Halibut Fishing - Day 4

We started back on the long haul home on Thursday after all the gear was aboard.  After a 6 hour run, we anchored for a short night's sleep.  Away we went, but that's the advantage of being crew.  The boat was cleaned up, and so I went back to bed.

Fabian called in our information and we got a sell time of 3:30 p.m.  We made it in plenty of time.  Now to get the fish off the boat into the fish house, in this case Seafood Producers Co-op.

Captain Fabian has a great system of brailer bags and slush.  We hooked the brailer bag ropes to the dock winch.  A brailer bag of fish is coming out of the hold in this photo.  Nice bag of halibut, huh?

There goes the bag of fish, slime draining down, as it crosses the dock.  The heads will be chopped off with a little halibut guillotine.  Then they'll be weighed and listed on a fish ticket.  We get to go do the paperwork with the Feds and State of Alaska, and then finally we can get a check for all our work.  Of course, the price went down 25 cents a pound in the last couple of days, but that's the fishing business. 

So long Fishing Vessel Sunbeam and Captain Fabian.  It's time for you to take off the longline gear and put on the gillnet and reel for gillnet season.  Good luck and we hope to visit you again next year!