Beginning a career as an Offshore Commercial Fisherman

a reply to: PiratesCut

One of my favorite things I ever did was in cocoa Beach Florida

Wife and I paid 100 bucks each to go on a shark fishing tour . All the beer you could drink and they fed you a burger and some chips.

Was such a blast . Caught a hammerhead. It was a baby but it was a hammerhead lol

I was so drunk

a reply to: PiratesCut

My Grandmother lived her entire life in Rockport, MA. (Motif #1 sound familiar?) When I was a kid she used to send me down on the docks for "culls". She knew all their schedules, and what boats to go see. The lobstermen used to give them away, or just charge a few pennies. We ate lobster like it was hot dogs to most. Gawd, I love lobster! (this was back in the 60's).

GM lived to be 103, lived on her own all her life, never drove a car (never even had a license). Her whole world was right there in Rockport.

As for water, yeah, I've seen the "black water". Until anyone has seen the 'black water' they will never know true fear. Just pitch black, dark as midnight, in broad daylight. The fury of the sea fears no man.

There was a time when I thought the 'black water' was limited to cold waters in northern latitudes, but it is not. It can occur anywhere. I've seen it offshore in SE Asia. When the sea gets angry, she will make you fear her, like a fear you have never known. You suddenly realize there is no escape.

When the sea turns dark like that...you pray. It's all you have, as you are insignificant. The Indian Ocean (Southern Ocean) is by far the scariest of all! The Roaring 40's and the Furious 50's...I just don't know how people do that, day in and day out. That's some spooky stuff!

LOLA! Thanks Dalamax.

Im the grand scheme of things, if you love the ocean it matters little in what road you choose to sail the big blue.
May I ask your approx. location? If around here I can give you a hint on one way of scoring truly giant Blufins.
I’ve been to New Foundland and have gone target hooking giants by feeding off the aft quarter and choosing, bait hooking which one you want.
Pretty fun and exciting stuff.
Being a Skipper means you are far from stupid that’s for sure.
The road across the deck, through the engine room into the wheelhouse is not an easy one! It’s great to be Skipper!
I loved yelling, “throw the lines, let’s go”. (got a great pic of that too)!
Without going into detail it was crushed and I lost it above the knee after a two year battle to save it.
Ok, but don’t let this get out.
Back in my day we bagged up the scallops in 40lb. new muslim sacks that were made by two ladies in Fairhaven Ma.
The day we were to sail they could only supply half our need but I knew where there were more on another boat.
Without saying a word I slipped away and came back with 500 bags.
The Skipper who was also the owner, I was mate, engineer (prefer the word chief).
Skipper says, you are such a f******* pirate and it stuck.
LOL.
Ashore all my friends called me Bear until my best friend, my brother from another mother (I have a great pic of the two us sitting back aft on the stahbahd stern rail, which I’ll soon post as well) heard someone call me Pirate and now ever since.....mostly it’s guys who call me that.

Cheers Skipper!.....😎



a reply to: Dalamax

Im in Sydney Australia, working on beautiful port Jackson.

Your a verbose addition to ATS mate and you are bringing a fresh perspective to this site. Something that I, for one, appreciate and can only encourage.

To that end, your appreciated dude.

The last line of my post was half of a joke.

You don’t make a pirate. They just arggh.

Also how much do pirates charge for corn?
a reply to: PiratesCut

Never a bad day fishin.
That is unless you do something *****in stupid like sink the boat or, “lose a leg FFS”. 😎
Whites, Threshers, Hammers and Tigers are the biggest in my experience.
I got in trouble once on a boat named Settler (soon a pic, I hope!) with cook for for stealing a chicken.
I used to set out a great big hook on the end of some dog chain beneath an orange ball on the end of a couple hundred feet of hemp 9 thread.
When the ball was gone I was on!
I had no luck with Cod this one day and their were BIG sharks all around us so I stole a chicken and hooked a big Tiger. When we got it onboard the chicken was about 2 feet away from it’s mouth on the chain.
Cookie was pissed!! LOL
Here’s a weird thing.
I don’t drink, ever.
I tried but I get deathly ill and puke my guts out on 4 beers.
I tried to drink, trust me but nope, no can do.
A single glass of wine gives me a splitting skull.
Turns out I’m severely allergic to brewers yeast, go figure.
Man how I got ragged around the docks for being a light weight.
My standard reply, “Hey, why you laughin at me? It costs me 10 bucks to get drunk, it costs you guys a hundred”.
Shut em up every time....😎

Hey, thanks for the reply!

Cheers....

a reply to: sciencelol

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

As for water, yeah, I've seen the "black water". Until anyone has seen the 'black water' they will never know true fear. Just pitch black, dark as midnight, in broad daylight. The fury of the sea fears no man.

I love the sea so much, but I know what you’re talking about “black water”.
Instant dread, uggg. I think there are some places humans just aren’t supposed to be.

I experienced the same feeling in the Pacific Northwest deep in the forests.

