Pictures of NE groundfish gillnetters

[steveinak]

Anybody have any pictures of smaller gillnetters ?? like under 35'. I'm looking for ideas ?? Looking for boats with crosley lifters or the spencer carter type haulers. Not interested in boats with reels on deck.

 

[traditions]

Most of the gillnetters I have seen have the old Crosby rigs set up just behind the house and haul over the side,much the same as the Hard Merchandise on the Tuna show.

 

[monktails]

Check out athearnmarine.com and look at the 38 dixon in the gillnetter section. The only variation from how my boats are set up is stearing station behind the hauler with a joglever. That is set up for tension setting. When I get back from vacation I will take pics of mine. Tension setting saves space but can be dangerous with no experience. If you have any question send me a PM I can help you out.

 

[WRHardie]

I'm sure you have already but if you didn't check out the 31 BHM for sale thread. He's got a lifter, I don't think there's any net box or flaker set up but you get the gist.

 

[steveinak]

I do look at any pictures that i can find and i get the idea of the general setup just always looking for the little tricks that can make things flow easier. One of the best pieces of gear i've ever worked with was a herring gillnet shaker or beater bar, we've had 5 tons of herring in a shot of gillnet(300ft) and never had to pick a single fish out of the net, just wound the net on the reel slowly and all the fish were shaken out of the net. There is some vids of then on youtube. Always wondered how they would work for bunkers(pogies) or maybe even croakers, if i ever end up spending enough time back there i might have to build one for the boat and try it.

 

[steveinak]

I'm sure you have already but if you didn't check out the 31 BHM for sale thread. He's got a lifter, I don't think there's any net box or flaker set up but you get the gist.

I used to make it a stop whenever i was in gloucester to talk with his dad, he had a really nicely rigged boat in my opinion i think it was a 35 bruno that he rebuilt.

 

[WRHardie]

I'm trying to think if there was any one using a shaker along with the lifter set up in Barnegat. All of can think of is the net reel guys when the mackerel were thick, there was one bow picker down the road that had something set up that looked a lot like what you had on your Henriques.

 

[steveinak]

I'm trying to think if there was any one using a shaker along with the lifter set up in Barnegat. All of can think of is the net reel guys when the mackerel were thick, there was one bow picker down the road that had something set up that looked a lot like what you had on your Henriques.

When i was involved with the ball rollers they did sell one set to one of the
Aherns in waretown, maybe that set was sold to the bowpicker your talking about. I remember a weird looking bowpicker when i was weakfishing in cape may, its house was up on stilts so you could walk under it i think the guy owned a restaurant around atlantic city ??? I have a picture of it somewhere ??
I know there are a couple of boats in pt pleasant with crosley's but no flakers as far as i know. The reason i'm thinking of the spencer carter type hauler is they are much lighter weight & compact than the crosley. My boat/deckspace will get real small with to much hauling gear all over the deck. I've been cruising youtube nightly looking at how a lot of the smaller european gillnetters are rigged and all have small SP style haulers and most have net stackers/flakers.
Heres a vid
http://youtu.be/g6gldvj7DTk

 

[steveinak]

dug up a few pictures of my old St Pat. I had a 12" crosley on it for awhile, it was slower than shit but it could of been to slow a motor on it combined with the small diameter, i do remember it was HEAVY.




this was at Lunds in Cape May, you can see the ball rollers i made on the stern framework.

 

[WRHardie]

The Seafarmer Had a set up just like that for monk gear (first group of pics). Much bigger but it did well. The bow picker down there at that time (10 years ago) was a Luhrs hull I think. Looked like a back yard custom job but he would get his trips in.

 

[steveinak]

The Seafarmer Had a set up just like that for monk gear (first group of pics). Much bigger but it did well. The bow picker down there at that time (10 years ago) was a Luhrs hull I think. Looked like a back yard custom job but he would get his trips in.

