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The Cutting Web
- Oregon State University Press
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253 The Cutting Web IT WAS THE BEST THING we’d seen all day—a big splash in the net out toward the end. We both jumped to our feet and John yelled, “Yeah! Big one out by the buoy!” We were on a drift out near the middle rip, off the north end of Chisik Island, and I was wondering whether to pick it up and try someplace else. We’d been drawing blanks all day, and nobody else in our group had found much, either. It had been a cool overcast day, a little sloppy at first, and although I seldom tired of watching the net and the water around us for any sign of life, I was losing my edge. If we moved a little north we’d at least have a shorter run to Kenai that night. I didn’t want to be too late getting back to Kenai because Todd was flying out in the morning. It was the end of my time with him for that summer. Our usual practice was that he could spend about half the summer on the boat with me and then return to be with his mom in Phoenix. He had to be back by late July for his mom’s birthday, and it was time to get ready for school. He liked being with me in Alaska, but he missed his mom and looked forward to starting the sixth grade. Besides, after a cool gray day like this, and especially after the slop we’d had on the way out and for most of the day, he’d be happy to get off the boat. He’d gotten a little woozy and was still sleeping it off in the bunk. “Must be a king!” I said to John. “Maybe forty pounds. Let’s pick it up and get him before he falls out of the net. I was thinking we ought to make a move anyhow.” “Sounds good,” he said, putting on his gloves. I flicked on the hydraulic switch and moved back to the stern with him. I put my foot on the treadle to start the reel and put on my gloves while John guided in the first few fathoms of net. We weren’t expecting to find anything in the first part of the net, and didn’t, so we just kept reeling it in, hoping for at least a single or two along the way, but wanting mostly to get the king before he dropped out. It’s kind of a big deal to catch a king. 254 The Cutting Web They usually pass through our area earlier in the year and travel along the beach. Our only king so far this year had been a little one of about fifteen pounds. Their heads are too big to go through the red gear’s five-and-aneighth -inch mesh, so they usually just bounce off or break a few meshes and go right on through. Sometimes as you’re bringing in the net you’ll come to one that’s barely caught and when you pull on the net it’ll just drop out or break free. If you’re lucky and if the net’s hanging loose, a king might catch a mesh with its snout or a fin for long enough to get balled up in the web and then you’ve got it. The biggest king I ever caught was an eighty-eight pounder, and I hadn’t seen it hit. The net was slack and the fish had hit deep, getting itself all wound up in the web near the lead line. When I stepped on the treadle and it came tumbling up over the roller and into the boat, I almost jumped out of my rain gear. Seeing the thing still alive but all wrapped up in the web, like a big cocoon, I wondered about the advice an old timer gave me Battle-scarred King Salmon [44.210.78.150] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:06 GMT) The Cutting Web 255 a long time ago: “If you fall overboard when you’re on a drift, swim to your net and hold on to the cork line.” I could imagine the web catching on a button or even your nose and knew it wouldn’t take much thrashing and rolling around to get yourself as tangled up as that king was. After I got him out of his...