Mark Stopha - Alaska Wild Salmon Company

Last Call

Chris and his son in law Phil came in for a week from Mississippi and Atlanta. The first day was a blow with heavy rain, so we went to Coffman Cove to the hamburger stand. The next day was calm seas and we headed out fishing. The boys enjoyed lots of whales, as they would every day. We fished near town, and scratched 2 cohos. The boys went beach combing at the anchorage and found a 4 point antler shed and sea asparagus. The next day we landed one coho and lost 2 nice ones. I set the skate at the honey hole. At the anchorage, the boys found a fork horn shed and abundant red huckleberry.

The next morning, we checked the skate. Nothing. I was starting to sweat. Would we rally as we always had and find some fish or was the coho run over? We rallied. It actually seemed like slow fishing, but we were hooking up on each pass around the drag. We landed seven coho and lost several others.

We reset the skate and anchored nearby. The boys went to the beach while I got dinner ready. Tonight was the salmon frames – the meat left along the backbone after filleting each side. I pan fried them in butter. The boys picked it up and weren’t real sure about it, but after a few bites, they finished their plates and had seconds.

I was up before dawn the next morning. I put the coffee on to boil, and did stretches for my hip. When the coffee was ready, I sipped coffee and saw dawn approaching. The boys were up with the sun.

We checked the skate and nothing again. It was flat calm. I asked them if they wanted to fish for chicken halibut, as now was the time with no wind, or did they want to go back for coho. Halibut was the choice.

We were soon at the chicken hole. Phillip’s first retrieve was a double! Four fish left to catch. It took a couple hours more, but we got there. I showed them how to fillet halibut, then left them to it while I powered up to the coho drag.

An hour later we were coho fishing. We dragged to the corner, then all the way back up the drag. Nothing. We were the only boat there. I wasn’t sure if that was because charter boats came in early and got nothing, or chartering was done.

Inclement weather was coming, so we headed for the harbor. Dinner at the cabin was panko crusted halibut with potato fries and coleslaw. It was the boys first ever meal of halibut, and they were impressed.

The next day was their last day in town. I’d let the boys decide if they wanted to fish in the pouring rain, or relax. Then serendipity set it. My brother in law asked if we wanted to go see a dead whale with some scientists he was taking to collect samples. From the sounds of it, it would be a quick trip of a couple hours. But I knew better. The boys were excited to go. I warned them it might be all day, and to dress for the weather.

We headed out with 2 veterinarians and a veterinary tech, my brother in law, and another Craig resident who was friends of the vet crew and whose father had found the whale. As we headed out, one of the vets started to give a safety briefing. We were being conscripted as volunteers on their sampling crew! Exciting.

The whale was on the beach right around the corner from where we’d been coho fishing. A 33 feet sub adult male humpback. This was my first time to see a whale up close on a beach. The first time to touch one. The long white pectoral fins. The eye. The nine foot wide tail. The pleats on the lower jaw that stretch back 3/4 of the length of the animal. The whale barnacles. The whale had not been there long, so was largely fresh.
The vets started right in on looking over the whale for signs of injury. They pointed out some marks that looked like propeller marks. I saw next to the propeller marks scraping that looked like the keel of a boat.

After the initial assessment, the vets soon had all of us helping them to cut or bag samples. My brother in law cut out a sample of the jaw and baleen. Chris took photos at the vets direction. I helped the other vet bag samples of various tissues and fluids. The other Craig resident removed an eye. We were all focused on the work as we kept working against the rising tide, but I was able to look up once in a while to acknowledge we were in the mist on a wilderness island examining a whale. In Alaska. A place that still holds my being.

As the morning turned into early afternoon, the flood tide was nearing the whale. The crew started to cut into the blubber and down to the muscle. They pulled back blocks of blubber with gaffs around the boiler room of the whale. Soon we saw it – a spot of large bruising in the muscle. Just like a deer shows after being shot or hit by a car. The whale looked to me like it didn’t die of natural causes.

