The crew with a nice looking blackcod
I Should clarify… The year’s last blackcod fishing FOR ZED! He finished the season longlining on the Pacific Hustler and took some photos on the last trip, so I thought I’d share. These were all taken off the Washington coast.
Now to get ready for Dungeness Crab!
Zed’s finger after getting snagged by a hook. Yuck!
Al and Remo at the rail
an aerial shot of Al and Remo at the rail
Al and Remo at the rail
left to right: Brad, Mike, and Andrew
the “fish stripper” stripping fish off the hooks
the fishing blues 
Such a wonderful fish!
They are delicious fishes! What’s your favorite way to prepare them? We really love broiling them with a miso glaze… So good!
I use really high heat too. Almost broiling, 450 degrees.
I will have to try broiling.
My son is allergic to soy, but I love miso glaze on black cod too. The fish has so much flavor, it doesn’t need to be dressed much.
The finger, ouch!!!!! The most dangerous job and yet the most rewarding.
I know, ouch! And it’s hard for hand wounds to heal when the person has to keep working and is constantly wet- covered in fish slime and blood. You have to watch out for infections. Luckily Zed’s finger healed up after a week or so.
Love the post! it’s great to see some pictures of longlining. I’ve never done it and have been wondering how it all works. Pretty interesting.
It is pretty interesting. I’d like to have some posts with explanations of all the fisheries with illustrations of the gear. You can’t easily take photos of what’s happening under the water! With long lining they set out a ground line with hooks along the length of it, and on either end of the line is an anchor and a buoy line that goes up to the surface. On the surface is a set of buoys and a flag so the boat can locate the line and haul it in. Because blackcod hang out on the ocean floor, the ground line is weighted to sit on the bottom. When the line comes up to the boat, a man stands at the rail and gaffs the fish in the head and pulls it on board. The fish are usually headed and gutted and thrown into the hold and either layered in ice, or tossed into slush ice water.
Sorry for the long explanation! I hope it makes sense… You should come out to the West coast and check out our fisheries some time!
-Robin