commercial fishing

Just passed by HMB pier after a walk (grounding) at San Gregorio State beach last Saturday.
The salmon is priced right but did not buy coz the smallest was 15# @ $12 a pound.
Instead bought a 5# halibut @ $10 a pound. Live @ $12 a pound.

Whoa!  You actually bought fish?   

Ideally i'd just sell the entire fish to local restaurants. Ideally catch enough fish to pay the investment back and pay for the hobby. Anything on top of that is just gravy because I do this every weekend because I love it.

This topic usually comes up quite a bit on the other sites, mostly part time  boat based commercial angling, the general consensus is that if you’re just doing it to pay for a hobby then it’s not worth the hassle.  Aside from the regs and log books, the IRS can be a pita.  The cast and crank podcast had a comm fisherman (Cameron McLeod) who gives a pretty realistic look at what it’s like to be a small commercial operation. It’s actually a pretty damn funny interview but there were all sorts of issues he lays out related to the business side of things.....like actually selling your fish. 

With the advent of pop-up style food events, food trucks/moveable feasts, social media advertising,  I think there may be newer avenues to develop your own markets on a workable scale.  Would probably be the most feasible small scale business route to earn extra coin. 

With the advent of pop-up style food events, food trucks/moveable feasts, social media advertising,  I think there may be newer avenues to develop your own markets on a workable scale.  Would probably be the most feasible small scale business route to earn extra coin.

I think your biggest issue with this mode of operation on a kayak is consistent deliveries and scale.  You're mush more limited weather wise and capacity wise than a PB.

-Allen

There used to be a f&g office in Menlo Park that I stopped in at Avery month or two and picked up paper forms for commie and processing licenses, take them home and fill them out but always ended up tossing them re I didn’t want to make a job of it. I also had connections with the commie world working as a diver in the SF bay herring seasons and knew what a struggle fisherman’s life is watching what those people went through

At the time I was loading up fish every day and giving it away, salmon season was 7 days a week strictly salmon and stripers. Two of the nurses I worked with bought standalone freezers for the fish I gave them and were pissed when I quit hammering the fish

Lot of work and after a while I decided to back off on salmon in particular which I developed an unnatural love affair with to the point I won’t kill them for anyone but people I feel appreciate what they are eating, rather not catch than hand it out like candy

Long way round to a shorter answer, the only way I could see doing it on my scale at the time was to have the commie license and the processing/sales licenses you’d need to sell direct to the people you want to feed. The requirements for processing are strict, you have to be inspected, stainless counters etc to get that license

The usual economic structure always puts the fisherman against the ropes, the wholesalers and retailers are robbing them down to their shorts, then pinching them every chance they get. That’s how it used to be anyway

I know one guy who does “boutique” halibut, but I don’t think you can do it without a lot of hassle and it’s expensive to get set up. The penalties for violating any of the regs involved are harsh. Then again f&g enforcement is a shadow of its former self so maybe you could fly under the radar

You can’t just sell the fish whenever and wherever you want. I used to fish 7 days a week through every salmon season and go to work in the afternoon or at midnight. I went 96 hours with no sleep once

There’s also the matter of limited places where you can fish commercially, on your yak is probably not practical

The ocean protectors have also insinuated themselves into the game, commie boats have to carry an independent watchdog person to monitor their catches and boats are required to equip with GPS monitoring so they know youre sticking to fishable territory

Check in with f&game and see what they say. I’d be curious to know what the situation is now

perhaps a fish taco stand?  But this probably has a ridiculous amount of regulations as well.  Especially if you are selling something you caught (without a commercial license)

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With the advent of pop-up style food events, food trucks/moveable feasts, social media advertising,  I think there may be newer avenues to develop your own markets on a workable scale.  Would probably be the most feasible small scale business route to earn extra coin. 

InSearchOfFish (Kevin) is licensed commercially. Reach out to him.

You can't recreational fish out of your commercially registered vessel. So if you want to fish with friends for instance for a non target species you need a second kayak. Salmon is an entirely different deal and you must acquire an existing Salmon permit from someone getting out of the game I believe. Lot's of rules and regs and you will probably not make any money.

I don't believe he commercially fishes anymore. He said the fees were too high, making it difficult to break even.