K-6 - Gill Net Drift Fishing Boat - Kenai, Alaska - Landlocked Boats on Waymarking.com

"The K-6 is an original, wooden hull, commercial, drift fishing boat built in 1949 by the Grandy Boat Works of Seattle Washington. The vessel was brought to Alaska by the Libby, McNeil and Libby Cannery. The K-6 is a 29 foot, 7 inch "stern picker" (meaning the reel of the net is located in the stern rather than on the bow), which was powered by a 90 horse-power Chrysler Crown engine. In the early years of the commercial fisheries, boats and gear were owned by the cannery and leased to the fishermen. The K-6 served the cannery and her skippers for over thirty years, before being retired to the "bone yard."

During the commercial salmon season in the Upper Cook Inlet, the prime market fish are the sockeye or red salmon. Gillnetters also catch Cohos, Chum and Chinooks during the season. During a typical twelve hour fishing period, a weighted gillnet (typically 300 feet long) flags out behind the boat as it drifts with the current, catching salmon by their gills as they swim in the "rips." The nets are then hauled in and the salmon are hand-picked, placed in the hold and delivered to the cannery at the end of the day, where they are off-loaded, sorted and processed. Unlike high seas drift nets that capture everything in the net path, salmon gillnets allow smaller fish to swim through. Gillnets are species specific.

The gillnet season traditionally opens in June and closes in August, with some gillnetters continuing to fish for Cohos--also called silver salmon--into September. Alaska has many users involved in the salmon fisheries, including the commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries, so the Department of Fish and Game keeps a very close watch on escapement of salmon into the river systems within the state. Seasons open at specific times, but with the communications technology available to the fleet and to the Dept. of Fish and Game, emergency closures may be called to protect the health of future runs and so the longevity of the fishery.

In the winter of 1992, Thom Tomrdle and Frank Newton began a project to restore the K-6 and completed there work by April of 1993. In 2005, Dave Seaman began a further restoration completed in 2006." - text of informational sign on site