A Bounty of Fish and Crab (and Unwanted Bycatch)

This has been an amazing summer of uninterrupted perfect sunny weekends. The months of waiting for my boat to arrive, and then for the weather to warm, have come to fruition. My girlfriend’s daughter hadn’t joined us on most of this summer’s fishing adventures, because we happened to pick days when she was at her dad’s. However, Sunday seemed like the perfect day to let her share the fun. We decided to go for sand dabs again because they are the perfect fishery for kids. They are easy to catch and don’t require hours of trolling. We got a bit of a late start this time, since we were trying to fish at slack tide. We launched about noon and headed directly for our favorite crabbing spot near Whidbey Island. Like last week, the water was fairly smooth on the way out, allowing us to spot the distinctive dorsal fin of a harbor porpoise. It was cool enough that I almost needed a sweater for the trip. When we got there we dropped our four pots and bright red flags all in a row, then got ready to fish.

For bottom fishing we put a weight on the very end of the line, with a double hook rig just above. We decided to use cooked shrimp this time instead of the rubber worms. We drop our lines until we feel the weight hit the bottom, then we just jig it up and down a little until we get a bite. The kid was the fishing champ that day. She got the first bite, and later got the biggest fish. It only took a few minutes for her to hook a small sand dab. After that, she just kept going. It’s fun to watch a cranky teenager who didn’t want to come along suddenly perk up and engage. We only brought two rods for the three of us, but one person was always busy helping another to unhook a fish. We put ten fish in the boat in about an hour. The biggest one caught was over 14 inches. Sand dabs that size make a great meal, because the tender white meat is relatively thick and the bones are easy to manage.

At one point, my girlfriend’s daughter hooked a fish we didn’t recognize. We had a bad feeling it was something we weren’t supposed to catch, so we took some photos, unhooked it, and threw it back. A few minutes later, she hooked something big that really bowed her rod. It turns out she got a “double”, meaning she got two fish on one line. Unfortunately, both fish were of the same sort she caught a few minutes before. We released them and decided not to fish that spot anymore. I later identified them as copper rockfish, which are illegal to catch in Puget Sound. You’re supposed to use a weighted descender device to return them to the bottom, which we had on board. All rockfish have a gas-filled organ called a swim bladder, which allows them to control their buoyancy. However, at the surface the gas expands, causing their eyes to bulge and their stomach to stick out of their mouths. When in this state they can’t easily return to the bottom themselves, and might float on the surface until they’re picked to death by seagulls or eaten by a seal. Rockfish are protected partly because they can live to be more than 50 years old, and take a long time to reach sexual maturity and reproduce. We had seen the videos about it, and had studied up on how to use the descender. However, in this case we were only fishing about 50-60 feet down, which is pretty shallow for rockfish, and didn’t see the bulging stomach. They appeared to get back down on their own, and now we’re better at identifying them.

When the fishing was done we pulled our crab pots, hauled in a few good keepers, and dropped them again. Then, we docked at Langley for a lunch break. Tired of spending an hour to get seated at a restaurant every week, we brought sandwiches this time which we ate at a pretty little park by the beach. Later, we walked into town for ice cream. As had happened last week, the wind had really picked up during our port call in Langley, much more than was forecast. This time was even worse. I was glad to have my girlfriend’s daughter along to help her mom with the final pot pull. Usually we just drift while doing that, but this time I needed to be at the helm to apply a small amount of power and steer the bow in a safe direction to the waves. Waves were occasionally splashing over the bow, soaking the ladies in the front, and I kept hearing the bilge pump kick on. It was my job to quickly hoist the heavy pots aboard and onto the pitching deck before the wind turned us sideways to the waves. I’m a big believer in PFDs, and this is a perfect example of why. It gave me great peace of mind knowing that everyone aboard was wearing one during this exercise. After checking each crab’s gender and measuring its size, we would carefully poke and prod each one like she was giving it a medical exam. There are a lot of soft shells this time of year, and she’s become quite skilled at determining if they are or not. About half were failing the test and getting thrown back.

With the job complete, we hit the throttle and headed for home across Possession Sound. The ride was just as bouncy as last week, but it felt totally safe. At least with the bow up high at planing speed there was no more water coming into the boat. Although she doesn’t like to show it, I think the kid had a great day. She had been with us that day last spring when we didn’t catch any keeper crabs, when we couldn’t even manage to catch sand dabs, and that time we got all the way out there only to find that we had forgotten to bring the tackle. We’ve come a long way since then. This time she watched us be organized, efficient, and knowledgeable. Plus, we came home with a bounty of seafood. In addition to the ten fish we had six good crabs. One monster was 7-1/2 inches across its back, too big for the crab gauge to even measure. The girl had helped to earn her food that day, and had the pleasure of eating fish she had caught herself. We seem to have found one thing that all three of us like to do, and that’s a beautiful thing.

When I got home I found that my anchor locker was full of seawater and everything in it was submerged. One more thing to check while underway. It takes me nearly two hours to put the boat away after each trip. I fuel it up, brush the hull to rid it of any invasive species like zebra mussels, flush the engine with fresh water, flush the trailer brakes, and especially scrub the deck. Whoever decided that all fiberglass boats should have bright white decks was crazy. Crabbing and fishing ravages boat decks, leaving them covered in all kinds of detritus such as eelgrass and algae brought up from the bottom, fish blood and goo, seagull poop, and muddy footprints. Fortunately boats are designed to get wet, so I can just douse every inch of the boat indiscriminately to wash it all off. I can hardly complain though, since during that time my friend is home cleaning and cooking a cooler full of fish and crabs. I’m in charge of the boat, and she’s in charge of the catch. It’s a fair trade. Fishing is a lot of work, but through teamwork we get it done.