Herring are in Newport

[PNW Partisan]

Had a nice haul today with my toddler. Got 100 of them and a bunch of red rock crab. They seem to be all over Yaquina Bay. 3/12/21.

Read More

 

[JohnnyMac]

Back in the 80's I remember watching two commercial boats hauling nets full of herring in the bay cross over each other's nets and the nets hung up. Because both boats were so grossly overloaded with herring they just slightly heeled over and the herring all sloshed to the low side (rolling cargo) and it capsized both of them. Such a waste....

 

[CountryGent]

Sounds like a lovely day. 'gratz.

 

[P7M13]

Depoe bay and 101 was lined with trailers this morning.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Back in the 80's I remember watching two commercial boats hauling nets full of herring in the bay cross over each other's nets and the nets hung up. Because both boats were so grossly overloaded with herring they just slightly heeled over and the herring all sloshed to the low side (rolling cargo) and it capsized both of them. Such a waste....

And people wonder why there aren't any salmon, it's because they're taking their food. Same thing in Alaska, many years of record horse Hearing harvest and the huge kings in the Kenai River started disappearing, coincidence?

 

[CastleRocker]

The Kenai River Kings were helped in their downfall by unregulated dragging in the '80's. A guy I crabbed and longlined with got on a Moonie boat after Black Cod season. If memory serves, it was the Ocean Hope 3. He had pictures of some of their hauls, when they unzipped the cod end, and had 150+ King Salmon that were ALL 60lb+.
No bycatch for salmon back then...they all were dead and got thrown overboard. Now THAT was a waste! He had a lot of pictures of it happening over and over. That had WAY more effect on the Kenai run than a few "Horse Herring" getting caught. We fished Togiak, where the Herring average over a pound. Had a 900 ton set in '89. There are still way more fish their than folks can imagine.

People who've never made their living on the ocean, will NEVER EVER understand the how and why fish populations rise and fall. Heck the biologists graduate school and all they know is what they've been taught by an instructor.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Just asking, were the 900 ton sets for the season (per boat)?

 

[CastleRocker]

We sat in Togiak and dodged icebergs with all the other boats for three weeks waiting for the Herring to get "ripe", (it's a roe fishery), and then we got a 20 minute opener. One round-haul set. So you could say it was our entire season...even though it was only open for 20 minutes. We combined with three other boats, and we had the big set. Then our tender ran aground, and we all had to get together and tow the entire thing for about 5 hours to where the tender was. The Herring spawned during this time, and went from 12.5% roe (which at the time was $2200 a ton), down to 7% (which paid nearly nothing), and so I made a grand total of $18 after expenses. I did however make over $600 playing cribbage, so it wasn't a total loss I guess! Hahahaa! It's feast or famine...that's commercial fishing! If you're wondering...yes, I miss it.