Sorry FCD.
I just spent at least 30 minutes answering this post and I went to another page and accidentally swiped DDG from the screen. Poof, ATS and everything I had written, gone!
As I’ve stated, I’m in a learning curve here.
I’ll write it up again, I believe you’ll really enjoy it, I touched on every point in your Rockport post.
Right now I need a break but I’ll be back so check this OP again.
Everyone who I have yet to answer, please, come back, I promise I’ll answer.
Right now I’m disgusted with myself, as mentioned in an earlier post, fatigue gets one hurt.....🤪
Thanks guys.....!!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Your doing great.

There is was thinking what a tough crowd!

Answer is a buck an ear.

a reply to: PiratesCut

LOL!!!
My mind went absolutely blank trying to figure that out.
I’ve been writing here and another place since early morning.
I can’t believe I dumped that whole reply to FlyingClayDisk!
I’m so pissed at myself.....grrrr

buck an ear.....haaaa, love it!
Care if I swipe it?

Cheers Dalamax......

Now to re-write what I so stupidly tossed. 🤬


a reply to: Dalamax

I was writing about black water to FCD when I stupidly tossed it.
Black Water and what comes with it......whew!
When you lose the anemometer to a 107 knot gust you know you’re in trouble.
That poem I posted in my welcome OP
Boats of Wood, Men of Iron was about such a day and night.
I still wake up from dreaming about it 43 years later.


a reply to: JAGStorm

Fill your boots mate.

Best wishes with the rewrite.

a reply to: PiratesCut

“ My Grandmother lived her entire life in Rockport, MA.“

Rockport!!!! I know Rockport, had a couple of Dory Mates from that achingly beautiful town. One of the most photographed spots in New England. What a beautiful harbor. My wife and I have been there a bunch of times!
Gran sounds like she was a cool lady.

My grandfather was awesome but he didn’t live nearly so long. We called him of all things, OOMPA. My oldest cousin started it as a baby and it stuck, glad it did too. Everyone loved OOMPA!
Funny you mention eating culls like hot dogs as well. Hot dogs were OOMPA’s most favorite food in the wide world. We’d drive anywhere to try a new hot dog stand. Great times!!!

Back in 1971 we moved to the yellow cottage on the water right next to the bridge in Padanarem, South Dartmouth Ma.
This was the first time I worked aboard a lobster boat, I was in the 8th grade. It was a small Novi style boat and he only fished singles just outside the breakwater and out to Nonquitt, maybe 75 traps.
That was the summer commercial fishing hooked me.

During February 1978 NOAA screwed up a marine forecast big-time because a couple/few critical buoys were offline.(they got sued for this, forget the verdict)
It became known as “The Blizzard of 78” which parked over Georges and smashed the coast with 100 mph winds and tore the banks apart.
We were way up on the Northern Edge, as long as a 26, even 30 steam in big weather and they gave us storm warnings 72 hours out. We decided to stay another day
(bad decision!) where we were and then start towing West the next day.
24 hours later the forecast was updated to hurricane force winds now only 24 hours out not 48. We were still 140 miles Nor’east of Provincetown Ma.
As I’m pretty sure you know we had little in the way of electronics back then aside from two radios, a VHF and a Single Side Band, paper sounder, a crappy radar and maybe an oscilloscope LORAN which we did not have but we did have a chain drive auto-pilot (we were the balls LOL). We were way beyond the range of the VHF and listening to the sideband could be like listening to Charlie Browns teacher. Sometimes it was like learning a new language using the Side Band. But, I digress.
Oh yeah, black water, weather.....
So, we had been told we had only 24 hours not 48 and we were still 140 miles out.
Maybe 9 hours later a black line appeared on the Sou’west horizon.(the storm had jumped too and reformed off the Carolinas then came rocketing up the coast to park it’s big fat azz on Georges Bank.
This black line quickly flowed over us turning daylight to dusk and the sea an inky black. Not long after the first snow flakes were seen, just a few here and there, the size of your palm just gently floating down around us.
We were full ahead and knew we were in trouble, we just didn’t know how much!
In less than an hour it was ripping 60 knots Easterly with horizontal whiteout snow.
About 4 hours later with tide change we came about to jog Nor’east, no way could we keep heading in, we had to put the bow on her.
Man, what a night, day, night again. We lost the anemometer to a 107 knot gust. Wheelhouse windows got blown in, lost all the electronics, THANK GOD! we still had the auto pilot. At one point we had 4 feet of water in the engine room. You can’t get much closer to losing a boat and surviving as we did that night!
Next morning we were in seas of 40-50 feet and as I looked forward I could see the wooden hull twist as she plowed into a sea. It was crazy!!
Till mid day we had to jog until it slowly backed Nor’west.
By this time the storm had pushed us backwards maybe 50 miles by our best guess. We worked down the Channel along Cape Cod and Nantucket to the tail of Nantucket Shoals. Remember we had no navigation tools but our brains. Once the sounder, which was in-fact working told us we could turn West we did but now we had a new problem, we were straight into it again and now making ice.
Hours go bye, dark again and we are in Buzzards Bay.
When we first saw the lighthouse atop the Hurricane Barrier I swear, we started breathing again.
This was a once in a lifetime storm.
I’ve seen plenty of heavy weather since, my last boat, the Courageous could work in seas up to 35feet with the right crew.
I don’t wish a storm like that on anyone ever.
Four boats went down in 78 bringing 39 men with them.
Two months early I had turned down a Christmas trip on the Navigator that sailed and was never seen again. Not one piece.
So, yes in FlyClayDisk, Black Water in full daylight is one of the worse things one can see offshore!!!
Fear, true, absolutely raw fear. That’s the only time I’ve felt it’s real depth. Yeah.....no thanks!
Crazy thing is....I still love heavy weather. 🤪

Cheers.....😎











a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: PiratesCut

Excellent breakdown!

