Author: Dennis

The 25 foot Owens Craft was the first of two boats my father named the “Rhoda Alice”, my mother’s name. We fished the first Rhoda Alice out of Newport, Oregon the summers of 1965 and 66 and it was these two years that taught me the basics of seamanship.

The summer I was ten was the year my father started commercial fishing. The boat was 14-foot, fiberglass and powered with a single Johnson outboard motor. The next year he upgraded to an 18-foot rivited aluminum hull boat with a small cabin Forward to get out of the weather. It was powered with twin Johnson outboards. This was the first boat I ever handled at the dock; All I can say is that I got it there, but not without putting a small dent in one side.

One day we were fishing the Rock Pile 18 miles offshore and the wind started picking up. Dad hauled in the gear as quick as he could and hammered the twin outboards towards shore. The boat could move and we were slamming over the waves when dad noticed that water was filling the bottom of the boat. He handed me a hand pump and told me to get to work. I stroked on that pump all the way to the dock just to keep up with the leak. That night when dad pulled the boat out of the water he found several rivits missing. The holes were plugged with small bolts, big washers and some kind of sealent. More bolts we added as the summer passed and they were still there when he sold it in the fall and upgraded to a 25-foot Owens Craft.

And that was the summer of 1965.

My father started commercial fishing when I was about ten years old. He had a 14-foot fiberglass boat that he used for sport fishing out of Newport, Oregon. Add a couple of handlines supported with broom sticks and presto, we were commercial fishing. Anyone could sell fish to the fish plant, even sport fisherman. No license was required and there were no limits for anyone. The state used the honor system for getting its poundage fee that first year, but it must not have went well because a year or so later they started selling fishing licenses and the fish plants were required to hold back the poundage fee and send it into the state the end of the year. I remember that first year the state required commercial fisherman to be licensed. My dad didn’t need to, but he bought one for me anyway (under 16 year olds we not required to be licensed). When he handed the license to me he said, “Hang on to that. Someday the state will limit who can get one”. Looking back I can see how farsighted my father was.