainless chain, which I have mentioned in other threads really helps too.
frozenatsea
2012-11-23 18:56:01
"Hanging from the poles"? Interesting.
I think this is one of the most frustrating parts of daily activity while trolling; pullling stabies to clear kelp. Anymore ideas on this?
Jim
grappling from the pitt works for me. slow the boat down first, of course. also, two to three well placed rounds with the handy shotgun works well.
Carol W
2012-11-23 20:57:15
I tried something this summer and am going to refine it with a snatch block this spring, I have a cleat at the base of each pole so I looped the haul up line for stabies around it and this keeps the haul up line from dragging back and interfering with hauling my mains. I should note that I don't use cable or chain but rather spectra on my stabies it is far quieter than cable or chain the only real downside is you need to be careful cutting kelp off with knife.
Salty
2012-11-24 06:56:18
What size spectra? And how is it on the hands hauling or do you just haul it directly onto the gurdie?
I run my haul up line out to a c-clip just above the water line and down through three more c-clips on the chain to a carbuncle about a foot above the stabie. This pulls the stabie chain over to the block and then the stabie up to the surface where I grab it and swing it aboard. The chain is hanging in nice loops from each c-clip and lays down on top of the stabie in on deck.
I also run two lines off my pole to my stabies, one is a heavy line above the chain up to the pole, but well out to clear my bows and give me as much steadying as possible. Then I run another line connected at the same shackle between the stabie chain and the pole rope up through a block about 10 feet closer to the boat. From there I run that line down to a clete on my pole about three feet up from the base. Usually this line is slack so the stabie is hanging on the main line. In rough weather I tighten it up a bit so both lines are taking some strain. When going into shallow anchorages I shallow the stabies up by hauling up the inner line and tying it off on the clete. The clete on the base of the pole is handy for all kinds of tie ups.
Salty
2012-11-26 06:02:00
My mind is gone:snap hook
Carol W
2012-11-27 00:21:26
Another Brain Dead Troller
Salty
2012-11-27 04:35:42
There are at least two of us.
Salty
2012-11-27 04:37:10
I have an excuse, I was in Eugene, Oregon from 66-72.
Carol W
2012-11-27 13:57:50
I hand trolled to many years in cordova bay,,,,lol