My brother in law Brian, his brother Kevin, and I went elk hunting on Afognak Island, which is right next to Kodiak Island. Brian and Kevin had drawing permits, so I was there to pack meat and maybe shoot a deer if the opportunity arose.

We met in Anchorage. First stop was the Sportsman’s Warehouse. Everything and anything you need for hunting. Brian and Kevin bought fancy shmansy weatherproof camo pants and coat. I stayed with my trusty $12 Costco fleece pants and garage sale fleece pullovers. I did pick up a leatherman tool when we noticed no one had one. Only have about 25 of them at home, but what’s one more….

We headed down to Kodiak, where I’d lived in the middle 90’s. Felt good to be back. Friends of Brian and Kevin’s just moved to Kodiak from Prince of Wales Island, and we were staying with them. A good friend who was out of town had left me his vehicle. I got that from his house, and then we started the in-town chores of getting food, picking up the rental camping equipment, and other things we’d forgot, like groundline for pulling up elk meat into the trees and out of bruno’s reach.

We got weathered in the next day. Too windy and rainy to fly to Afognak on the DeHaviland Beaver float plane we’d chartered. So, more shopping and seeing old friends. The following day, the weather cleared about mid-day, and we loaded the plane and headed to Afognak. We landed in a shallow lake relatively high on the island. We set up camp – a 10 x 12 wall tent and various satellite tarps hung for cooking and gear storage – that evening under sunny skies.

The next day was the day before opening day. We packed our sleeping bags and pads, a small tent, and some beef jerky and candy bars. We planned to hike up the mountain, try to locate elk we’d seen on the flight in, and then spike camp near them. We hiked up the mountain about 2.0 miles or so. Brian and Kevin were in front of me when we came to the second small beaver ponds. They had set down their packs, and were out in the open at one end of the small oval pond. As I approached to put down my pack, an elk bugled, and then a bull appeared at the other end of the pond – well within shooting distance tomorrow. The problem was that now Kevin and Brian were out in the open, and they were worried about spooking the elk. The elk then proceeded to swash his head back and forth in the tall grass – like he was cutting it – and laid down, with his head pointed in the direction of the bugling elk, and quartering away from us. Eventually, we pulled out of there after watching the elk from a long time through the trees. We returned about 3/4 of a mile to the first of the two ponds, and spike camped there.

The next morning – opening day – we headed back for the bull. He was not still bedded down when we got there. Several beavers were working the pond, and continually slapped their tails on the water, perhaps not appreciative of our presence. So, we skirted the pond through the timber high above the bank to the other end where the elk was the day before.

When we got to the other end, there was a grass flat at the end of the pond, with a clump of trees on a little hill. As Brian skirted the left of the little hill, he frantically waved Kevin and I forward. I double-timed it right into a hole and up to my waist with both legs. Kevin managed to catch up to Brian, who sent him into the woods of the little hill. The elk was coming down the far hillside, but had gone on the right side of the little hill, while we were on the left. I caught up to Brian, who told me about the elk. A few seconds later we hear the blamo, and when we got all the way around the little hill, there was Kevin with our first elk. He’d come out of the woods and there was the elk, standing in the open and apparenlty looking for the rest of the heard. It was a quick, one shot affair to the neck. We spent the rest of that day butchering the elk and packing the meat back to the spike camp. We’d heard it was important to get the meat away from the kill site the first day, as a bear was usually on site within a day, or at the longest, 2 days. From what we’d heard, the bear would be happy with the gutpile and the carcass, so you just had to move the meat a small distance away for the short term, as the bear would be content with his fare for a day or two. Brian and I made 3 trips each back to spike camp, while Kevin stayed and continued butchering until all was cut up. Brian went up on the hillside and bugled but no reply.

We slept at the spike camp tent, then started packing to the lake the next day – about 1.5 miles or so. We each made 2 trips, and slept well that night at the base camp with one elk in the trees. The pressure was off, and a second one seemed almost too much to ask for.

