As season winds down, fishing crews reflect

As the season starts to wind down, many fishing crews are weighing whether to keep fishing or whether to pack it in and go home. At the Dillingham harbor on Thursday, July 18, many crews were already scrubbing down their boats or pulling them out of the water.

Connor Armstrong talked with KDLG while he was washing windows on his grandfather Fritz Johnson’s boat, the Jazz. Armstrong is 13, and it was his first season fishing in Alaska. Before this summer, Armstrong says he had caught about 30 fish total, off a dock in Maine. This summer, he says he slid fish into holds, counted them, and sometimes picked.

He said the most surprising part of commercial fishing was the holds. “I thought it was just going to be a big one in the middle, but it’s separate,” Armstrong said. Armstrong also has advice for other first timers. “Bring warm socks. Or gloves, actually!” he said.

Deckhands Jamie Stoothoff and Bentley Allen already had their boats out of the water for the season.

“We’re pretty happy at how our season ended overall. We just did our tally last night,” Stoothoff said. Allen agreed. “Pretty happy with the numbers!”

That’s even though they switched to shift work part way through the season.

“We got a lot of sleep. We’re pretty happy campers at the end of the season. You know, working 12 hours sleeping 12 hours. pretty ideal,” Stoothoff said.

Stoothoff’s secret for getting that much sleep? “Sink one of your boats!”

One of their boats, Lefty, sank out in the slew, thankfully, no one was on board. “It was a long story,” Stoothoff said. “We lost a boat plug, both our bilge pumps [broke]. So it was a recipe for disaster. Whatever can go wrong, you know? Murphy’s Law!”

Stoothoff says the crew was eventually able to get the boat rescued. “It flipped itself over and they ended up pulling it out, back onto the shore. It ended up being OK.”

Stoothoff and Allen started off the season fishing with Northline, then switched to Silver Bay. Like other Silver Bay crews in the harbor on Friday, they had good things to say about Silver Bay’s tenders, in terms of safe crane handling, good quality control, and excellent perks.

“They were trying to woo us with hot chocolate and mochas. And it was successful!” Stoothoff said. Allen reminded her that they also got corn dogs. “Probably one of the highs of the season!” Stoothoff said.

Stoothoff previously worked on a tender. She says pre-season seemed rocky for some Silver Bay tenders. “From what I could tell some of the new tenders were a little on edge because their contracts didn’t come in until a couple of weeks before the season started. But I think overall they were very happy with how Silver Bay handled everything. Seems to be going well,” Stoothoff said.

Bentley was fishing in Bristol Bay for the first time. “I mean my low was the slew mud for sure. That was it was kind of my arch-nemesis and the high was just getting to know everybody and having a good season,” Bentley said.

David Schwantes captains a boat called the Tool and fishes for Trident.

This year, he says, Trident decided boats no longer needed to bleed their fish. It also asked boats to get their fish a degree cooler than in past years. Schwantes said he thought those changes made sense. They were also fairly easy to achieve.

“It’s definitely easier when it’s cold outside and the Bay is cold,” Schwantes said. “But it depends on your [refrigerated seawater] system. If it’s working good, should be fine. If it’s not, then you’re gonna have some issues.”

Trident announced base prices to its fleet at the beginning of the season. Schwantes says they offered $1.15 for 38 degrees and below and $1.05 for 43 and below. He lives in Aleknagik, and he’s planning to stick around and keep fishing.

“It’s not too bad, it could be better, but it’s going pretty good right now and the cold weather helps. W\e’ll get some more warm days coming up, but I’m hoping we get some cold wind again and push more fish in,” Schwantes said.

While many boats are already heading home, others will stay out on the water through early August.