When the tide had us scurried up to the tide line and the whale was mostly floating, we retreated with the gear and boarded the boat. We were able to turn the whale over now by pulling on one pectoral fin with the boat, and the vets were able to get one last sample: blow hole fluid from the top of the whale. We left the whale to rest. The island he was on has no bears. I’m not sure if the wolves on the island will eat the whale or leave it to birds, crabs, and other carrion consumers. The boys from Mississippi were almost in a trance at getting to participate in this once in a lifetime experience and had smiles a mile wide. They left the next morning with a wealth of stories to tell.

Chris and Phil are the 10th group of friends here this summer. Tom and Sarah have already confirmed their return, and my friends Al and Don are coming too. It’s been a prosperous summer and I’m ready for a few days of catch-up before trying for some deer.

Mentor returns

Ken and his buddy Lawren arrived in their own rental car from Ketchikan. A first for my visitors. Lawren is in his early 80’s, and Ken his late 70s. Both spry and still fishing as often as they can.

The first big blow of the season came that night, and the next day was too windy and rainy to fish. We headed across the island to Coffman Cove to the famous burger stand. The boys were not disappointed for dinner. Counted 30+ deer along the road on the way home.

Ken was one of my early friends and mentors in Juneau. We both liked canning and smoking seafood, and Ken taught me about digging clams. His youngest daughter Lisa helped me sell fish during high school, and was a great help. I’d see the last of the family left in town, his middle daughter Claire, at Mudrooms, the monthly storytelling event, over the winters in Juneau.

Lawren grew up north of Edmonton on a Lake, where his family had a mink farm and commercial fished on the lake. They also trapped. How cool is that.

We got out on Monday bright and early. Ken is a notorious anti-early riser, so I I rushed the boys out the door and said we’d get our second cups of coffee on the boat. We walked the green mile to the boat and were soon underway.

We headed for the nearby drag for coho, and put the gear out. Lots of whales around. We caught nothing. Maybe a few of these unknown rockfish looking fish we’ve recently run in to, which we released. I found out by the end of the drag the boys would rather fish for whitefish, since they planned to fish for salmon during their week in Juneau after they left here. So change of plans.

Luckily, the wind was light enough that we could go try the spot I discovered when Pat and Sean were here. It’s too deep for me to want to anchor there in nearly 300 feet, so the wind has to be light enough that you can get your gear down to the bottom. We were soon into chicken halibut, and the boys were giddy. Then some big Pacific cod, and the happiness increased. By mid afternoon, we had enough for the day. I headed to the anchorage while the boys cleaned the fish.

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The boys were tuckered out by the time they finished cleaning fish. I brought the salmon cream sauce pasta leftovers from Jesse’s trip, and heated that up for an early dinner. The boys made short work of it. It’s one of those dishes that might be better the second or third day, but needs to be hot to be at its best. We spent the late afternoon telling stories and turned in early that evening.

On Tuesday, we went back to the same spot, as the wind was again favorable. The boys soon had several halibut. We decided to try another spot that might have bigger fish, and also was near the kelp and oyster farm of my friend. Ken was once the ADFG permitting lead for mariculture farms, so was interested to see it. We caught a yelloweye rockfish we had to return. We rigged a deep water release for it, but the fish was so big with so much buoyancy that we had to add several more little cannon ball sinkers to take it to the bottom. One more chicken halibut and we headed for the harbor. The boys had all the white fish they needed.

The boys cleaned the fish on the way to the harbor. We tied up in the harbor. I hooked up my hose to the freshwater on the dock, and we got to skinning, rinsing, portioning and bagging the fish for the freezer. We finished in about an hour, tidied up the boat, and headed for home.

I told the boys to relax while I got the fish into the freezer. They both had worked hard reeling up fish from 280 feet, then cleaning them all. They sipped on some red wine.

Ken mentioned in passing on the boat that he missed eating venison. After putting the fish on racks in the freezer, I pulled out packages of moose and black tail deer. When Ken asked if we should order pizza for dinner, I said no. I had a surprise dinner in store for them. I’d bought salad at the store on the way home, and topped that with a jar of sea asparagus I canned earlier in the summer, along with some Parmesan cheese, while the venison defrosted in the microwave. I pulled the meat when it was still mostly frozen so I could cut narrow steaks. I seasoned the pieces and put them out to thaw. Then we all took naps for about an hour and a half. I got up and cut most of the little bag of small red potatoes I bought with the salad, brushed on olive oil, and put them in the toaster oven to roast. When the potatoes were about 5 minutes from being done, I quick fried the venison steaks like Bob showed me so long ago now it seems in Ketchikan.

