Life on a 37’ Commercial Salmon Troller

Fisher Girl running the gear from the pit.

Our boat is small but quite comfortable for the 2 of us. The aft deck is the larger portion of the boat at 18’, as it should be since we are in it to fish!  From the back of the boat forward, first is the troll pit, where we stand as we run the gear. I like that there is a pit here as it comes up to my waist and gives me security as I lean outside the boat to pull gear or land a fish! Next is the landing deck, where the fish go as we clear them off the hook and where they are cleaned.  Then is the fish hold area. We have ice below in the hold where we pack the fish but we also have 2 large (blue in picture below) totes on deck that we use to “slush” fish in iced water. Our tender (the boat we deliver our fish too) prefers we slush our Coho salmon as it is a quicker off load then pulling the “hard packed” fish up from the hold (raised grey area just behind the blue tote). In fact, Doug ordered some slush bags that we picked up in Juneau to put down in the hold so we have more slush capacity for the Coho season that starts July 1st.
Landing deck to wheel house

Captain's seat with look down into focsle
Forward of the deck is the wheelhouse, which is our indoor living space at 11’ by 9’ (plus the focsle below the bow which is bunk area for crew but we use it as storage). I love the large windows we have that give us a nearly 360 degree view of our surroundings. Unlike the cabin area of our sailboat, we sit up high in the wheelhouse on PacSon so helming out of the weather with unobstructed views is really a pleasant change! 

There is a small galley area (kitchen) with a Dickinson diesel stove. The stove is another one of my favorite parts of the boat as it not only allows us to stovetop or oven cook, it also keeps the wheelhouse nice and toasty warm (too warm sometimes : ).
Fajitas on the Dickinson
Galley









Cut down table and sleeping area





Then there is the Captains seat where the helm is and our cut down table which converts into our sleeping area. 

That’s our space - other than the tiny head (bathroom/hand shower area). Good thing we really like each other, right?
Head/shower area

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