# Ice bergs, Shrimp,.... and other weird things



## Alaska Boss

Well, last week a friend of mine who keeps his boat in the water all winter in Valdez, and myself, went on a commercial shrimp fishing trip. The Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game had opened the commercial shrimp pot fishery for the first time in about 20 years, so we decided to give it a shot. The area opened for this was in a fairly remote part of Prince William Sound,.... and just trying to get there at this time of year proved to be a little bit of a challenge,... since all the icebergs in the water don't melt too fast in these cold winter waters,....


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## Alaska Boss

Because of the winter storms, a lot of the ice chunks end up getting blown into the beach,.... where they sit til they melt,.... which might take a while,... even at this time of year when there's still a lot of snow left right on the beach,....


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## Alaska Boss

You just have to go slow & pick your way thru it,... but you can't come thru here at night,...


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## Alaska Boss

We had our shrimp pots stacked on the back deck,... but the ADF&G only allowed each boat to fish 20 pots,... so we knew we couldn't make a killing with only 20,... but at least we got out on the water for a few days,.... :bluebounc


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## Alaska Boss

We anchored up for the night with another buddy once we arrived on the fishing grounds,... and the next day dawned blue skies and nice water,.... like going from winter to summer overnight,.... :salute:


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## Alaska Boss

So, we set our pots out when the season opened at 8am,.... then later on in the day we pulled them,.... we used a hydraulic line puller that yanked them up with no effort from around 400 feet down, and coiled the line in a gear tub,.... wesport


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## Alaska Boss

Then up came our first haul,.... spot shrimp from the icy cold waters of Alaska,... maybe one of the sweetest shrimp found anywhere in the world,.... payup


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## Alaska Boss

The 3 most common species of shrimp we catch here are (from top to bottom):

1) Spot shrimp,.. our target species. These are the biggest & best of the shrimp we have here, found in more rocky areas. Their antennas can be over a foot long!

2) Coonstripe shrimp,... the next biggest, and also a sweet shrimp, but not too many of them.

3) Pink shrimp,... these are the smallest, and these are generally the "cocktail shrimp". These are generally found in deeper & more muddy bottoms, and in many places are caught in trawls rather than pots, since they are so small.


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## Alaska Boss

And occasionally, we caught other things in our pots too,.. like starfish,.... or small fish, like pollock Irish lords or rockfish,...


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## Alaska Boss

Then we had one pot come up with a tanner crab (snow crab) stuck into the wire mesh,.,.. he got one of his pinchers worked into the mesh, but then couldn't pull it back out, so he just sat there on the outside edge for a free ride to the top,... and saw things he never knew existed,....


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## Alaska Boss

But the weirdest thing we caught was this big ole' octopus,.... it's amazing how big of a creature can fit thru a 2" hole when they don't have any bones in their bodies,....


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## Alaska Boss

He did not want to co-operate at all,.... I could barely get him out of there,.... then once he hit the deck,.... he did not want to be picked up,.... and he was not a happy camper when I held him up by his head,....


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## DeVries

Great pics again Alaska. I am envious of where you live an I have said that before. 

I hope that you have a successfull fishing season and hope that you are in business for a few more years so that I can take my boys up for a trip when they are a little older.


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## Alaska Boss

We anchor up each night in a well-protected little bay, and I went to shore to get some snow to keep our shrimp well-iced,....


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## Alaska Boss

DeVries;1039379 said:


> Great pics again Alaska. I am envious of where you live an I have said that before.
> 
> I hope that you have a successfull fishing season and hope that you are in business for a few more years so that I can take my boys up for a trip when they are a little older.


Thnaks,... and I suppose I will be,... I don't even know what people do on land in the summer,... but some day I suppose I'll have to find out,... lol

After each pull, we had to pop all the heads off the shrimp,.... and the heads are about half the shrimp,... with razor-sharp spines & edges that stick out, waiting to spear you,...