Seafarmer is that a steel dragger around 46-50' ?? Was it owned by a guy from cape may named Clint Walker ??? Real nice guy i met when i fished down there, tried to "recruit" into becoming a Mormon !!
Used to be a JC hull finished as a bowpicker in cape may, belonged to Walter Chu with 2 reels on it, i posted pictures of it awhile ago.

 

[WRHardie]

Naa now its a 45 Wesmac it was a 42 Bruno I believe, Mike Johnson owns her. The only boats I know from Cape May are the infamous Flicka and the Durston. Here's a shot of Mike's new rig with the longline gear on I snagged from the Viking Village site.

 

[steveinak]

Check out athearnmarine.com and look at the 38 dixon in the gillnetter section. The only variation from how my boats are set up is stearing station behind the hauler with a joglever. That is set up for tension setting. When I get back from vacation I will take pics of mine. Tension setting saves space but can be dangerous with no experience. If you have any question send me a PM I can help you out.

Pictures would be appreciated and i'm sure i'll have some questions to pm you with. Thanks

 

[hntrss]

Their was a steel dragger in Gloucester called Sea Farmer. He may have been slime eeling too.

 

[steveinak]

Got the name wrong it was Sea Tractor


the bowpicker from AC


the Rev Chu's bowpicker

 

[WRHardie]

The Rev Chu looks like a neat little inshore rig, the Judith Ann is pretty interesting man! I could be and probably am totally wrong but I think the Sea Tractor might be up in Belford now. It looks like it'd make for a sweet small crew longliner, lose the net reel and A-frame, out riggers and all that drop a set out shack on her stern and a smaller LP spool with some beepers and you got a nice tuna/sword boat. Sorry man I know were talking gillnetters here but I got tuna on the brain.


Just found this on Athearn, same hauler/lifter the Seafarmer had with a flaker. http://athearnmarine.com/photogalleries/LB3305/index.html

 

[steveinak]

The Rev Chu looks like a neat little inshore rig, the Judith Ann is pretty interesting man! I could be and probably am totally wrong but I think the Sea Tractor might be up in Belford now. It looks like it'd make for a sweet small crew longliner, lose the net reel and A-frame, out riggers and all that drop a set out shack on her stern and a smaller LP spool with some beepers and you got a nice tuna/sword boat. Sorry man I know were talking gillnetters here but I got tuna on the brain.


Just found this on Athearn, same hauler/lifter the Seafarmer had with a flaker. http://athearnmarine.com/photogalleries/LB3305/index.html

Chu's boat was pretty crude but very functional, he had a snowmobile clutch on the honda running the hydro's and steered the boat with a hydraulic valve in the dash BUT he caught a shitload of fish. Nice guy that helped me out a lot when i was down there. Walt Chu and Clint the guy that owned the Sea Tractor were both very helpful when i was in cape may. Clint actually added about 4-5 feet to the stern of that steel boat he was a artist with steel and a welder.
That looks like one of those spencer carter haulers, they look nice but way to heavy to stick on the side of my little boat the ones i've been researching weigh aprox 120lbs and the flakers are aprox 100lbs. Thanks for the info and keep it coming.

 

[WRHardie]

The flaker on that rig was tiny compared to what we had on the DeWolf, it looks a little more suited to what you're looking for though.

 

[steveinak]

Yup i like my small boat rigging. Been looking at some european sites and checking out their small rigs set up as gillnetters, man they cram a lot of rigging on a small boat but it seems to work well. 25 BHM/Seaworthy set up something like one of these rigs might be a handy one man boat, even saw one rigged as a scalloper and another as a baby dragger. The way the fisheries are going if a guy wants to stay in business you got to be able to do a few fisheries.
Don't know if you've ever been to Kleins fish market in Belmar but old man Ollie Klein(RIP) used to always tell me "stay small and f*^k'em all" !! Looks like i might have to take a "business trip" to europe to check out new gear to add to my Electra Dyne's ???

 

[Prdlobster]

Steve... There is a 31 BHM newly listed with athearn marine that is set up for gill netting with a few pictures of its hauler configuration. Not sure if its the style hauler you're looking for tho.