Went to PWS last week. We traveled from Whittier on a 28′ boat to several streams. We would take a small raft with 3 of us and our sampling gear to the creek, and the captain stayed with the boat. At the creek, we would walk up stream to get above the tidal influence in the stream and then look for a place to catch a bunch of pink salmon with a small seine net. We could usually get about 50 fish with the seine, out of the 100 to 120 we needed. The other 2 would start sampling after we got the 50, and then I would use a dipnet to catch the balance needed, one or two at a time. It was lots of fun, and good weather. We spent the night on the boat and the captain cooked good meals. On the last day, as we were packing up our gear after just finishing the last pink salmon, a black bear walked into the creek about 50 yards downstream, picked up a pink salmon in it’s mouth, and continued to the other side and into the woods without ever looking
our way. The other two handed me the shotgun, and I led the way back to our raft. We never did see the bear again. As usual, we saw lots and lots of bear sign on the creeks but this was the only bear we saw. Ate lots of salmon berries along the creeks on our way to and from the raft.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com