The next day we decided to make a march around the mountain to the saltwater side, where other elk had been spotted. We didn’t pack a spike camp, as we thought if we got an elk, we’d pack it to the beach and then hightail it back to camp. We started out at sunup- about 830 am. It was about a 5 mile hike, much if it through the spruce forrest on the elk trails. It was again another sunny day in the 50’s. Brian would bugle at open grassy bowls. We finally got a reply about mid-day. Brian continued bugling and cow calling where he and Kevin were in the trees. I was behing a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, out in the open, near Brian and Kevin. We were facing north, where we thought the bugling was coming from, when I caught a movement out of my eye due west. After another call, I saw it again and then saw the back of an elk. He’d snuck up on us without a sound. It was a satellite elk coming down to say how-do to the cow call. We dumped that elk, which trotted up in the woods. We quickly followed but found there was no hurry. He was down. Brian continued calling and the elk continued bugling. Kevin took the video camera and moved about 30 yards uphill from the kill site to see if he could sight the herd bull. I went up and joined him. When I crested the little rise, there was the whole freakin’ herd – some 30 cows, calves, bulls, and the big Kahuna – the herd bull. They’d get antsy and start moving away, and then Brian would call and they’d come back again. Kevin got many minutes of it on film – a real treat for family and friends when we returned.

We butchered that bull and moved the meat to the trees about 100 yards from the kill site. Time was not on our side, though, and we had to head back to base camp before getting the meat to saltwater. That meant, of course, another 10 mile or more round trip the next day to move the meat a relatively small distance. But, we had both our tags filled, and time was not an issue. I was feeling pretty good, having built up my endurance with increasing treks each day.

The next day, after 5 days or so of sunny daytime weather in the 50’s, some snotty wet weather finally moved in. We treked to the kill site, but the rain couldn’t get to us much when we were in the woods. When we got to the kill site, we saw perhaps the coolest thing on the trip. We noticed some bear tracks over our tracks from the day before, so we knew bruno was in the house. When we got to the carcass, the bear had neatly buried the backbone and head in a carpet of moss raked from a circle around the carcass. You could not have done a neater job with a rake by hand. And, I saw none of the gutpile. That bear looked like he’d eaten the entire thing – which I wouldn’t have thought possible just based on the size of the gut pile versus the size of a bear’s stomach – but he/she did. We were nervous being on the freshly covered kill, but figured the bear would have to sleep off the gutpile for awhile, at least.

We made the trip down to the beach with the meat in two trips each – looking left and right often for any sign of bruno. We never saw him. The weather had really picked up, and it was blowing a steady 30-40 kts on the beach and raining sideways. We finally headed home and once we got up off the beach into the woods, we’d seen the worst of it. It was a slow walk back, with several stops for water. I bought a new gadget – called a Steripen – which purifies water with a 4AA battery UV light. It seems to have worked great- all those beaver and I have no signs of giardia. You simply fill up a water bottle, put the light in the bottle, and it tells you when it’s “done”. Much quicker and simpler than the filters that seem to take forever to get a glass of water.

The pilot had stopped in the day before, and said he might try to get us late on this day. When we got back to camp, it was really blowing and raining, and I hoped he wouldn’t show – I needed at least 30 minutes to get horizontal and recover from the hike and the rain and cold. He didn’t show, and we slept even better that night knowing we had our “free meat” for the year.

The next morning, the pilot dropped in early, and said he was running behind and that another plane might come in at 11 am. So, we had time to leisurely break camp, as the weather again turned sunny. We had camp down by 10 30 am. No one showed until about 3 pm however, so we spit sunflower seed shells into the lake, and watched the salmon fry taste them. When the Beaver arrived, it was accompanied by a Bush Hawk – a smaller plane comparable to a Cessna 206. The Beaver took Brian and Kevin and some gear and left to get the meat on the beach at tidewater. I then put the rest of our gear into the Bush Hawk and we headed back to Kodiak.

