I just learned about this, so hang on for a tale.
Since its gotten cold, I've noticed two new trucks with dumpy looking boat trailers that would fit a 18-20 boat on the Roanoke River that dumps into the far Westen part of the Albemarle sound. They are there every morning at O dark thrity no matter how cold and wet it is. So I asked this commercial crabber that I know, " What's that all about? "
Catfishing he tells me. They have large fish traps they have to check everyday and rebait. These traps will hold up to 1000 lbs of fish and they use dip nets to empty to traps into coolers and then sell off to the local processor. Seems that the price of wholesale catfish this year has jumped from 40 cents a lb to 80 cents. They have to check the traps every day no matter what the weather because if they don't, the fish will die. So I ask him why now thats its gotten colder ? He responded with " When the water is cold, the respiration rate of the fish decreases which means that they will stay alive for many hours caught in the trap as compared to the summer time when they would just die if you weren't out the all the time "
He then tells me that he knows a Catfisher that admitted to making $100,000 in the past 3 months fishing the Albemarle Rivers so far this year at the escalated wholesale price. Since I moved here recently, I have found that the fishing industry has lots of regulations concerning size and catch limits. That doesn't apply to catfish because the state has decided that catfish are an invasive species so there is no size or number of fish caught, these guys are paid per pound of fish.
Before I moved here, I had no idea you could make a really good living from the water just as long as you could work hard and wanted to be your own boss.
Since its gotten cold, I've noticed two new trucks with dumpy looking boat trailers that would fit a 18-20 boat on the Roanoke River that dumps into the far Westen part of the Albemarle sound. They are there every morning at O dark thrity no matter how cold and wet it is. So I asked this commercial crabber that I know, " What's that all about? "
Catfishing he tells me. They have large fish traps they have to check everyday and rebait. These traps will hold up to 1000 lbs of fish and they use dip nets to empty to traps into coolers and then sell off to the local processor. Seems that the price of wholesale catfish this year has jumped from 40 cents a lb to 80 cents. They have to check the traps every day no matter what the weather because if they don't, the fish will die. So I ask him why now thats its gotten colder ? He responded with " When the water is cold, the respiration rate of the fish decreases which means that they will stay alive for many hours caught in the trap as compared to the summer time when they would just die if you weren't out the all the time "
He then tells me that he knows a Catfisher that admitted to making $100,000 in the past 3 months fishing the Albemarle Rivers so far this year at the escalated wholesale price. Since I moved here recently, I have found that the fishing industry has lots of regulations concerning size and catch limits. That doesn't apply to catfish because the state has decided that catfish are an invasive species so there is no size or number of fish caught, these guys are paid per pound of fish.
Before I moved here, I had no idea you could make a really good living from the water just as long as you could work hard and wanted to be your own boss.