I always loved watching "Deadliest Catch" and other shows like that.

I'm too old now, but I would have gave it a shot back in the day.

Great opportunity for a youngster with good work ethic and a strong back.

Hi again. Can’t sleep so I thought I’d touch base on Rockport.
Lobstering, culls.......
I spent a bit of time offshore lobstering around the canyons. Some of the hardest work I’ve done.
Hauling and moving 100 pot trawls of 45” wooden traps sucks!! 65 lbs each and we’d stack em ten high, even on the wheelhouse and we had no crane unlike the crabbers.
Good money though!
I spent more time lobstering inshore on a 45’ JC around Gay Head, mouth of Vineyard Sound and South of Noman’s Isle. I have a great pic of us that was on the front page of the Boston Herald, or was it the Globe surrounded by the Navy and Coast Gaurd ships, boats, planes, helicopters, heck they had a couple of subs sniffing around for John Jrs plane South of the Vineyard. Teddy had some pull that’s for sure.
We used to sell our bugs to Pooles Market in Menemsha a few miles North of Gay Head. Old man Poole would not take our culls, said he wouldn’t sully his tanks with cripples. He was a strange old boy! Old man Poole didn’t care if we sold the culls to the greibees (spelling? the name of a little pain in the ass bird that islanders put on tourists)
as long as we did it up bye the fork that split the road off to the coast gaurd shack that you see Quint and the boys steam past on the Orca to go hunt JAWS.
Carly Simon who summered in the village was often waiting dockside to buy some lobsters off us. She’d watch for us with a mounted monocular from her porch on the hill.
Old man Poole didn’t care if we sold to her and we mostly just gave her some culls unless she wanted 3/4 pounders for guests. Once she invited us for lemon aide up on the porch and we sat with her for an hour or so talking and laughing. I’ll tell ya one thing, pretty as she was she sure had a set of choppers thar would make Mr. Ed proud. WOW!
She really wanted us to take her out so we said ok.
The next day was gonna be a quick one anyway because we had to stack and move some 10 pot wire trawls because the bugs were moving into the mud for molting.
Next morning at first light we pulled in and there Carly was all teeth from ear to ear waiting for us.
That woman had grit, she dove right in and had no problem making bait bags, banding and I let her set two trawls, “under very, very close observation“.
Our day wrapped up around 1300 and later we found ourselves back on her deck eating cheeseburgers leaving half a dozen maybe eight chicks and culls with her in exchange.
What a time! That September she disappeared from the island and we never saw her again.
Yeah, I know.
Sounds like pure BS.
That’s ok.....it was one hell of a summer!!

Cheers.....😎







a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Thank you!!!
My career got cut short but the sea still calls to me in all weather, winter or summer, night and day.
I’ve already said this here, When one day God calls me home, my ashes will enrich the banks!

Cheers.......😎

a reply to: MykeNukem

One thing fishing boat captains like are people with Navy and Coast Guard small boat experience. And engineering ratings.
ex navy and coast sailors know ship board firefighting and damage control.
i have been out on a few fishing boats and am ex navy mine sweep sailor.

i have also been across the pacific on a wooden ship. i have done helm and engine room watches and have streamed gear behind ships. and have fought ship board fires

Very, very nice!
The Coast Gaurd is what I believe all civil police and protectors should be modeled after.
I’ve taken the basket ride once and have been and seen many others helped and saves by them.
Never once had a bad experience or had to deal with hothead bully police tactics by them.
I had my 10k chiefs ticket so I know my way around an engine as well.
I love the Sea!!!
Thank You for your service!!!

Cheers.....😎


a reply to: ANNED

Dang it!! I had a long reply too that I accidentally deleted-- ahhh!
What a great thread. You can really tell a story! I have not really ever been out on the seas like yall but hear her whispers and calls.. I can watch the waves for hours on end..so mesmerizing. I can feel the sheer joy and terror in your words! The way you guys describe the black water is terrifying..it reminds me of Poe's Descent into the Maelström Absolutely terrifying. It's incredible that ya'll survived that storm!! It's times like that that a person realizes there are some places humans should not be.. Raw courage!
Been a very long day and I have to be up in a few hours but I am looking forward to your other thread I somehow missed.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!! It totally took my mind of the state of the world for awhile

a reply to: PiratesCut

Does an OP being moved to the trashbin means it’s gone or just considered junk?
Does it still work? Why would it be moved to such a place at all?

a reply to: PiratesCut

Violation of T&C?