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To: BlueDragon

I saw a photo of her on her fishing boat yesterday and it was captioned that she’d just finished pulling nets!


93 posted on 08/30/2008 11:21:09 AM PDT by Lady Jag (The trouble isn't that there are too many fools, but that the lightning isn't distributed right)
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To: Lady Jag

From looking again at the picture I posted, it looks to me as if the net may have well been hauled aboard by hand, (perhaps using a power roller?) since the cork line, and lead or sinking bottom line, are stacked separately. Either that, or it's been back-stacked from off of a net reel?

It is easier to "pick" a gillnet clean, when the cork and lead are spread apart. That I know for a certainty.

Alaskan salmon drift nets are limited to 250 fathom length [generally --- there may have been some changes in the last years that I'm not up to speed with?].

It's not overly difficult in a fairly small boat to back-haul a surface fishing driftnet by hand, provided wind and water conditions are mild. Even then, it still is real work though, but "do-able".
Once one overcomes the initial inertia (of the boat just "sitting" in the water) and gets the boat moving towards the net, then one just keeps pulling...

When one catches a lot of fish though, then those too, must be hoisted out of the water, and without hesitation or much pause, for the boat is moving and the net, with all that snaggy webbing, can get under the boat. Which is much to the "why" behind many such vessels being "bow pickers", both setting or deploying the gear from off the bow, and hauling it back aboard, the same.

If one uses a hydraulically driven roller, it can be a big help. Many Alaskan boats have both net reels (which are large spools) and power rollers.

What the Palin's actually have in the way of a fishing boat, I can only make educated guesses about.
I see that the bulwarks look to be relatively high, which is fairly typical of many modern aluminum hull, 32 ft. long (or slightly under in length) boats built expressly for Alaskan drift gillnet fisheries.

125 posted on 08/31/2008 11:01:30 AM PDT by BlueDragon (Jesus was a gillnetter)
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