I kind of hate to admit that I have what some might call miserly traits. I prefer to think it’s more about being resourceful. (Shouldn’t that be a big element in one’s education anyway?). Anyhow, I did spring for a short length of subsistence king net a few years ago, a small investment but one that is expected to pay one back over several years. Well, that net lasted 2 years, getting ‘blown’ by whales a few times in the second year. Then that winter a reindeer carried the whole thing away on his antlers, a fact I learned when I was informed that someone had harvested a reindeer that was carrying a king net. Apparently the net slid off the sled somewhere so it was lost. But I’ve caught all the fish we’ve ever needed by using scraps and salvaged nets including herring web. So I’m back to that method until an 80 foot “hung wrong” 5” net arrives. Yesterday I dropped a scrap: about 30 feet of 3 1/2 inch web in a protected spot that has always produced fish....so we’re eating king, or queens, hens, whatever term is preferred. One nice washtub sized fish made my day. But the net was still heavy, so I pulled a bit more and found another at least double in size.
The point I wish a few would note is that it doesn’t absolutely require $10k machines or skiffs, hundreds of dollars in equipment, but one does have to get after it and try. But you can’t exist out here without a decent income (few and hard to come by), government assistance of some sort ( and still suffer IMO), or you have to subsist.
Last edited by Klikitarik; 06/13/18.