We each airfreighted home about 200 lbs of boned-out meat each (600 lbs total). Not exactly free meat, but not too bad either. Most of our friends travel south “on vacation”. Rarely do I take a vacation out of state – there’s so much more fun to be had right here at home – in an admittedly huge herkin’ house.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

My dad’s only sister came up to see us somewhat on the
spur of the moment this past week. So, with virtually
no preplanning, we all just winged it. When she
arrived, we had dinner with our friends who live in
Cairo, Nevette Bowen and her husband Peter Kenyon. I
rarely eat out, so it was a nice outing to the Douglas
Island Pub and a chance for her to meet many of our
friends at once. Later on that evening, we went to
another group of friends for birthday cake.

The next day, she and Sara went to watch our neice
play volleyball for much of the day.

On day 3, she and I went fishing. Coho fishing has
been slow and spotty this year near Juneau. We got a
sunny, calm day, so we ran up to Hand Trollers cove.
After about an hour with no action, we got into the
fish. We caught 4 coho, a pink and a chum over the
next few hours. Humpback whales, which we’d seen at a
distance, moved right in near our skiff. We left for
our cabin. On the way, I spotted a pod of orcas, so
we had those go right by the boat, and one jumped a
couple times, too. We pulled the crab pot at the
cabin, and we had salmon and crab for dinner.

The next day, my aunt walked around Horse Island while
I cut firewood. She saw a doe and yearling on the
walk. We had spaghetti with moose sauce that evening
at the cabin.

The next day was sunny for the ride home.

The next day, she took a kayak trip with our dentist’s
daughter’s guide service, where she saw eagles and sea
lions.

The next day, she walked from the house into town,
went to the museum, up the tram to the top of Mt.
Roberts, then back down and walked back to the house.

Yesterday, she took a vehicle as both Sara and I were
at work. I gave her directions to the glacier and the
hatchery. She lucked out and saw the sow bear with
cubs at the glacier area, and then hiked up to the
water fall near the glacier. So, eagles, bears,
deer, kayaking, good fishing, good weather, good food,
museums, and lots of walking.

I put her on the plane early this morning, exhausted
and happy! Not sure you could experience a better
week than that for any price!.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Hauled fish from Pelican on the ferry. First time trying that, and it worked slick. Pelican has no roads – just a boardwalk – and in all the time I’d spent there, I never noticed a vehicle driving on them, other than bikes and golf cart- type vehicles, but when I asked, I was assured a truck was okay.

Beautiful day over and back. Although raining in Juneau, it was 70 degrees or so and sunny on the outer coast. My friend Joe Emerson was waiting for me when I arrived. He and his twin 16 year olds helped me load the fish in totes, and then push them up the dock ramp by hand, and then into the truck with the gate lift. You can sure tell troller’s kids – hard working. The twins were returning with me on the ferry as school was starting 2 days later. They asked on the way home if I needed help weighing the fish in Juneau, and I said sure! It’s a tedious, somewhat back breaking job doing it alone, and I really appreciated the help. When I told their dad the next day, he sounded a little surprised and proud, so I could tell he hadn’t told them to help me – they did it on their own.

Trip back to Juneau was like the trip out – sunny on the coast and rain by Juneau.

I delivered my fish in town on Tuesday, and to some of my sister’s customers in Pittsburgh. We’re trying to get more people to buy whole, dressed fish, so they can enjoy it fresh. Many are daunted in having to deal with a whole fish, even though the innards and gills are removed.

So, I decided to do a little video to show how easy it is. My neighbor, Lucas, is a big snow boarder (17 or 18 yrs old), and he and his buddies put together a professional video under their “company” name “Bad Larry Productions”. So, I hired him to come over with his high end digital camera to film my demo so we can post in on the website. I was duly impressed with his expertise in setting up the camera. He then started asking about how to edit the film with intros, text, etc., to which I had no clue as to what to do, and so he’ll do what he thinks works best – should be great.

Went halibut fishing in our “big” boat yesterday with my buddy Ron and his 2nd or 3rd cousin (13 yrs old). Went down near Snettisham south of town. We got a nice 50 lber right off, and then a 15 lber mid day. A beautiful day – calm and warm – and we saw some orca whales near Grand Island on the way home.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Been a rough season. I’ve felt the full-court press of a state government that is anti-business, and now understand fully how hard it is for a small business to operate here.