The boys awoke hungry, and obviously enjoyed their dinner. It had been some time since either had eaten venison. Their offspring are not hunters, and they were getting up there in age and not able to hunt like they used to. That made the meal more gratifying for me. I see that day coming myself.

I awoke at 3 am on Wednesday to vac pack their fish and weigh them for luggage. Ken popped his head in about 4 am. He’s got COVID, he said. His first time! Lawren does, too. Not his first time. Second group this year that’s had it, and like the first one, not sure if the brought it with or caught it here. I had it last month from the first group so hopefully I’ve got the antibodies helping me.

Another Peace Corps friend in town

Had Jesse here the past few days. He is the husband of one of Sara’s early students, Hanni, who is like our niece. She knows this because I gave her my prized possession – a Swiss Army knife with all the gadgets – when she left for the Peace Corps. The knife was given to me by a Japanese dentist at Wood River Lodge who could not break me of my habit of cutting my fishing line knots with my teeth. Hanni met Jesse in the Peace Corps in Guyana. And of course, he’s known as Jesse the Body in our household, after my favorite professional wrestler and governor.

Jesse came over on the ferry. I thought we’d go right on the boat that evening, but it was raining and foggy so we started first thing the next morning. We were on our way to my outer fishing drags when we saw a pile of charter boats in a cove where I’ve fished before, but never caught anything. We dragged around there for several hours and got 3 nice cohos and a small one. We went on to one of the favorite drags and not much. A pink and rockfish released.

We went back the way we came so I could set the 2 hook halibut skate. We anchored right next to the set location, near a favorite deer hunting spot. Jesse enjoyed a paddle in the Tucktec folding kayak while I made venison over salad for dinner. Loving this kayak. Super light and seems to handle well.

The next morning, we were up early to check the skate as I was wary after we almost lost the last 2 to sand fleas. As soon as the skate line was picked up, there was a nice halibut tugging away. When it came up to the boat, I saw the circle hook wasn’t all the way through the jaw, but somehow it was solid. I got the fish around to the swim step, and got the harpoon through the jaw and that was it. I stunned it a few times, then cut a gill and we relaxed for awhile to let the fish bleed.

The big fish came up through the swim step and onto the deck just fine. We measured it – 68 inches. When we looked up the weight from the length in the tide book it came out to 160 lbs. Dang.

I described to Jesse how to fillet the big fish, and he got to it while I motored to one of the favorite king salmon spots near the outside. By the time we got there an hour later, the halibut was filleted into the four big pieces and onto the frozen water bottles in the cooler.

We lost a nice fish at the king spot, and then just nothing the rest of the day. We fished all the way around the island. With 80 lbs of halibut meat in the cooler, we decided to head to town to take care of it, and run out closer to town the next day.

We tied up to the harbor dock, hooked up the hose to the water hydrant, and got to work. We tag teamed skinning the big fillets, then I portioned them, and the portions went into the first rinse bucket. When that was full, I took the fillet portions out and rinsed them again and put the portions into the colanders to drain. When all the portions were well drained, we each took a Costco yogurt container with the bottom cut off and cut up the side, and used these to insert into the vac pack bags to keep moisture off the top of the bag that gets vac packed, and slid the portions down through the container into the bags.

We loaded the bags into clean buckets, and when we had them all ready, we loaded them into the collapsible cart, and walked the green mile from transient moorage up to the parking lot. We drove to my inlaws and borrowed their freezer to freeze the fish in the open bags overnight.

The next morning, we were up and going at 530 am. We fished close to town today as that’s where we caught the fish the first day. We dropped the gear along the Prince of Wales Island shore across from the cabin at a regular king salmon drag. We lost our first strike, which looked like another nice fish. We fished the drag all the way to the corner, and caught 5 nice coho.

