Ship’s Log April 19-24 2020
Shakedown
I do not think this vessel has ever trolled salmon. The set up is for tuna, with a propeller that churns up a full 5 knots at idle in a calm sea, or in the harbor. At 1100 rpm James Lee will make 7kts at sea. Saves a lot on fuel, but forces one to come up with extra gear in order to slow down to the 2.7 knots average salmon trolling speed.
We did quite a few adjustments to the rigging to get set up for the salmon troll fishery, and a friend gave me an old set of trolling drogues (sea anchors) to slow me down. We also purchased some 32 inch stabilizers that have 55 pounds of lead attached to the head of a triangle shaped wood thingie that keeps the vessel a bit more level in choppy seas, and also slows you down a bit. Another manufacturer of sea anchor drogues sent me a pair to try but they were ultimately too small.
Here is how this trip played out…
Me, Jeff, Seanna, and Jeff’s dog Apollo left on Sunday April 19th intending to travel about 35 miles to the spot and wake up on it the morning of our Oregon troll salmon season which was set to begin on April 20 at crack of dawn. I posted that attempt, but failed to negotiate the proper outcome due to not filling the hydraulic tank with fluid. So, we came back in and did that, leaving again from Winchester Bay about 10:30am on the 20th. We got to our spot late in the afternoon and set our gear, and tested out the stabilizers, and tossed out the smaller pair of new sea anchors which did not slow us from 4.1 knots enough. We pulled them and tossed out the old pair of 36 Inch trolling drogues given by a friend and they worked out okay, but eliminated the chance to really use 6 wires and brought us to using 4 wires in the troll. We got a fish.
We spent the night after eating a big steak dinner in a calm sea. We had high hopes for the next day.
We got up at dawn for coffee and set the gear and began to troll… Then one of those big sea anchors kind of drifted over to that wire I maybe shouldn’t of been using, and during the correction of that event, we blew apart the Love-Joy connection to the gurdie. So we headed back the 35 miles to Winchester Bay to fix that problem.
After fixing that problem we immediately set out again on Wednesday evening and headed out to the spot 35 miles away. It was rough. We busted off one of those new stabilizers and the chain and the stainless shackles and all that stuff went bye bye. I noticed it when the vessel started to roll kinda like you get to walk on the wall sometimes and all the shit went flying off the counters etc etc. Kept going. The next day was pretty decent and we got 10 fish. Then on Friday the weather came up and the rigging is still all not good! That one left over big stabilizer combined with the big sea anchor is dragging on the aluminum poles too hard. Makes me nervous. Plus tomorrow’s weather is worse so in we go with another 7 fish on the half day Friday and arrive in Winchester Bay about 7:30 pm to sell the 17 fish immediately to a buyer that night at 10 bucks per pound. 208 pounds.
Ultimately we will win. This boat will fish 6 wires with 4 hooks per wire and lots of salmon will get conked and put on the market for you all to eat. Shown is a pic of Jeff Nakaji, my deckhand and my lifetime friend. He has a lot of shipyard work years, and a lot of troll salmon and troll tuna years as a deckhand, and I am lucky to have him for this season.