I sold our troller last year. Demand we could not meet on our own for our fish and high fuel prices both led to that decision. The plan was that we were going to deckhand with others, take care of the fish on board, pay the skipper above dock price for his fish, and get the larger volume of fish we needed.

That worked for awhile, but once the season started, the boat we were on went to Sitka because that’s where the better fishing was. We couldn’t operate out of Sitka, so were stuck. We found another family, Taku River Reds, doing the same type of business we were. I showed them our bleeding techniques and they took to it like, you guessed it, a fish to water. I learned handling techniques from them. More than I, they are real innovators as gillnetters in a notoriously high volume, not so high quality fishery. But, he could only let us buy so many fish as he, too, could not meet his demand.

So, we can up with a simple solution: we’d buy a boat, buy fish right out of the nets from gillnetters, dress those fish to our specs. We’d pay the fishermen more than they got at the dock, and they wouldn’t even have to keep fish on their boats! We’d get the quality we needed, having handled the fish from the just after it’s out of the water until it’s chilled – the most important quality period from boat to consumer. We figured this would work great for everyone, and since the application for a processing license said right on the first page that “processing is not gutting and gilling if done on the vessel 1/2 mile from shore”, we knew we were not operating outside the law.

How freakin’ wrong we were. When the Dept. fo Environmental Conservation got wind of our operation, after Tim Cottingim and Paul Dick of our Dept. of Revenue tried first to put us out of business, they said we could not dress fish on our boat because the regulations say, it has to be the boat that caught the fish. So, you ask, how could it matter where the fish are dressed in terms of any public health issue? The answer is, it cannot. There are statues that allow a commissioner to address these type of regulatory irregularities for just this type of thing, where someone like me falls through the regulatory cracks. I petitioned the Commissioner Hartig to address our situation. He simply said no, and gave no public health safety reason for doing so. He said I’d have to operate as a “floating processor” to do what I wanted to do – which requires separated rooms, secondary sewage, etc. Like a “floating hotel” of sorts. These vessels are generally at least 60 feet or more, and cost a quarter to half a million dollars, at the low end. I’m dressing these fish, literally just about within sight of town, and then bringing them in to a licensed processor the same day. How could a floating processor requirement be an appropriate solution to my tiny operation?

The commissioner just said no, and said I could “comment on regulations to address this situation during the next legislative session. Like the salmon will just wait until next year. Most of the salmon I would have bought were sold instead to one of the major processors, who will likely send them (and our jobs) to China for reprocessing. I should put in a caveat here, too, that the state even allows sport fishing derbies to dress fish on board a tender vessel or even in the open, at a fish dock, and then sell those fish in the public trade.

So, we’ve got our “new” boat for sale. It’s not worth the risk of holding on till next year to see if a bill might pass that would allow us to do what we want. The bill might simply not go anywhere, as DEC is on record as trying to pass regulations several years ago that could cripple some of our fisheries, lower quality of the fish harvest, and for really no public health risk benefit. When was the last time a wild salmon from Alaska had a problem? In my case, most of the fish were to be frozen, and then all of it cooked by the consumer. There’s just little health risk in that kind of food product. And lesser chance, still when the product is directly from me to my customer. I have everything to lose if unsafe product hits the market.

I have the distict inclination that had I been a large processor and some regulatory dilema like this arose, that it would have been taken care of in a week. The state would have come up with an appropriate response, and then worked out proper regulatory issues later, if necessary. When you’re a small business, you don’t have the clout to move in the regulatory process. You can’t influence elected officials with campaign donations that are the size of the big corporations, nor does your business hold the clout at the local level where your local officials might put some pressure on the state officials. It just doesn’t have to be this way. The state requires the fisheries regulatory professionals to have college degrees in microbiology, etc. Why require them to have this education and then not use that education to come up with appropriate solutions in real time, but rather wait until a bunch of legislators, few or none of whom have this education, to pass regulations to do so, when these same, educated professionals HAVE the authority in state statue to already come up with regulations as needed to address unique situations like mine?

