If the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 taught anything to the fishing industry, it was a lesson on the fragility of national and global markets, and the vitality of the local. With many institutions and restaurants shuttered, large-scale supply chains backed up and signaled an apparent decline in demand. But people hadn’t lost their appetite for fish. They just had to find a new avenue of distribution.
Enter the smaller boats landing smaller quantities of high-quality fish. The fish that meet local demand through home delivery, community supported fisheries, or nontraditional markets are usually caught with hooks. And those hook systems — whether jigging machines, bandit reels, or autolongline — are improving all the time.
The jigging machines that many fishermen use come from Nordic countries, for example, Beltronic of Lunde, Sweden. “We sell about 60 percent of our machines to Norway and the rest around the world, including Canada and the United States,” says Thomas Neuendorf who runs the company with his brother.
“Gaski Marine in Upper Lakeville, Nova Scotia, handles all our North American sales,” says Neuendorf. Beltronic makes just one model, an electric computerized machine that gets rave reviews around the world. “A fisherman with five machines can pay for them by the second day of fishing,” says Neuendorf. “The machine can lift 36 kilograms of mackerel out of the water or bring 10 10- to 15-kilo cod to the side of the boat. The biggest fish we caught was a 280-kilo halibut.”
As Neuendorf explains, one person can run a five-machine system. He has five programs for depth and when to pull up. “The machine tells the fisherman when he has fish, and we have now a remote panel that he can watch from the wheelhouse.”
The hardest part of Neuendorf’s job, he claims, is when he goes to Norway to work with the fishermen there on refining the machines. “The sea there is very rough,” he says.
Tim Ryder, captain of the Finlander II, a scalloper and hook-and-line groundfish boat fishing out of Portsmouth, N.H., switched from rod and reel to DNG jigging machines. “We’re trying them out,” says Ryder. “They work for pollock and redfish, but they’re not as good for haddock.”
Like many popular jigging machines, the Icelandic-made DNG machines Ryder uses are electric with multiple programs for depth and weight before hauling. According to DNG, one person can easily operate four machines. But Ryder has five machines, and they keep his deckhand jumping. Using icons on the machine’s small computer screen, Ryder sets the depth above bottom and the weight on the line before the machine automatically hauls the fish to the surface.
The attractive features of the DNG machines include low power consumption, 12V and 24V DC compatibility, communication between machines, and programmable search system. “Our machines are engineered primarily for catching cod,” says Kristján Björn Garðarsson, operations manager at DNG. “With certain additions, the DNG jigging reel is suitable for mackerel and squid fishing,” he says. Garðarsson notes that fishermen would have to work with the machines to learn what adjustments they could make to improve performance with haddock.
Agnar Joensen, operations manager at Oilwind, says the century-old company based in the Faroe Islands has sold machines around the North Atlantic and the world. Currently, he says, fishermen faced with declining demand and a price drop are spending time repairing their boats. “The government here is promoting more local consumption,” Joensen says. “And travel on and off the islands is restricted.”
Oilwind is marketing its machines in North America through Vónin Canada in Port de Grave, Newfoundland. “We’re selling a lot in Newfoundland and Labrador,” says Joensen.
Oilwind recently launched an electric jigging machine and is hoping to capture more U.S. markets. “We are talking to some fishermen in Alaska on Kodiak Island,” he says.
The company also manufactures an innovative longline system for coastal vessels. “It’s an automatic longline system,” says Joensen. As he describes it, the fish are landed, and the line is coiled in rectangular boxes that one person can easily handle. “There is usually 430 meters of line and 300 hooks,” says Joensen. The hooks are stored on cartridges that are set up on the Oilwind automatic baiting machine. “More fishermen, especially the younger ones, are going to autobaiting,” says Joensen. “You use a little more bait, but you save a lot of time.”
While European jigging machine companies strive to make inroads in the U.S. market, Marco and Mustad remain the big names for U.S. longliners.
“Marco is really for boats 50 feet or bigger,” says Einar Ask, a veteran longliner and consultant for Smith Berger, which acquired Marco. “The offshore hauler has always been the centerpiece of the system,” Ask adds. “But the company has always been responsive to what’s going on. They’ll pursue whatever demand is out there.”
