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This might bore you, but I follow bloodydecks forum, to keep up with my Olympic Pen. fishing. There is a commercial fisherman who fishes for slime eels (hagfish) and he has decided to take us along! He has left Westport, then LaPush, and just turned the corner into the Olympic Peninsula. If you want to join him on this trip, just click the link below. He hasn't started dropping traps yet. I am really enjoying it. Nice of him to do this. Mike
[url "http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/molly-ann-update-and-a-pic.539611/"]http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/molly-ann-update-and-a-pic.539611/[/url]
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Thanks. Makes me homesick for the ocean. Very interesting setup for the eels. It's sure hard for any commercial fisherman to make a living these day. I don't know how they do it at all with the price of fuel etc.
My dad was a comm fisherman out of Neah Bay when I was a kid.
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Awesome - I'll be following his thread.
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That is extemely interesting. It's like farming in that he is choosing up front how to invest his time and resources. Also, think about how important fuel costs are now compared to the old timers.
Keep us posted and have a great adventure!
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[url "http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/no-lubercastion-needed.542291/"]http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/no-lubercastion-needed.542291/[/url]
Here is our hagfish (slime eel) fishermen's posting. He has been dropping test traps and here is a picture of the results from one.....not for the sensitive type!!! Mike
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Hey, if there is a market for those, then who cares what they look like. Hope he has a good catch.
We already eat a lot of food that is pretty ugly and gross looking. A cooler full of burbot is just as ugly. And just because we are used to seeing crabs as food doesn't make them pretty. But dang they are good eating!
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Am I reading that right? Is he catching 5,000 to 8,000 lbs a day? They are even uglier than Lings. I'm with CP - imagine the first person that was hungry enough to try eating crabs or oysters but I'm sure glad they did.
There is a show on Nat Geo TV called "Filthy Riches" which showcases people making their living from the land. One guy built a weir and catches eels in the Delaware River. They are creepy but not nearly as unappealing as those hagfish. I wonder if, during mating season, there are hagfish that are so ugly that even other hagfish won't have anything to do with them?
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Kali is still laughing about your hagfish mating (or not mating!) comment. I'd sure hate to have to clean a slime eel boat after a long day of fishing! By the way, have you been hitting the waters at Cascade yet this summer? We lucked out on our first trip up there, and are going up a week from this Saturday, but I'm sure we'll have to refigure out the whole thing again. We had a very productive day at Lucky Peak today. Kali says "hi". Mike
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5000-8000 at $1 a lb.... WOW. for that nasty worm.... I have thought about who ate the first shelled fish as well, also who decided to light tobacco up and smoke it...
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Wow, interesting, AV. Got me to doing a little research also, and come to find that we may one day all be wearing clothing made from dried hagfish slime. 10X as strong as nylon! But, hagfish can't be farmed. Captain, better not wash that slime overboard! Mike
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