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Caught fishing: is it a bomb?

jbuck88

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Minuteman
Oct 25, 2010
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Port Angeles, WA
Anyone tell me what this is? We snagged it while halibut fishing at 1800 feet of water. Can't see any markings and we threw it back over, but looked like something poking out the middle of the hole in the front. We didn't look too close.

20230603_133536.jpg
20230603_133548.jpg
 
But it's plastic and only weighs 3-4 pounds. Any trolling balls for the ocean are going to be 10-20lbs.
 
The ends of the fins are all bent to make it spiral. So I wouldn't think down riggers weight as it would make a mess of your lines.
 
How far off shore were you? 1,800 feet is pretty deep, we never fished halibut that far down...IIRC 340' was about our max, but we had a sport fishing charter operation.
 
We were commercial longlinging them. We fished the shallow shelf our other friends that were out there fished the deep shelf and did better. The deep shelf is between 400-500 fathoms. 2,400-3,000 feet.

Edit: guess I didn't answer yoy. We were about 30 miles offshore.
 
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We fished in "fathoms" also, most folks don't understand what measurement that is. 54-56 fathoms is about as deep as we would ever fish, but that didn't happen too often...tides in the Cook Inlet get pretty big, and that tide running on "big" days you're lucky to hold bottom with a 4# weight at 30 fathoms.
 
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What i want to know is how you snagged that? It hasnt been down there too long if it looked like that. I wouldnt have tossed it back over, neat little piece with a cool story
 
Collective knowledge of the 'Hide never ceases to amaze me.
Beat me to it!!
"Nah, its a NSN/XBT-T7 Bathythermograph thermosensor; pristine product pics from 2 angles attached"

Been standing by for 23 yrs to provide arcane info on rando OMFS paraphernalia queries.
 
Wishing I didn't throw it over. I was concerned by the roll stabilizing fins and wiring visible thru the front hole.
 
Shoulda just tied a line to it and kept it behind the boat
Pictures show he was in port with it.

It’s either 8 feet deep or they took it along on their next ride to the fishing grounds.

Always interests me when you look at any nautical charts you will see marked “Unexploded Ordinance” - always wondered what was down there - makes you want to get a long rope and magnet.
 
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