According to Jahn Hoel the general manager for Mustad Autoline in North America, the company’s Autoline systems can work on boats as small as 30 feet. Mustad Autoline Canada distributes, installs and services its products in Eastern Canada for those vessels fishing cod, turbot and Atlantic halibut.
“We have two options of automatic baiters,” says Hoel. “The Coastal Baiter that can bait up to three hooks per second, and the Super Baiter, which can bait up to six hooks per second.” The machines cut the bait and position it for the hooks to catch it, with up to 99 percent efficiency, according to Hoel. “The important thing is to cut the bait not too big or too small,” says Hoel. “To the eye, there may not be much difference between a 25-millimeter and 32-millimeter piece of bait, but this can save you more than 20 percent of your bait cost.”
Hoel notes that setting is only 20 percent of the job of longlining, the other 80 percent is hauling, stripping and straightening hooks, and setting up the hook magazines for the next set. Mustad supplies all the necessary components, including the hauler and hook separator, and works with each customer to set up systems with the optimal layout for their vessel.
Hoel points out that small boats can profit from Autoline systems. “We are working on setting up a boat that by law can only have 750 hooks onboard. It’s a numbers game. They fish two strings of 375 hooks and haul one while the other soaks. By doing that repeatedly, they could haul 8,000 to 12,000 hooks a day.”
Hoel takes pride in Mustad Autoline’s R&D. He notes electric components are on the horizon for Mustad. “We’re installing and testing our first electric hauler this summer,” he says. “We see several advantages going electric, including energy savings and lower maintenance costs with increased maintenance intervals.”
Jo Rowley, owner of Deep Drop Commercial in Mooloolaba, Australia, has seen hook fishing all over the world. “If you want, I can send you a picture of handlining yellowfin tuna from a dugout canoe in Indonesia,” he says. Rowley pioneered tuna longlining in Australia, and now his company sells Beltronic jigging machines in the South Pacific and any other region where the Swedish company does not have distribution channels. He also manufactures the Deep Drop and ProFisher bandit reels.
“This kind of fishing is more sustainable,” says Rowley. “We’re seeing a lot of fishermen transitioning to our machines.” Rowley notes that the smaller guys supply local markets, and this is evident in the United States, as well. “We sold a few of our reels in the U.S. — in Hawaii and another to South Carolina,” he says. “But we’ve sold more in Aruba in the Caribbean, where they’re pulling those big grouper up from deep water.” Rowley’s machines cost around $2,500. “Ours are top grade components,” he says of the hydraulic reels. “We use all stainless steel and Italian motors.”
Bandit reel manufacturers in the United States also make some high-end machines. Hooker Electric Reels in Oakland Park, Fla., makes high-quality reels, but sells only a few to commercial fishermen fishing for Goliath grouper and deepwater sharks.
Elec-tra-mate in Greensboro, N.C., has a healthy market and, according to company manager Carl Huffman, even ships to commercial fishermen in Australia. “We have guys over there taking expensive reels off their boats and replacing them with ours,” says Huffman.
Elec-tra-mate makes a deepwater reel, the Brute 2000, and a tuna reel, the Tuna Brute, that range in price from $3,200 to $3,400. Fully electronically controlled models range from $4,600 to $5,100. “The basic design of these reels hasn’t changed since the 1960s,” says Huffman. “But ours are precision machined and bar coat anodized, and our motors are sealed in an aluminum tube.” Huffman has a strong domestic market for his reels in the North Carolina tuna fishery. “Our Tuna Brute can land a 130-pound bigeye tuna in less than three minutes,” he says, and it’s important because otherwise the sharks will eat most of it. “Another captain reported bringing up a 1,000-pound six-gill shark from 4,000 feet,” says Huffman, who also introduced a new hydraulic model at the Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle last year.
What the covid-19 pandemic has made clear is that small-boat hook fisheries that supply local markets with high-quality product are an important part of the U.S. fisheries supply chain. The equipment that helps fishermen get fish on consumers’ plates is coming from all over the world, and right now the market appears to be expanding.
Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National fisherman and the author of “The Doryman’s Reflection.”
