Discovery channel Crab Fishing

I have watched some interesting programs lately on tv about crabbing in bristol bay. I was wondering if anyone here at this sight has done this?

crabbing

PA-18;
Great TV show, for sure.
Those guys that do that have my respect...
Very demanding and dangerous...and make it-or break it.
I sure haven't done it...just halibut fishing in the Gulf of Alaska was plenty enough fun for me.
If you like the TV shows...find the book "Nights of Ice"...very good read.
Randy

Spike Walker, author of 1st "Working on the Edge" and then 2nd "Nights of Ice" is a personal friend from here in SW WA. He got in on the ground floor of production king crabbing back in the '70s. His books are riveting and his personal tales over a beer chill your s***!! Probably the scariest for Spike was returning to port with tons on money and the drugists trying to pry it from ya. Drugs and money were rampant in that era.
His 3rd book on the subject, "Comming Back Alive" I think, is also an amazing collection of stories of survival at sea.
85Mike

85Mike, thanks for the ideas on good reading material.

I've seen that TV show, too, guys. These boys are a bit whacked. The odds ain't great for coming home.

I have 2 friends who've done the production fishing thing. One on a pollock processor and one of 'em on the crab fishery.

The pollock guy said he and other's just about mutiny'ed to get let off the boat because the slave-driver supervisors were gonna get someone killed. Lots of drugs and booze on that boat also.

The Crab guy hasn't talked much about his seasons out there, but has been away from it and is now a businessman who whitewater rafts and flies paragliders' for a living in the summers, and is a great welder who works for Landes (Airglas, Inc. of aircraft ski fame) in the winter.

Both great guys who survived.

Take Care. DAVE

I gill-netted on the inlet in the earlie eighties, Known as a "gentlemens fishery" But I recall several deaths and watched one due to recklessness in the few years I was there. I had a friend who was injured on a Crab boat and got a settlement - got a crab pot dropped on his leg - another long liner friend just got a settlement from ruining his knee. - I guess they are fairly lucky...

Timm

. . . spent two weeks filling in for a guy back in the 80's. I'll leave that stuff for the kids. I fished and tendered for about fifteen years and then figured that I'd better go work at the shoe store or something before my chips got cashed. Never had anyone get hurt on any of my boats, and I'm real thankful for that. It was a lot of fun, most of the time. Had some real good times.

Fished out of Kodiak for 10 years, salmon, halibut and crab. Never made it into the Bering, can't say that I missed it. The stories told by friends and coworkers who made it back was enough for me. Interesting little side note here http://www.moc.noaa.gov/od/peggy.htm and here http://www.moc.noaa.gov/od/ regarding the Berihg Sea fishery. Oscar was one of the first skippers to work the Bering and Peggy was his "weather service". Don't know if she's mentioned in the TV series but she should be, was probably responsible for more lives saved out there than any other single individual. Spike Walker mentions her in a few places throughout his books I believe.

crab fishing

I worked in the Bering Sea for 5 winters. I personally knew 25 people who died in the Bearing Sea.

I knew it was bad, but I had no idea!

Timm