Halibut Flipping Part II

By John S Mickman

In Part I of Halibut Flipping, I have arrived on Kodiak Is., Alaska and met a number of fishermen. I was living in a house with my new buddy Paul and his girl friend Sam.

Paul and his girlfriend 'Sam' lived with Sam's four year old son named Adrian in a pretty cool little house on a grassy knoll just above town. Looking south the view overlooked the an original Greek Orthodox Church and the fishing harbor. In the evening, after Paul arrived home from work, we would sit outside on lawn chairs, smoke a cigarette, have a beer and tell stories. We got to be great buddies in Kodiak.

Some day's I would babysit for Sam; Adrian and I got along famously. We'd walk down to my favorite haunts, say hi to all the guys and throw rocks in the bay. I didn't have any money to help with food and rent but Paul and Sam both had jobs and we just added my expenses to the tab; I was going to get a job as a fisherman, I would often remind them, make a pile of money, and pay it all back.

However, after six weeks, this arrangement was getting a little stale. I met an old couple down the road from Paul that needed some painting done inside their house. "Are you a painter?" the old man asked me. "Yes, I am a painter" I said. "Anything you need painted, I will paint if for you.” I painted much of their small house a horrible orange color that they loved. Years later, my buddy Tony and his wife Annie bought that house on Kodiak Channel and had to repaint the whole works. The old couple didn't pay me much, but I did have a job and made some 'pin' money – all of which went to Sam to help with the groceries.

One of the fishermen I had met was Leon, a Halibut Fisherman from Vancouver. I had invited him to stay over at Paul and Sam's house his first night in town so he didn't have to waste any money renting a hotel room. Although Leon was very appreciative, Sam reminded me that her house wasn't really my house and I wasn't supposed to be invited strangers to sleep over. We had a young child in the house and she just wouldn’t allow it. Ouch! She was right and I apologized. 

Anyway, Leon was looking for a boat too, but had lots of experience and he was sure he would get a berth soon. One night shortly after we met, I ran into Leon at Sollies Bar. He waved me over to the bar and asked if I'd like to make some money the next day, unloading The Western Girl, a Halibut schooner that had just come in with a full load. "Well sure", I said. What are we going to do?", I asked.

"We have to unload the boat. The crewmen are those seven guys at that table getting drunk," he said, pointing at a table in the corner. "They've out to sea for 21 days and won't be able to work in the morning. That guy sitting over there at the end of the bar is the skipper and I've worked for him in the past. He wants me to line up a couple guys to unload his boat. We'll get paid a dollar a thousand. How does that sound?" he asked.

 I had no idea what ‘a dollar a thousand’ meant, but said it sounded fair to me. "OK then", Leon said. "Meet me at B&B Fisheries tomorrow morning at 6:30. I'll show you what to do." This was awesome; I was virtually out of money and I had gotten a job on a fish boat - even though it was just for a day even though and it was only unloading.

(Note: One of the first rules in a fishing town is that if you want to ever work on a fish boat, don't get a job in a cannery. It is the kiss of death for a fishing career.)

The next morning I was at B&B by 6:15 waiting for Leon. He arrived shortly afterward with big guy named Bob; the three of us were going to unload the boat.

 "OK", Leon said. "Bob and I will be down in the 'hold' and we'll use our gaffs to pull the halibut into these landing nets” he explained. “When the net is full, the cannery worker operating the crane will lift the net by its corners up to this big stainless steel table here on the dock". He was pointing at all this stuff as he talked; the ‘table’ was about 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. It was obvious he knew what he was talking about, and it was obvious to me that I didn't! 

Leon continued, "You'll be up here standing on the table to receive the net. The first thing you do John, is to unhook two corners of the net and let the halibut spill onto the table when the canner guy lifts the net up in the air. Then you have to flip all the halibut over that have the brown side up; the white side has to be up before the fish go through the guillotine over there. To do that, all you do is to take this gaff here, hook it into the halibut's head right about here and flip him over. Easy enough, huh?" he asked a little to casually. "Then the cannery guy will then lower the net down to us and we'll do it all over again."

Well, it did sound pretty easy - right until the first net of halibut were lowered onto the table. I unhooked the net and the halibut all spilled out around me. They were HUGE! The smallest was 50 pounds and the largest were pushing 300 pounds. Halibut are 'flat fish', with one side brown (or grey) and the other side white. Half the halibut were brown side up. I weighed about 150 pounds, soaking wet, and for the life of me could not turn over the larger fish. After about 100 pounds, I was not able flip the halibut with the gaff, so I put it down and tried to flip them over by hand.  