I think part of the answer is that the fewer people processing fish, the fewer businesses DEC has to keep an eye on. The only problem with that is that the larger processors are merging by the year, and the larger processors are exponentially increasing the amount of fish that they mimimally process here (maybe just freeze salmon whole in blocks of ice), and then ship the fish to China for reprocessing. Those fish are then shipped back to the US to consumer markets. Why an administration “of the people” so to speak, would deny our business from existing, when we keep every cent right here until our fish leaves for the consumer, is beyond me. I know there are bigger issues right now – it’s all about the gasline, and unsustainable, non-renewable resource. But when you’ve exhausted all your legal avenues, written your legislators, and talked with the fisheries person in the governors office, all to no avail, you have to concede defeat at some point, or go crazy otherwise.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Finally got out for a few hours of recreational
fishing. Left on Tue and dragged a coho spoon around
for a few hours, with no luck and didn’t see any
caught. Saw one humpback whale.

I crossed Stephens Passage and pulled the crab pot.
Loaded! The new “lobster puck” bait we bought seems
to be working as advertised. This is the third pull,
at least, on the first puck put in several weeks ago,
and the third time the pot has had lots of crab. I
put new biodegradeable twine on the pot lid, and let
it soak another night.

I then skiffed another 100 yards to Horse Island,
offloaded my pack of food and gun parts, and headed in
to our cabin. The trail was lined with blueberry
bushes sticking out over the trail. My legs were
soaked by the time I got in the 10 minute walk. And
not many berries this year, either.

I took out the gun barrel and new stock for the old
30-06 iron-sighted Enfield. It took all of 2 minutes
to put together, and now I’m eager to sight the gun
in. Of the 3 rifles I have, it’s the only one I seem
to be able to consistently shoot straight – and the
other 2 have high powered scopes.

Our neighbor gave us some fresh corn on the cob from
her trip to Washington State, so I boiled that and
fried a piece of sockeye salmon for dinner, after
doing some chores around the cabin. Split wood supply
is low, so I split some wood from the dry (as dry as
it gets, anyway) round wood pile. Then jury-rigged a
new roof for the part of the porch that is uncovered.
When I went to stand on a metal chair, the legs poked
right through the deck. Looks like I’m about 5 years
too late on the roof, but at least it’s there now.

Although it wasn’t that cold, I started a fire as
that’s always part of getting away. I sat in a
rocking chair with the door open to the flame, with
the rain and sweat soaked clothes hanging down from
above drying. Dinner was great, of course.

The next morning, on my way out with the now assembled
rifle in hand, I looked up hill near the beach and
the bright orange chicken of the woods mushrooms on a
tree caught my eye. Then a head popped up! The deer
was a yearling, with big brown eyes and not a care in
the world. No horns, so not legal anyway but would
have made a great story if it was a big buck with a
christmas tree and me there with my rifle and new
stock … but no ammo! I tried a lame excuse for a
fawn bleet to see if the deer would come closer, but
it would not, so I left it in peace. I continued to
the beach, and rung out my rain-soaked $10 Costco
fleece pants, my standard wear for some 5 years now.

Returned to the Douglas Island shore for more coho
fishing. Now, not even any boats were there. No fish
for a couple hours of fishing. Saw a few porpoises
cruising the area. Back to town for the never ending
work, but great to get away even if only for a few hours.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

I was at my processor last week. He was cutting the
pink salmon I’d brought in. I grabbed a fillet to try
and headed to my “real job” office, and put it in the
fridge.

Today, starved and bored to death, I put half a fillet
in the microwave, and cooked it about 4 minutes. Took
it out, put on some 1000 island dressing (who know how
old THAT is), and dug in. I hadn’t eaten pink salmon
in forever, so thought I’d better monitor what we’re
selling.

Boy howdy, is that tasty. Mild, easy to cook, and
with nothing on it but some old salad dressing, it
tastes great – no fishy taste, etc. No wonder kids
like it. The fish has been harvested en masse for so
long and rough-housed from the boat to the processor
that most ends up in the can. The fish we get is
taken care of like king salmon, and would taste good
to anyone – Alaska Sourdough or Florida mom and kids.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com