Kiter wanted for commercial fishing job in Alaska... again.

[DesertWind]

I am recycling this post to generate some interest. I talked to a million psyched kiters about working with me last year but this year it's been slow.

I started this post last year and would like to refresh this thread and see if I can find someone for THIS YEAR! Actually, it ended up being such a fun and, in some ways, odd experience that I wrote a little story about it. Check it out http://www.travelerphotography.com/writ ... shing.html.

Anyway, I am once again on the hunt for someone to work and kite with me in my remote setnet fish camp on the Ugashik River in Bristol Bay, Alaska. This is on the very edge of "the bay" where it transitions into the Bering Sea so is pretty much a quiet wilderness, especially compared to the crazyness that is the rest of Bristol Bay. Although I have been fishing for years, this last summer was my first summer in this location so I was unsure about the kiting. To my delight, it turned out to be world class, as far as I am concerned! The wind blows 15-25 knots a few days a week minimum and sometimes seven days a week! Most of the kiting we do is on a large, shallow, warm (for Alaska anyway) and totally flat calm lake behind my cabin. There are no trees anywhere and the soft tundra all around is the best kind of surface to get spanked on should you get hauled out of the water trying a trick. This was the first place I have ever had the nerve to try board taps on the shore.

The kiting is great, but of course the job comes first. As I said in my original post, I am looking for someone with all or most of the following attributes: physically strong (you don't need to be a weight lifter, just used to working hard with your body), very used to and experienced in outdoor physical labor, very good and positive attitude, no bad tempers, mellow disposition, learns fast, has experience with small engines, and of course, kites. Some optional and desirable skills include: experience with boats, sport or commercial fishing experience and sick kiteboarding trick skills (cause I want to learn more tricks!). You do not need to have commercial fishing experience, though sport fishing experience is nice so you are used to dealing with fish.

This is am amazing opportunity to make some money, kite in the wilderness in Alaska and in general have a killer, crazy, once in a lifetime experience. Every time I go out to fish for the summer I feel blessed to be able to have that experience in a place few people ever get to see. Its also very hard work (especially when we fish 12 hrs and 6,000 pounds then go kiting afterward!) and it really should only be considered by people who have lots of experience doing hard, physical work with their hands outdoors.

If you are interested, just email me with some images of you out and about, at least 3 references that can speak to your work ethic and experience working outdoors (I will personally call all of them) and some information about yourself (interests, experiences, desires in life, whatever).

The season is very short in Bristol Bay. I expect a crewman to be at fish camp for a minimum of 35 days, but more realistically it will be about 45––from roughly June 15-Aug 1. The peak of fishing is usually right at the end of June through the first week of July. On both ends there is lots of "scratch fishing," which is fishing but not making huge hauls and then there is pre- and post-season work such as getting the camp setup and ready in the spring, readying gear, mending nets, working on small engines (outboards, 4-wheelers, etc), etc.

For more info about the job see the original post.

Email me with the details listed above and describe why you are qualified and want to do this. My email is info@desertwindkiteboarding.com. A perk of the job is that I'll get you a pro deal on any gear you want through my shop/school for 6 months after the season.

Thanks for your interest and thanks to all of you incredibly interesting (and sometimes downright strange) kiters who contacted me about this job last year!

Traveler Terpening

[DesertWind]

The search continues for a kiter crewman for this year. Put the word out.

Thanks everyone and be sure to come to the KiteFest ALASKA this year in Homer, Alaska May 27-29! http://www.kitesurfalaska.com

Traveler Terpening
907.299.1119

[locofighter]

I wish I could join you, but I'm only 15 years old

[geopeck]

I wish I could make it out to a setnet site this summer, I've got some boat work going on though. This summer should be a pretty good earner with the size of the run and the high salmon prices they are predicting. I'm jealous of all the free time the setnetters have and being able to go kiting every day when the drifters have to work all the time. I've always looked at all those warm shallow lakes when I was flying over and thought they looked like insane flatwater riding.

Good luck out there. Don't get too sugared up on your hot chocolate and home cooked snacks.

[Kirok]

I mean no disrespect but "set netting" is just a renaming of gill netting http://library.thinkquest.org/3881/ a practice that maims and kills most of the fish that manage to escape the nets. Gill netting, with highly efficient, synthetic fiber nets was introduced after WWII by the United States.

I am not from Alaska but live in Denmark where semi commercial netting with "set nets" is widely discussed with one side talking about tradition and the other side talking about killed fish, birds and other wildlife from being caught in the nylon fiber nets.

I do like to eat Salmon though especially if I can catch one myself with a hook and line. Otherwise, I am supportive of ecologically responsible fishing methods. And, of course, supportive of kiting in cold water climes, where we share something in common!

[geopeck]

Hi Kirok - I'm sure you don't mean any disrespect, but when we say setnetting we aren't trying to hide anything, we mean setnetting from the beach as opposed to driftnetting from a boat. They are very efficient because they are made of strong material, but having an efficient net means that the fish you are targeting are not going to escape. Other fish regularly do hit the net and get turned around or go through, for instance we can change our mesh size and target pinks while coho go into the river or target coho while pinks swim out. The real efficiency comes from fishing with short nets though and working them often - we can pick all the nets in about a half hour and would never leave gear drifting indiscriminately in the water. I have never killed a mammal in a gillnet and we caught the second bird I have ever caught in 15 years of fishing last year. I took it out of the net and it flew away about an hour later.

The salmon fisheries in Alaska are a model for fisheries management worldwide, with the biggest runs ever recorded having happened in the last 10 years due to the science we fund through fish taxes. They are certified as being ecologically sound by the Marine Sustainability Council and other 3rd parties. Also, we provide tasty and affordable protein to millions of people around the world, which is a nice feeling.

How is the riding in Denmark? We were starting to get daybreezes here and had some excellent waveriding last week but today we are getting another foot of snow, so it looks like the snowkiting season is going to come back around.

[poools81]

i wish!!!! Fishing and kiting my two favorite things!!! To bad i am in the pool business and that is my busiest time of the year in new york. Maybe next year.....................

[Kirok]

Denmark is good. All the snow and ice is gone. The wind has been pretty good this April so far. Last Thursday I was out in 15 m/s and sunshine!