I rolled up my hip boots so my pants wouldn’t get all full of fish slime, got on my hands and knees and reached under these monster fish with my hands and arms and tried to flip over the slippery, monster fish. I was covered with slime, blood and salt water. This wasn't going to work. Geez, what a disaster!

New Plan: The tail fins of these monster fish were still attached, so I grabbed a big one by the tail and lifted it up as high as I could, then with one of my legs, tried to spin the halibut around. With all my might I thrust the fish up, but when I kicked over, my other foot slipped on all the fish slim and down I went into the pile of halibut. The 200 pound fish I had by the tail landed square on top of me and I was kind of pinned down under one fish and in the crack of a bunch of other ones.

Well, I just laid there for a second or two trying to catch my breath when Leon leaned over the table and looked at me. "What are you trying to do, get that fish pregnant!?", he laughed out loud to me. "You know that fish is already dead right???", he asked, and couldn't stop laughing.

I struggled from beneath the pile of halibut; I wasn't laughing. I knew I had to get this right, and fast. , "I just can't figure out how to flip these monsters over Leon. These fish weight twice as much as me and no matter what I do I can't get them turned over.

"Well John you're holding up the crew. You've got to get those halibut flipped over!" Leon said as he jumped up onto the halibut table and grabbed my gaff. "Here's how you do it", he said as he picked out the 200 pound halibut I had just been wrestling. "You gaff them right here behind their cheek, grab the gaff with both arms straightened out stiff and use your shoulders and back muscles and FLIP!" he said as the huge fish flipped over. "Just like that."

Just like any other trade, there was a trick to it. "Gimme that gaff Leon", I said as I slid over the slimy table to the next halibut.

I gaffed the fish in the same spot as Leon had instructed, stiffened my arms, braced my legs and with my shoulders and torso twisted on the gaff and miraculously the fish flipped over. I was amazed! "OK, I've got it Leon. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll have all these guys flipper over, right side up." Leon hopped off the table, scrambled down the dock latter to the deck of the Western Girl and lowered himself by sliding down the net's wench line.

I was having fun now. It became a contest to see how fast I could flip the halibut over, and with my 'extra' time, I helped the cannery workers slide the fish over to the guillotine. I couple of times I jumped down to the deck of the Western Girl and yelled to Leon that he and Bob were holding up the crew; we were waiting for fish up on the table! Leon looked up at me and smiled. He and I were to getting to be pretty good buddies.

Leon bought me lunch at Sollies and we each had a French Dip Sandwich, their specialty. Boy did my sandwich ever slide down easy; I was hungry. After lunch, we returned to the Western girl and finished unloading by about 2 o'clock. Although we didn't have to wash off the table, the three of us had to wash the hold and swab off all the bin boards that separate sections of the hold. With all the slime, this job took a lot of effort, but Leon, Bob and I had the same taste in music and we started singing our favorite rock 'n roll songs. An hour later, the deck and hold were spic 'n span. Leon nodded his approval and told Bob and me to wait up on the dock; he was going to meet with the skipper and get paid.

Bob and I climbed up the dock latter, folded down my hip boots, and lit a well earned cigarette. A couple of cannery workers came up to us and wanted to talk about the Halibut Fishery. Obviously I didn't have a clue, but Bob had a couple of good stories to tell. When Leon joined us on the dock, he handed me 5 - $20 bills. "OK", he said. "The catch weighed out at just over 100,000 pounds of halibut. The deal was $1 per thousand, so here you go John." I looked at the $100 in my hand and replied, "Well I can't split this 3 ways; I only have $20 bills."

Leon looked at me quizzically, smiled and said, "No John. We EACH get $100." He then handed $100 over to Bob.

"Do you mean I just made $100 Leon, and it isn't even 3 o'clock yet." I was amazed.

"Yup, that's right John. It's all yours", Leon said. "Let's go up to Sollies and get a beer." I wasn't really much of a drinker and begged off.

"Thanks a lot for thinking of me Leon; I really appreciate this job", I said.

"No, thank you for giving me a place to sleep the other night", Leon replied. "I needed a friend, and you turned out to be the guy. See ya later", he said as he ambled across the cannery dock toward town with Bob.

In next weeks, Part III, find out what they mean when they say, “being in the right place at the right time”

John Mickman

Professional Halibut Flipper!