We crossed over to an island, and put our gear in there on Mikey’s advice. We saw a cruiser come up and drop their gear not far in front of us, so we figured this must be the place. The cruiser was a local boat, and turned out to be run by a good friend of my inlaws. She was on the kicker tiller, and her young crew was mooching. We trolled around them. We caught 2 nice cohos trolling, and they caught many more than us mooching.

We called it quits a little after 4, and headed home. Back at the dock, we did the same program as with the halibut. I cut off fins and the head, then Jesse filleted and portioned. Then I spooned off burger that was left along the backbone after Jesse filleted. We loaded up the bagged salmon and walked the green mile bac k to the truck.

We picked up our halibut from the night before and got to vac packing in the shed. I got the battery operated radio from the bunkhouse to listen to the Democratic Convention in Chicago on KRBD, where Sara was in attendance.

When the halibut was done, we started in on the salmon. Then weighed out the fish so we could get Jesse’s box packed quickly in the morning.

When we were done, I put pasta to cook in the instant pot, and started the cream sauce with the salmon burger, red onion, a little sea asparagus, some artichoke antipasto left over, butter, and the rest of the milk left from the Morgans. When it cooked down, I added a little pancake mix flour to thicken it. When the pasta was done, I added it to the sauce. Jesse and I both had seconds.

Hot Smoke

Brian and Ellen bought me a Big Chief smoker for Christmas. I’d used my home built smoker to smoke salmon for canning, which is a bit easier to do that hot smoking, since all you’re trying to do is get a nice pellicle (outer sort of hard layer of skin on the flesh) and smoke flavor. You don’t want it to finish drying and smoking on the inside. The canning will finish the cooking process and then some.

Hot smoking is both the nice pellicle on the outside and cooked all the way through on the inside. It’s been a long time since I hot smoked salmon, and my passed attempts were edible, but not consistent, I’d say. Kevin makes great smoked king salmon in the same kind of smoker, so I asked him for advice. He uses a 2:1 brown sugar to salt dry brine, brines the fish 6 to 8 hours (or overnight), dries it for 8 hours till it’s shiny and tacky on the outside, then smokes it about 4 hours. Howard added advice to use a meat thermometer so you can take off pieces that are done, while leaving thicker pieces until they are done.

Paul’s birthday (Feb 29-only happens every 4 years) and day he passed away (Aug 1- opening day of dear season) are easy to remember. Smoking fish seemed like a good activity to remember him. So the night before his passing date, I started.

I didn’t have brown sugar, so used white sugar instead. I mostly had large king salmon steaks, as that’s how I like to cook king salmon. I thawed the fish in the water in the sink, and mixed the brine. I coated the first piece of fish with brine, and put it in the bottom of a bowl. I coated the next pieces in the brine, and layered them on or around the pieces below till all the fish was coated in the bowl. I left the fish in the brine overnight, monitoring as the brine became liquid, and moving pieces around so they stayed coated. I freshened the fish the next morning (i.e., rinsed it repeatedly in freshwater) – to remove some of the salt so the product isn’t too salty. I hung the rack over the dehumidifier and in front of an open window for drying.

I called Tyler and Nevette on facetime or whatever it’s called, and Steve on the cell phone. All of us knew what today was and each were glad someone called today to talk about Paul. We all miss him.

After about 6 hours of drying, the fish looked ready for the smoker.

I put the fish on the racks, with the thickest pieces on the bottom rack and the thinnest on the top rack. There are 5 racks, and I had 4 racks worth of fish, so I didn’t put anything on the lowest rack nearest the heat.

I used the alder wood shavings that came with the smoker for the first round of wood in the pan on the heating element, then used alder sticks I’ve gathered from our land and peeled for the next 3 batches of smoke.

I tested the thickest fish pieces at 4 hours and the gauge showed 140 degrees- just about the 145 degree target. I left the fish another half ho

ur and pulled it out. I cracked pieces on all racks and it all was done. I transferred the fish to a pan to cool. I tried a few pieces. Perfect! Well, that was easy. I’ll have to learn better how to monitor with the meat thermometer so I don’t overcook some pieces, but none of these looked too dry. Now eager to try smoking some more fish, which will have to wait til we catch more. (Which I did, by the way. I used 4 cups brown sugar to 3 cups salt, and a little less sweet, which I liked).