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## Alaska Boss

So, with one day left, the weather forecast had gale warnings on the inside waters, and storm warnings for the outside waters, with seas building to 24 feet, so we decided to get out of Dodge while the gettin' was good,... but ran into more ice than we had going out,.....


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## Alaska Boss

Finally the ice got so thick there was no way to get thru it,... so we had to go back and run across more open water that had kept the ice blown back against the beaches,....


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## Alaska Boss

There are a lot of avalanches along these steep coastal mountains too.....


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## Alaska Boss

Many of these bigger ones won't even melt off the beach until August or September,....


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## Alaska Boss

But, we made it back to Valdez without getting spanked by the storm,... and passed an oil tanker escort tug that was heading out,.... looking kinda crusty after a winter of battling many storms,... but better weather is right around the corner,.... and a few more people can eat fresh shrimp now too,.... :waving::waving:


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## toby4492

As always, great pics AB. Thanks for sharing :waving:


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## DareDog

Alaska Boss;1039378 said:


> He did not want to co-operate at all,.... I could barely get him out of there,.... then once he hit the deck,.... he did not want to be picked up,.... and he was not a happy camper when I held him up by his head,....


is that you??


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## the new boss 92

damn sweet pictures, i always wanted to take a trip up there and see if there is anything i am missing because i heard the fishing is good.


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## nicksplowing

dave awesome pics as usual but how many pounds did you end up catching?


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## Pennings Garden

Amazing pictures, as always!


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## Stik208

Alaska Boss;1039378 said:


> He did not want to co-operate at all,.... I could barely get him out of there,.... then once he hit the deck,.... he did not want to be picked up,.... and he was not a happy camper when I held him up by his head,....


God I hate the ocean.


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## Longae29

fantastic pictures, really cool to look at.


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## SnoBull

Great thread AB. I always enjoy reading your posts and looking at the pics. What do the shrimp sell for in Valdez?


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## Pristine PM ltd

Wow! I have looked at all of your pictures over the last few years. You are truly blessed!


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## gas man

it's just like deadliest catch, but a mini version. sweet pics.


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## mullis56

thanks for posting great pics!


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## Alaska Boss

nicksplowing;1039762 said:


> dave awesome pics as usual but how many pounds did you end up catching?


I think we ended up with about 140 lbs of tails. We knew going out that with only 20 pots, there really wasn't too much potential to make much, but since all the fisheries in Alaska tend to end up going into limited entry programs in order to control them, we just figured to have a footprint of prior use in this fishery just in case,.... never hurts to have an extra iron or two in the fire....:waving:



Stik208;1039783 said:


> God I hate the ocean.


Haha,.. yeah, there's all sorts of big and weird creatures lurking in the depths that would like to eat you as much as you want to eat some of them,... and even to this day, on occasion something is still caught that no one has seen before or knows what it is,.... which is all part of the lure of the water,.... or fear of the water,... 



SnoBull;1039796 said:


> Great thread AB. I always enjoy reading your posts and looking at the pics. What do the shrimp sell for in Valdez?


 Well, a couple of the canneries sent tenders out to the grounds to buy them right on the spot,... but they were only paying $6/lb, with a probable bonus later on after they sell them. But we had ours pre-sold ourselves before we left & got $12/lb, so that helped some anyway. I've always been told by those who have eaten the shrimp here & from warm water, say that these cold water shrimp are much sweeter than warmer water shrimp,... and I've seen the shrimp from these waters sell for as high as $26/lb even here in the local stores. I have no idea what shrimp sell for in other places tho,...



gas man;1039966 said:


> it's just like deadliest catch, but a mini version. sweet pics.


I guess it kinda was,... but this is a whole lot safer. I've had several chances in past years to work on crab boats in the Bearing Sea,.... but I get all the water-time I need right here in my back yard,...

Thanks for all the comments,.... :salute:


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## SnoBull

Any updates or anything new going on in the fishing world AB?


