Some of the most important decisions I make as a commercial fisherman end with the boat staying exactly where it is.
That can be hard to accept, especially when I have already gotten up before sunrise, made coffee, checked the weather, and started preparing for the day. Once I am awake and at the dock, there is a natural urge to go. I have already put time into getting ready, and a day at the dock is a day without a catch.
Still, there are mornings when something does not look right. The wind may be stronger than expected. The forecast may have changed overnight. I might notice something on the boat that I do not completely trust. Sometimes there is no single problem. The conditions simply leave me wondering whether going out makes sense.
Deciding not to fish may look like nothing happened that day, but it can be one of the most important decisions I make.
The Forecast Is Only the Beginning
I check the weather before every trip, usually several times. I want to know what happened overnight, what conditions are expected that morning, and what might develop later in the day. I also pay attention to wind, tides, radar, and anything else that could affect where I am planning to work.
All of that information is useful, but I have never believed a forecast should make the entire decision for me.
There have been mornings when the forecast looked reasonable, but the conditions outside made me uncomfortable. The wind might already be stronger than expected, or I might see weather developing faster than I thought it would.
That is when I start asking myself questions. Am I seeing something that should concern me, or am I being too cautious? Would waiting an hour make a difference? If I leave now, what are the conditions likely to be when I am coming home?
That last question has become more important to me as I have gotten older. It is easy to look at good conditions in the morning and think only about getting out there. I also have to think about coming home later when I am tired, the boat may be carrying a catch, and the weather may have changed.
The Boat Has Something to Say About It
Weather is only one part of the decision. The condition of the boat matters just as much.
Before leaving, I inspect my equipment. Most mornings everything looks the way it should. Occasionally, I notice something that makes me stop. It could be a worn line, a fitting that needs attention, or an engine that sounds slightly different from the day before.
Those moments can be frustrating because it is easy to tell yourself that something will probably be fine.
I have learned not to put much trust in “probably” when I am heading onto the water.
My father taught me that long before I fully understood it. When I was growing up in Beaufort, North Carolina, I would watch him check things that looked perfectly fine to me. I was young and wanted to get moving. He would keep inspecting equipment while I wondered why we were wasting good fishing time.
Years later, I realized he was not wasting time at all. He was trying to protect the rest of the day.
An hour spent fixing something at the dock might save an entire fishing trip. The same problem becomes much harder to solve when you are away from shore. Whenever I find something questionable now, I ask myself whether I would rather deal with it at the dock or on the water. That usually makes the decision much easier.
Staying at the Dock Is Not Free
If staying home had no consequences, these decisions would be simple. Commercial fishing is how I make my living, so a day without fishing can mean a day without income from a catch. The expenses associated with the boat do not disappear just because I decide the conditions are not right.
That creates a real tradeoff.
There are days when the weather is obviously bad, and there is nothing to discuss. The difficult mornings are when conditions fall somewhere in the middle. I could probably go. Other fishermen might be leaving. The weather is not perfect, but it is not terrible either.
Those are the mornings when I question myself the most. I wonder whether I am being too cautious or whether somebody else will have a great day while I am still sitting at the dock.
Experience has taught me that another fisherman’s decision cannot make mine for me. He may have a different boat, different equipment, a different destination, or a different comfort level with the conditions. I have to make my decision based on what I know about my own situation.
Sometimes Waiting Is the Best Option
Deciding not to leave immediately does not always mean giving up on the entire day. Sometimes I wait and see what happens.
I might have another cup of coffee, work on a piece of equipment, check the forecast again, and watch the conditions for a while. If the weather starts improving, I can reconsider. If it continues getting worse, then I have my answer.
There is an important difference between conditions actually improving and simply hoping they will improve. I have spent enough time around the water to know how easy it is to convince yourself that the wind will settle down in another hour because you really want it to.
Patience in commercial fishing is not always about waiting long enough to catch something. Sometimes patience means waiting before leaving the dock. Other times, it means accepting that the day you planned simply won’t happen.
Louisiana Taught Me to Question What I Thought I Knew
When I moved from North Carolina to the Louisiana Gulf Coast in my late 20s, I already had years of experience around commercial fishing. I had grown up learning from my father, so I arrived with confidence in what I knew.
Then I discovered how much I did not know.
The Gulf was different from the waters I had grown up around. The weather behaved differently, the fishing grounds were unfamiliar, and I had to learn how local fishermen approached the conditions. The skills my father taught me were still valuable, but I could not assume that every habit from North Carolina would work exactly the same way in Louisiana.
I had to listen to people who knew these waters better than I did. I also had to become comfortable admitting when I was uncertain.
That experience still influences how I make decisions. Years on the water have given me confidence, but they have also made me more aware of how quickly things can change. I think experience should make a fisherman more thoughtful, not more certain that he is always right.
You Do Not Always Know Whether You Made the Right Choice
One of the hardest things about staying at the dock is that I never know what would have happened if I had gone.
The weather might have stayed manageable. That questionable piece of equipment might have lasted another month. I might have returned with an excellent catch.
There is no way to know.
When I was younger, that uncertainty bothered me. Now I understand that it is simply part of the work. Not every good decision gives you a result you can point to at the end of the day.
Sometimes a successful day means fixing a problem before it becomes a breakdown. Sometimes it means avoiding unnecessary fuel consumption when conditions are unlikely to yield a worthwhile trip. Sometimes it means accepting a lost day so that I am ready to work tomorrow.
Commercial fishing naturally makes you want to take action. You leave the dock, put in the work, and hope to return with something that makes the day worthwhile. There is satisfaction in coming home with a good catch because you can see exactly what the day’s work produced.
The longer I have done this, however, the more I have come to respect the decisions that produce nothing visible at all. Knowing when not to go is part of knowing how to fish.
There are mornings when the right decision is to untie the boat and head out before sunrise. There are other mornings when I look at the weather, listen to the boat, think about what the day might bring, and decide that the best place for me is right where I am.