I have been working on the gear in the net locker. It is a welcome relief from the grinding, welding and general stinking cacaphony of the machine shop. Working on the nets is more like a quiet meditation. With a net needle I have been sewing together different colored panels of web which I will then hang onto the lead line and the cork line. The finished net will consist of a cork line with floats attached, the web and a weighted lead line. A shackle of gear is traditionally 50 fathoms in length and 29 meshes of web deep. The mesh size varies depending on the species you are targeting. For sockeye salmon that makes it about 12 feet deep..Three shackles clipped together make a Bristol Bay net. The total length of the net is 150 fathoms, or 300 yards, or the length of three football fields. The web hangs down from the cork line like a curtain of death..the lead line is weighted to pull the mesh down and give it it’s shape. The work is repetitive but not boring..it has to be done right and there are many ways to do it wrong. The knots I use have been used for 10,000 years. The materials used are now plastic for the floats and nylon for the web and lines..instead of wood and hemp. The design of the gill net has not changed over 10,000 years. It is an elegant, functional design..the work of genius. I haven’t handled a net needle in 12 years. I watch my hands do the work with a sort of detached wonder. They haven’t forgotten the craft. It makes me very happy to know this…I have much worried if I can still do the work….