Also my first time picking thimble berries. In Juneau, it seemed there was just a few berries per plant. Here in Craig and in this particular area, they are coming on like crazy. Thimble berries are good to eat, but there is not much to them. It takes a lot of picking to make a pile. I picked for 3 or 4 times around our place. There might be 10 berries on a bush, but only one or two are ripe. I had a tad over 4 cups of mashed berries. I added 3 cups of sugar, and put the mash to boil in the instant pot. From what I’ve read, thimble berries are loaded with pectin, so no additional pectin is needed. When the mash temp was between 200 and 220 degrees, I jarred the mash. It made 7 half pints, which exactly fit in the instant pot for a 10 minute boiling water bath can. It thickened up nicely. A lot of work for 7 half pints, and it looks lovely. When I tasted it I determined it was worth it. Some of the best tasting jams I’ve ever made. The thimbleberries have a hint of raspberry taste, but not the big seeds of raspberries or salmon berries. This instant pot gizmo is very versatile. The more I use it, the more I like it.

Another Peace Corps friend in town

Mike’s daughter went to Anchorage to intern. Even went out to Bethel and met Doug and Val and their friends. Liked it so much she decided to practice in Anchorage.

So, Mike and Polly and other family came to Anchorage for a visit this summer. Mike was able to come down fishing with me for a few days. He showed up in classic New England attire. Flat soled leather shoes. Khaki pants. Collared shirt with pull over sweater. This worked for him for both travel and fishing.

Mike was here before the Morgans, but I couldn’t get his trip uploaded before the Morgans so they are out of order. Tom, Sarah, Mike and I were all posted near each other in Kono in Sierra Leone when we were in the Peace Corps, and I’ve remained friends with them ever since. I was with Mike when he met Polly in Liberia. Polly and Mike lived in New Orleans when I was in graduate school in Starkville and Polly in Medical School at Tulane, and I visited them several times.

I stopped to buy some oysters from Markos’s farm at Wildfish in Klawock on the way to the airport to pick up Mike. We went right to the boat and motored to the anchorage, arriving at dusk.

I was up early and steamed to the fishing hole. The first fish on was by the island. I was a bit surprised when Mike grabbed the rod and knew what he was doing. He grew up fishing in New Jersey (or was it Connecticut). Nice. But we lost that first fish, and didn’t get another on for hours and hours. Finally, we caught kings and cohos, and the resident humpback whales put on their show for Mike.

Since it was Mike’s first trip and of such short duration, I cleaned all the fish and Mike got dinner on. Steamed oysters (I’m not much of a raw oyster eater) and salmon. He helped wrap and vac pack the fish, too.

We moved to the other spot back in the islands the next day. More cohos there. Mike really shined when I mentioned I had a few issues on the boat. The heater fan had quit. I thought it was the fan. Mike thought different. Mike worked as a mechanic, fixing up old cars and flipping them from what I understood, and I think he ran a mechanic shop earlier in life. He asked for my test light. I said I didn’t have one, but I had a volt meter. You don’t have a test light? How can you not have a test light, he asked? He saw I’d used the new fangled butt connectors you melt with a heat gun or lighter in my wiring. He despised them. He was sure it was one of those connectors. He was right. He soon had the fan running, and we were back in heat. With harsh advice not to use those connectors. And get a test light. (When the Morgans arrived several days later, they came bearing a new test light mailed to them for me by Mike!). He advised me on a little emergency starter for the Yanmar, too, and I ordered one of those to the Morgans, which they also brought with them

Mike’s 60th birthday was the day he went back to Anchorage. Polly told him he had a surprise party waiting for him when he got back, so he wasn’t to extend his trip here. He arrived with enough salmon for his birthday dinner and stories to tell. And enough salmon left over from the dinner to make some gravlox when he got home to Virginia.

Peace Corps family in Town.

