I finally got to do some fishing. My boys and I went out into the Pacific Ocean from Chetco Bay, which is the harbor in Brookings, Oregon. We only caught a couple of blacks, but that was enough for dinner since they were pretty good size.

The weather was great and water calm, so I let the boys jet around at about 25 to 30 mph. There are lots of sea stacks and underwater rocks here where fish lurk, so we covered a lot of territory both south and north of the harbor. I was more interested in how the boat performed this trip, since the gas in its tank was a couple of months old. That’s how long it had been since I last went fishing.

The biggest fish got away. It was a large black Robby hooked. Jake asked him if he needed the net and he said no, then lost him as he tried to pull him on board. “I didn’t know he was that big!” Robby complained afterward. Oh well! We used the net after that.

We stayed out about four hours. I caught nothing, but lost four rigs on the submerged rocks. Jake caught the biggest fish, a nice black rockfish. We bleed them as soon as we catch them by slitting their throat and gills. That way the meat tastes very good.

When we got back into shore, some fishermen were busy cleaning the tuna they caught. One guy went out 46 miles to catch them, and he did it in a river boat a lot smaller than mine. I’ll have to study the weather forecasts pretty thoroughly before I go offshore 46 miles with a river boat, especially with my three boys. If I had another boat to go out with me, maybe I’d do it on a good forecast. You never know when something can go wrong, and I don’t feel like having to call the Coast Guard to bring me back in.

When we got back it took us about an hour to hose the salt off the boat and flush the engines with fresh water. Those are essential tasks for a boat that goes in salt water. I put the prop of my small motor right in a barrel of fresh water and run it for 10 minutes. My big 200-hp has a hose adapter, and I run water through that for another 10 minutes.

The boys cleaned their own fish. That’s Mom’s rule. They are very good at it and enjoy the process. We froze the heads for later crab fishing, and we gave some fish guts, plus some leftover anchovy bait, to the chickens.

Lenie then made a nice dinner from the blacks, complemented by string beans and a cucumber from the garden.

Should we do an e-issue?

We’re investigating the possibility of bringing back the e-issue. The technology is now available that presents the magazine in pretty much the same format as the print issue, but it’s memory intensive, taking between 60 and 70 megs per issue. That means the e-issue would take too long to download for anyone with a dialup connection, and it is even kind of inconvenient with my high-speed satellite connection. Maybe some of you reading this could give me some feedback (just click on the COMMENTS button below) on what kind of internet connection you have, since it appears this new technology is really only suited to people who have a cable connection.

We’re only thinking about an e-issue at this point. It all depends on cost, how we can recover the cost, how much work is involved, etc. I’d appreciate input form anyone who has an idea how we can do this. In the old days we did have an e-issue done in pdf format, but we had lots of piracy problems so I don’t think I want to go there again. The new technology makes theft of the magazine e-issue much more difficult.

An e-issue would obviously expand our readership overseas, since it is now prohibitively expensive to send a print issue to an overseas address.

The ocean is flat as a pancake today but I’m already committed to deadline tasks at the office in Gold Beach. Isn’t that a shame? After a week of a rocky Pacific, its blacks, lingcod, and halibut beckon me to come and catch them in my underused boat and I have to work. My two youngest boys aren’t too happy either as I’ve committed them to come in with me and cut the grass and pick up the papers around the office building. I’m paying them, but that doesn’t matter. They want to fish.

The bright side is I’m into the Letters section of the issue, and I always get a thrill out of reading letters. BHM is important to many readers and sometimes I don’t realize just how important until I begin reading the stacks of letters we get. I have to pick and choose which ones will get printed, and I cut out parts of some (I leave three dots in the place of words cut) because they are simply too long. If you want your letter printed in its entirety, make it short. Many letters are redundant with others, such as the ones praising us for wrapping the mailed issues in plastic, so I choose only one to use. Some people have sent two letters so I use only one to give other readers a chance.

I’m also reading Jackie Clay’s Question and Answer section. Because we didn’t use the column last issue, I now have 13 pages for that section. That’s too many so I’ll have to cut at least five pages. So far I haven’t found many letters to cut because the information is so good. Hard decisions, but most readers want variety. As popular as Jackie is, the issue can’t be all Jackie. Mas Ayoob is also back after being cut last issue. The omission of these two writers’ articles from last issue generated a lot of letters and emails asking why. What can I say; I try to introduce new stuff, or longer articles that cover other topics in more detail. Someone has to be cut. They’re back this issue though. Richard Blunt only goes in every third issue or so, so his absence will provide some room. His presence in last issue generated letters praising his return to the magazine.

My nearest neighbor, Jamie Carpenter, dropped by some more wood yesterday. He lives on 500 acres behind me that is owned by his father, Arnold, a man of about 80 years. Jamie is my age and has never been on a computer. I told him I’d use his photo in my blog. I don’t think he has any idea what a blog is. He and I are good friends; I sometimes bring him the extra eggs our chickens lay. His son, Shannon, often works for me doing odd jobs.

Time to go and put this magazine together.

Another 400 miles driving and we made it to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to a Holiday Inn Express. We stay at Holiday Inn Express a lot when we travel because rooms are always nice, good free breakfast, internet accesss, exercise room, and usually an indoor pool for my three kids. Lenie always finds a good price through the internet or in travel coupons she finds at rest stops.

Watched the Deadliest Catch on the Disovery Channel to relax after driving all day. It’s about crab fishermen in the Bering Sea off Alaska. If I wasn’t a publisher, I always thought I’d be a commecial fisherman. But crabbing sure looks super hard, freezing, and dangeous work. They make more money than me though. My boys and I went fishing on my boat a few days before we left on this trip. We caught nine big blacks (black rock fish), which taste good if you bleed them out properly by cutting their throat or gills.

Preliminary copies of the new issue–No. 106, July/August 2007–came in just before we left. They’re being shipped to subscribers now and some of the articles will make it to the website a couple of weeks after that. We always reward the paid subscribers by sending them their print issue two weeks before any of the articles go online. It’s a strong issue, with the right mix of building, gardening, food, and commentary.

Today we’ll drive through Montana and into North Dakota. The goal is Duluth, Minnesota to visit Lenie’s relatives before we head down to Custer, Wisconsin for the Enegy Show June 13.