The best
years of my life were spent on Lake Billy Chinook near Madras, Oregon. The giant
reservoir was fed by three rivers and created 356 miles of shoreline. Millions
of years before the dam was in place the three rivers
cut deep canyons into the flat plain above. From every angle the lake was
breathtaking.
The
largest section of the lake had a very modern marina with several hundred boat
slips.
Here is a
picture of the boat moorage at the beginning of the crayfish season before all
the vacationers
filled the harbor up with their pleasure boats.
Another
picture from my boat as I was heading up one of the river arms.
The three arms seemed to go on for ever even when you were moving out at
45 MPH on good water. One definitely had to carry a lot of gas to get to
the good fishing ground. The MONSTER crayfish were always at the head
waters of the lake. Often we would catch crayfish which exceeded 9
inches from horns to end of tail. The crayfish we were after was the
Pacifasticus which is a rather rare and most sought after crayfish only
found in the Pacific Northwest.
Catching
crayfish sure
became easier once my boat was completed!
Here is a
picture of my new boat ready to go to work. It's 18 foot long and 8 foot across.
I designed this boat specifically for catching crayfish and hauling heavy loads
quickly over a long distance. If you look closely you can see the drum winch on
the forward section. The drum head stands a good 2 feet above the gunnels and
the entire frame is actually mounted on the decking. The drum holds 4500 feet of
3/8 inch poly rope. Our ground lines were 1400 feet with 50 pots each.
By the
1980s my father, wife, brother, and two very good friends were much involved in
crayfish fishing as well.
My father
never actually did any crayfish fishing but he was always there for me with plenty of
advise and always had the correct way to do anything. Even to this day I
remember the daily lectures I use to get from him at a very early age and not
once have I found him ever to be wrong.
My brother
and very good friend Andy Holt both had boats of their own. Both however did not
have winches to pull their ground lines.
At the time I was the only one that I knew of who didn't pull their trap lines
by hand.
My
brother's boat to the left.
Andy's boat to the right.
Ron,
another friend of mine from the Reef Netting days brought his Crab boat down for
a few months one year before salmon fishing started. It was a good thing he did
to because that year he saved my life.
Ron and
I holding his boat up before season start. Notice both pickups are loaded high
with holding bins. It would be a nice paycheck to have all of those bins
filled!!
My always
supportive wife was my first mate, sorter, pot puller, and boss behind the
scenes.
It was amazing how fast she could sort crayfish. All
crayfish under 3 3/4 went back into the water. In some areas the small crayfish
averaged 80 percent of the over all catch. Other areas produced 90 percent
keepers. Crayfish were always on the move migrating by size. Not every time was
it possible to judge where the big crayfish might be that day.
Sorting
crayfish was always a chore and it's not something we looked forward to but it
had to be done.
To
the right is me sorting
a pot full of crayfish during the beginning of the season. I had already pulled
my gear and was helping Ron finish his set.
Ron emptied another pot on the table
to sort and figured he better help me catch up.
The start of the season the
weather is still very cold and it's pretty darn difficult to move quickly in
near freezing weather.
After several
hours of sorting crayfish
and you have been pinched and mauled by those little mudbugs, a person gets a
little testy with them. This Picture show me ready to take a bite out one and
Ron has a hammer ready to smash the critter to bits. Ron
dared me to really eat the crawfish live. Well, I'd be darned if I could pass up
a dare especially coming from Ron. Actually it wasn't to bad, I was surprised.
Once you got past all the shell crunching and the very idea you were eating a
raw live crayfish, it was quite tasty. Word of course got around about me eating
a live crawfish, but when anyone gave me a hard time about it I always replied
that your not a true crawfisher unit you eat them live.
The picture with the wire cylinder half way full is how we held our legal sized
crayfish. Each holding bin held about 125 pounds of crayfish were suspended from
the dock until the buyers arrived to pick them up. I have build many different
types of holding bins and this design proved to be the most successful design
for handling, holding large amounts with the lowest percentage of death loss.
This
picture was taken on the opening day. I was surprised to get this many crayfish
in a single pot on April 1st, all were keepers too.
2
Pictures of Ron pulling his lines from the road above.
Far off
picture of my brother heading back to the marina from the headwaters of the
Dechutes arm of the lake. Another 20 miles he'll be back. I bet he is wishing he
had a bigger motor then!
This page
sure brings back some fond memories. If you have never fished crayfish to make
money, it is something definitely to consider. I have never experienced such
freedom and peace of mind in anything I have ever done.
If you do
decide to start crayfishing for fun and profit, be sure to read my very long
history page and see all that I went through before you begin. If you decide to
design your own pots, good luck to you and keep the faith because it doesn't
come cheaply or quickly. Much like Crab Pots used on the west coast, pots need
to be balanced in order for them to be successful. Many Crab Fishers have
purchased large numbers of Crab Pots which refuse to catch Crabs in any amount
to be profitable. As I mentioned on my History page I employ a large number of
trade secrets in the building of my pots that make them extremely fishable and I
won't tell anyone what they are. Ask my brother and friends if I shared that
information with them. All of us have been competitive all our lives and
crayfishing was one thing I truly excelled at!