Tom and his grandson returned this year. This time with Grandma Sarah. Tom and Sarah are two of my closest friends. We attended extensive training for the Peace Corps together at the University of Oklahoma, then were stationed close to each other when we started our jobs in Sierra Leone. I’m the Godfather for their only daughter, which says alot for two devoted Catholics who are very familiar with my potty mouth.

They arrived in town and we went right to the boat and steamed to an anchorage I’d not used before. It was going to be dark by the time we got to my familiar intended anchorage. We had pizza for dinner and got settled for the week.

The next day we fished one of my new favorite spots I learned this year, thanks to my brother in law. Sarah caught a big king salmon in the first 20 minutes we had the gear out. Oh boy, I thought. That’s gonna ruin her. We got 2 more kings and a coho. And a pink salmon we kept for dinner. I finally caught up to an old friend on the drag in another boat. He guides for a lodge here. He and I were out camp guides for fly in lodges in Bristol Bay back in the 1980’s. I saw him on the kicker of the boat, his clients mooching. I called out that I thought they’d put him in a home. Then called to him by name. He said it wasn’t Nick….. It was Nick. He finally realized who I was and came by the tug on his way to another spot and we had a quick chat. Great seeing him. He made the best cowboy coffee I’ve ever had.

We anchored nearby in a now familiar cove. Jasper went to the beach in the folding kayak- the first to try it out. He loved it. He found an antler shed and other treasures along the beach. The adults dined on fresh pink salmon and green and potato salads.

The next morning we fished the same spots. Nothing. We tried other spots in the area. Nothing. Excepts we got a few nice rock fish we kept for dinner. We headed around the island to my other favorite spot that is usually fishable in most winds. Even when it blows there in these dry hot days in the afternoon, it’s calm in the mornings. We hit the afternoon winds as we neared the corner to turn with the wind. We were trolling as normal, and whamo. A big king. I had to keep the speed up until we could clear the kelp beds and turn the corner. The net had a hole in it, and the king went through on the first try. I grabbed a gaff, and slung it on board before we lost it. That fish made our day.

The adults had panko fried rock fish for dinner. Jasper hit the beaches in the kayak again, and found the top half of an otter skull, a lower wolf jaw, and reported there was sea asparagus on the beach. He remembered what it looked like from us finding it up near Juneau last year, and brought back a piece of it so I could confirm his find.

I was up early the next morning, and put the gear out as we left the anchorage about 530 am. I told the crew we’d need to fish early as the winds would come up mid day, and everyone was agreeable. We caught 5 cohos in the morning on the ebb tide. When the tide started to flood, nothing. Then the wind came up. So we headed to the spot to set the 2 hook skate, using a pink head and a coho head for bait, then tried to find a spot out of the wind to fish. I’d hoped we could fish the spot Sean and Pat and I fished when we saw the orcas, but it was too breezy. We fished a spot nearby in calm waters, instead. We didn’t get a bite. The crew took turns taking naps in the 70+ degree heat, and a humpback whale cruised around the tug for entertainment. After a couple hours of nothing, we motored to the anchorage.

We anchored in the same spot as the first day. It was the only anchorage we used that no one had beach combed. This anchorage has 3 little islands alongside the big island that make the cove. Even I went in the punt and used my electric outboard for the first time. Took me a minute to figure out how it all worked, and it worked great. I found a couple shots of ⅝ (?) line, maybe from shrimp pots, along with a bait jar bottom in one spot and a lid that fit it in another.

When I got back to the boat, Tom and Jasper took the punt and kayak into another beach. They came back with a big crate that we could use for draining fish and cleaning shrimp. Jasper found another otter skull- this time with both top and bottom jaws, and all the teeth.

I used half the salmon burger they’d spoon-scraped off the frames, along with some onions, Mama Lils peppers, butter, pancake mix flour, and milk, to make a cream sauce, and mixed it with spaghetti noodles. Everyone had seconds. Except Jasper, who had plain noodles that I’d saved for him.