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## Kuzanut

Hey AB if you put your pics in a slide show you could make a deadliest catch minisode..... :laughing:


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## Alaska Boss

SnoBull;1041800 said:


> Any updates or anything new going on in the fishing world AB?


Well,.... my fishing season starts in less than 2 weeks, so I have to get out of "land-mode" and back into "ocean-mode" here shortly. Saw a big black bear about a mile down the road from my house, so winter is for sure over now. A good friend of mine just got back from a halibut fishing trip a couple days ago, and they came back with a 160 lb. fish, along with some smaller ones,... so hopefully that's a sign of good things to come,... :waving:


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## PrimoSR

As always love the pics, still trying to convince my fiance that we should go to Alaska for our honeymoon!


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## Cranky

Did you throw Fred back out into the sea? lol

All good octopus should be named Fred. \/


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## rick74

great pictures you took there.


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## SuperdutyShane

Awesome pictures as always. Alaska's a very beautiful place judging by your pictures. I'd love to go there some day. I wont lie, I was surprised when I saw that picture of the octopus in the pot. Anyway, sweet pictures.


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## Mr.Markus

"Ocupied" by Bubba Shrimp. Sounds like a catchy title..... Great pics


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## ServiceOnSite

Just wow!!! Pics look great and looks like a great time.prsport


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## Alaska Boss

Cranky;1047185 said:


> Did you throw Fred back out into the sea? lol
> 
> All good octopus should be named Fred. \/


We did throw "Fred" back,... but a couple days ago we caught his brother "Frank",... and we threw him back too,...


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## Alaska Boss

A storm is churning thru my section of ocean right now,... so have had a few days off the boat,... but we have had some very nice days too,.... with the local glaciers still kicking out a lot of ice cubes,....


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## Alaska Boss

Fishing's been pretty good,... with the occasional odd-ball creatures thrown in here & there just to keep things interesting,.... :waving::waving:

(and by the way,... there's still snow piles left in downtown Valdez,... )


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## Kuzanut

What is the temp like out on the water this time of year? looks cold. i thought it was summer? its currently 101 just north of NYC right now...


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## Alaska Boss

Kuzanut;1049543 said:


> What is the temp like out on the water this time of year? looks cold. i thought it was summer? its currently 101 just north of NYC right now...


Typically, the air temps out on the water run from upper 40's to mid 50's F,... on the sunny, calm days it may get up into the low 60's, rarely more than that. When it's cloudy, windy & rainy, it can get cold standing out there all day,... so I always tell folks to bring hats, gloves & warm jackets along with good raingear,... no sense in not being as comfortable as you can. Water temps on the surface typically range in the 40's,... but the bays that have a glacier at the head may not get above the upper 30's. Some of the bigger ice bergs can last for weeks before they melt away.

:waving:


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## Kuzanut

Wow, my thermometer just passed 110 in the sun. . . i wish i was sitting in a snow bank right now....


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## rawfish

isn't the season for spotted prawns may-june up there? I'm a sushi chef by trade and Amaebi ( spotted prawns) is one of my favs! 


be awesome if you could ship me down some live ones!


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## ACA L&L

Brings back some fond memories of when i was a kid fishing with gil nets on my dads boat, and the one summer i headed to Bethel Alaska to work in a cannery! That was a long, funn, profitable 4 months! 

So do you take people out on your boat as a charter captain if so i would love to know more of how the wife and i could maybe take a trip up there next year for our anniversary. I loved the pictures, you tell a story with pictures like no other! Take care and hope your having a great summer up there!!


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## Scottscape

its just a whole different world up there. awesome pictures thanks


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## The Cow Man

Look's pretty cool, more pics if you ever go again


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## Brian Young

Man, what a beautiful place to live! I could fill up several SD cards in a day up there!


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## The Cow Man

Brian Young;1094777 said:


> Man, what a beautiful place to live! I could fill up several SD cards in a day up there!


So true. What a beautiful place to live, i want to go there so bad. Minus the cold weather.


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