Casting for an answer: Can you make a living on Cape as a commercial rod and reel fisher?
FALMOUTH — Ken Baughman is two years into his attempt to make a living as a commercial rod and reel fisherman. It started, he said, after he got into an argument with another commercial fisherman who said it couldn’t be done. Baughman thought there was a way, one that would require him to take unusual steps and supplement his income with other work.
Fishing has always been a passion for the 44-year-old, who said it would be the thing he’d do if he had a million bucks. Baughman doesn’t have $1 million, and his rod and reel efforts haven’t provided him with sufficient finances yet — but he believes that if he can figure out a way to make commercial rod and reel work, others will follow.
Nat Chaulkey, who used to run Get the Net Charters in Falmouth, was once a commercial rod and reel fishermen.
"Everybody that I know who does it — they are charter captains or something — and they use it to supplement their charter stuff," he said in a phone interview. "I don't know too many guys who do it and actually make a living at it."
A commercial rod and reel permit in Massachusetts allows a fisher to catch and sell finfish to a licensed dealer. No other gear types are allowed. Endorsements are required depending on the fishery in question, such as bluefin tuna.
Massachusetts offers eight different rod and reel permit types, including those with boats, state Division of Marine Fisheries Assistant Director Story Reed said. There are about 3,500 permits for owners of boats up to 59 feet in length, and most of those individuals fish for striped bass and tuna. Commercial tuna rod and reel fishers include many nonprofessionals who only fish for tuna. So numbers are difficult to get at from the permit data, he said.
Paying the bills in winter
There are all kinds of challenges for those who want to get into commercial fishing, let alone rod and reel fishing. Baughman started small and economical. He built his first 20-foot Tolman skiff about 15 years ago using a manual and modifying it for Cape waters.
In the intervening years, he has built or bought, modified and sold about 10 different boats. The work helps pay the bills in the winter season when he isn’t fishing. His latest boat is a 23-foot Seacraft. He put on a new deck, closed the transom, built a new leaning post and doghouse. (His bird dog Lucyyy can point menhaden in the water, Baughman claims.)
He bought and installed a 150 horsepower engine from Green Pond Marina for $12,000 when he could have easily spent $30,000 on a new one. He bought the cheapest radar system he could find for $4,500, rather than spend $10,000 or $12,000, he said.
“For the kind of fishing I’m doing it seems to work,” he said. “I bet the old hands will think, ‘Dude doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know yet,’” he wrote in an email.
Starting in April each year
Baughman fishes four to five months out of a six-month window, starting in April. The relatively short window is a function of the size of the boat. Some days he doesn’t go out if he thinks it's too dangerous. His life, in fact, is driven by weather, tides, state and federal fishing regulations and fishery seasons, he said. Permits, endorsements, and whether a fishery is open or closed figure into the equation.
In April Baughman fishes for squid, which requires a coastal permit. He uses squid as bait for scup, and sells the excess to a distributor. In mid-May he turns from squid to scup, an open fishery that he believes could be financially viable. Bluefish come in mid-June. Striped bass season hits in July. And if he wants to fish for bluefin tuna, he needs to get a federal permit.
The real cost is getting permits for closed fisheries
But the real cost is getting permits for closed fisheries such as black sea bass. Those permits can only be bought from commercial fishermen selling theirs. Aubrey Church, policy director at Cape Cod Fishermen’s Alliance, said she has seen permits go from $5,000 to $10,000. Recently a black sea bass and tautog permit went for $24,000, and a fluke and black sea bass permit was priced at $35,000 on the Athearn Marine Agency website.
The money makers (sea bass, fluke, tautog) are all closed and must be transferred, Baughman said. He considered buying a black sea bass permit last year but watched as it climbed from $5,000 to $7,500. He's seen permits for $17,000. Prices are high because too many fishermen are sitting on permits that they aren’t using, Baughman said.
Baughman's mission, in part, is to get more people into the commercial rod and reel fishery. He knows catching "a ton of fish" is necessary. He counts boat building, modifying and selling as a revenue stream. He intends to offer a marine survey business eventually. And he hopes the state will continue a COVID-19 program that allowed him and other commercial fishermen to sell their catch directly from the dock rather than to dealers only.
Baughman doesn’t expect to get rich, but he does believe he can clear a path for others if he figures out the financing. There is some avenue, some way to make money for a small boat, rod and reel fisherman, he said.
He hasn't figured it out, but he’s willing to try, at least for a bit longer. After fishing all night for squid, storing the catch in the freezer, opening a beer and lighting a cigarette, the feeling of accomplishment is like no other feeling in the world, he said.
Denise Coffey writes about business and tourism among other things. Contact her at dcoffey@capecodonline.com.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Is it possible to make a living on Cape Cod with rod and reel fishing?