The next morning, we checked the skate first thing. About 530 am. We got up to the first hook. There’s a halibut down there. A nice one. So now to get ready. We splashed the punt so we could bring the fish around back and bleed it off the swim step, then bring it up on deck through the stern door. The fish seemed dead. I saw some coagulated blood shake out of the gill plates. I harpooned it to secure it. When I cut the gills, a little blood came out. I hauled it onboard. Length was 63 inches. Jasper looked up the weight from the length in the tide book. About 125 lbs. The next hook had its twin. Same length. This fish had a little more blood come out of it’s gills, but not much. It seemed about dead, too. Wow. The 7th and 8th fish from this set this year.

The second halibut had pock marks all over it, and some of it’s fins had the flesh eaten between the fin rays. Sand fleas, I thought. We had arrived just in time. There was no damage to the flesh. In fact, it was very well bled.

I showed Tom how to fillet a halibut. And just like Joe, another in our Peace Corps training group who was here earlier in the summer, I butchered my fillet showing him how to do it. The remaining 7 fillets (and cheeks) Tom did were about as good as they get. So little meat left on the ribs you could about see through what was left. The crate Jasper found worked great to drain the big fillets.

The two big fish changed our plans. We had enough ice to keep the halibut fillets cool, but we’d need to butcher and get it frozen and couldn’t do that out here.

We headed to our salmon drag in pretty heavy fog to fish the morning before heading to town. We started to catch cohos steadily, but I was having a hard time staying oriented as I couldn’t see the beach. As we neared the point, I saw three boats ahead on the radar, so turned back as I didn’t want to fish near boats I couldn’t see. As the fog burned off, I saw the boats weren’t sport fishing boats, but 3 purse seine boats. We headed back towards the boat so the crew could watch the action, and I explained how purse seining worked. They got to see the boats pursing up and see the fish they brought on board. And all the while, we were catching cohos. Nice big cohos. On the 10th fish, I said let’s head for home. It was 1230 noon. The crew said we had to. We were out of cooler space. So Tom and Jasper and Sara got the coho cleaned and put in the cooler and I motored for town.

We got to town just before the charter fleet arrived at the cleaning tables, and luckily got our own table. Tom knows his way around fish and game processing, and he and his crew made the whole job smooth and efficient. We were done before I knew it, motored to our slip in the harbor, and were headed to the cabin an hour earlier than I thought we would.

It was near 90 degrees inside the container in the late afternoon heat. Opening the windows seemed to make it hotter. So for the first (or maybe second) time, I switched the heat pump from heat to cool, and turned on the air conditioner so we could get to the task at hand in a little more comfort.

We got the 100+ lbs of halibut fillets and the 40 lbs of coho fillets rinsed, drained and into vac pac bags. I loaded our freezer, which has become pitifully inadequate this summer. Then Tom and I took the rest to my inlaws freezer, and we were done for now. Today felt like one of the best days on the water in my 60 years, with everything going right with people I know and enjoy so well.

We went to Coffman Cove the next day to attend the Art Festival and eat dinner at the burger joint there. The crew was not disappointed.

When we returned in the evening, the fish were frozen well, and we finished vac packing the fish. Then loaded boxes for their flight to Nebraska and my flight to Juneau. I’m headed home for a few days to see Sara and help out with the Salvation Army canteen truck that’s being used for the glacier lake flooding disaster. The Salvation Army has new pastors in town, so I’m currently the resident expert in the vehicle’s operation and will train the pastors with what I can remember from using the unit up at the Haines landslide with Shane a few years ago.

The crew took their fish in different kinds of boxes I had – one with a styrofoam inner box, and one with foil covered bubble wrap insulation inside a wetlock fish box. Their flight was delayed by about 6 hours enroute, so by the time they got home the fish had been without refrigeration for about 24 hours. Tom reported the degree of meltage was about the same between the boxes. Even though I’d seen the claims about the bubble wrap insulation, I hadn’t believed it to be as good as styrofoam, but now I do. Styrofoam is such a useful, dirty product. Not much else you can do with it after its intended purpose. It doesn’t fold up for easier storage and reuse, and I’m guessing takes centuries to break down. I reuse the boxes I get from a doctor friend and pharmacies who receive vaccines in them, so at least give them a second life. But now I know if I have to buy a fish box, I’ll get the bubble wrap insulation, which will be much easier to use over and over.