Mark Stopha - Alaska Wild Salmon Company

Elk Hunting 2021

Roy and I drew party elk tags for Eastern Afognak Island. The trip started out auspiciously when son Zeke overslept and missed his flight from Haines to Juneau. Normally, that wouldn’t be too big a deal, except that Roy and I had already left for Kodiak, and Zeke was to bring the tents.

In true rural Alaska fashion, a friend of the family just happened to be a pilot with a plane. He flew Zeke down in time for Zeke to make his jet to Anchorage, and so the hunting trip was back on track.

Roy had freeze dried all our evening meals, so we needed to shop for only a few items like fruit and coffee in Kodiak. I also went to the Salvation Army thrift store for a coffee cup and a writing notebook. Since I help at the Salvation Army thrift store here in Juneau, I was interested in what their store looked like. It was very well organized and clean and bright. The clerk who took my payment had a daughter in Juneau who worked for ADFG.

We stayed with my friend Kevin, who had been like a big brother and mentor to me 30 years ago when I worked with him at the Kodiak ADFG office. It was great catching up with him, and he was more than happy to have some people to talk to after spending the last several years down south rehabbing his leg from a bad car accident, and then returning home to the isolation of Covid. We’d put the word out for some items we’d need, and another long time friend, Bob, loaned us a cooler, axe and water jug. Kevin’s extended family had a coleman stove, little fire pit, and a cot. A friend of my brother in law dropped off another cot and set of camp chairs.

I built some extra days into the trip to account for weather delays. As we all made it to Kodiak on time, I asked the air service at Seahawk if they wanted to take us out a day early, and they eagerly said yes, as this would lighten their schedule the following day. So the next day, away we went.

We weren’t exactly sure where we were going. This was my first time hunting this area of Afognak Island. My friend Sam had hunted with success out of Gretchen Lake, and so we headed in that direction. We saw a small group of elk a few miles from the lake, so decided to go to Gretchen Lake, as Rolan had not put anyone else there as of yet. We may have sort of had first pick of a camping spot since we were now going in a day earlier than other hunters with the same permit, and charter operators don’t generally put a second party in a lake they’ve already put someone else in.

Rolan idled up to the side of the lake nearest where we’d seen the elk from the air, and we departed the plane to look around to see if we could find a good campsite. Roy and I looked in one direction, but didn’t see anything with very level open ground. Zeke called from the other direction that he had found a suitable site, and when Roy went up to look at it, he agreed. Rolan started offloading the gear to us on the beach, and after we offloaded several bags, Zeke started packing them up to the campsite.

When all the bags were offloaded, Rolan took off and Roy and I started humping bags up the short trip to the campsite. When I took my first look at it I thought: these boys have a lot different idea of what constitutes a good campsite than I do. The site was very uneven with lots of brush and devils club. But, here we were. We moved a bit further down the beach from their initial choice, and we made do with an area big enough to pitch the wall tent and enough trees to tie over the 20′ x 30′ tarp rainfly.

Once we got the tarp and tents up, we started to move in, setting up our cots and sleeping bags. That’s when Zeke discovered his gear that had been put in the floats on the opposite side of the airplane from the side of the plane we offloaded had not been offloaded. He was without a sleeping bag. Luckily, the weather was unseasonably nice, with no rain and partly sunny.
I called the Seahawk office on the satellite phone, and the staff said Rolan had trips out our way again in the morning, and he’d drop the gear in then. Luckily, Zeke had enough clothes with him to keep warm overnight. The next day I tried to call into the office again, and found that the sat phone battery was dead. I knew I’d charged it before we left, but it did not hold the charge for more than the brief call to the office. Now we were in a quandary because we had planned to communicate with Seahawk Air for our pick up, etc.

The wall charger for the unit was in it’s case. The charger read that it had an input of 110 volts ac, and an output of 6 volts dc. I had a battery power pack that had an output of 5 volt dc from a USB cord. So, after consultation with the youngster, we decided to try to cut the wall charger cord and splice the fitting that went into the sat phone to the USB cord and hope for the best. I gladly let him use his 20 something eyes to strip the 20 gauge wires, tape them up with the electrical tape we use to cover our gun muzzles, and then we tried it. It worked, to the amazement of all, but most of all, Roy. I turned the sat phone back on and we were back in business.

Roy initially thought we had too much gear when we were packing for the trip, wary of some perhaps luxuries we didn’t need, like cots. We all soon changed our minds on the cots, as they indeed provided us all with good night’s sleep and we could each store out bags underneath them. I took my 10 x 12 wall tent, which I’d never set up, along with my 11 ft long Thermos Prairie Schooner tent, which I bought from my elder coworkers when I worked in Kodiak. They used it for elk hunting back then, and said I could buy the tent for $25, as that’s what they paid for it. I’ve had the tent now for 30 years, and still use it. However, it turns out the three of us fit perfectly into the wall tent, with two cots along the side walls, and a cot along the back wall, so we didn’t use the smaller tent.

My niece in Anchorage regularly houses friends and family coming through town to hunt, and on one occasion, some boys had bought an electric bear fence for a hunt, and left it with her. We borrowed it for this trip, and it worked great. There was 108 feet of wire, which was more than enough to surround our little compound. The fence takes just 2 D batteries, and Roy tested it with his finger and confirmed that it indeed did shock when touched. I was also glad I picked up an MSR 10 liter water bag filter in Juneau with the gift certificate the scout troop gave me last Christmas, as every lake or pond seemed to have an active beaver family working.

Weather was dry and mostly clear, with a little breeze, day 1 and 2. In October. On Afognak. Wow. We scouted the area on the eve of opening day for our permit. We had drawn the second period, so the area had been open to the first period permit holders the two weeks prior. Rolan told us he had only one successful hunting group during the first period, so he was a fountain of encouragement. Roy and Zeke went in the direction of the elk we’d seen from the air, and I went in the opposite direction. The area was mostly clear cut, with some small stands of old growth forest here and there. Logging roads made travel pretty easy, but walking through the logged off areas, or seeing into areas through second growth from the road, was a challenge. This area of Afognak is alot different than the old growth regions on the western side of the island I had hunted previously with my in laws.

That day, we all sort of fell into our chores around the camp. Zeke liked to do the cooking, so he made breakfast in the morning and heated the water for the freeze dried meals in the evening. Roy made salami and cheese sandwiches with lots of mayo and mustard for everyone for lunch. I made the morning coffee.

We made a plan for opening day. Roy and Zeke would hike around a small lake and go to a big clear cut in the area they’d seen the elk on the flight in. I would skirt the other side of the lake, which was mostly small spruce trees, grass and brush. There was fresh elk sign in my area, but I didn’t see any elk. At one spot, I squeezed a few chirps from the cow call Sam lent me, and a mostly white raptor of some kind I’d seen atop a snag responded by dive bombing me at my sitting position atop a stump. Zeke and Roy saw a deer they passed on, and Zeke thought he saw an elk leaving the road into the grass and brush as they neared the edge of the clear cut. No elk on Day 1, but beautiful skies and dry weather and temperature near 50- just perfect for hiking. As I returned to the near end of the lake to get back up on the road, I saw swirls at the mouth of a tiny feeder creek to the lake – little Dolly Varden, with white-edged fins and orange sided spawning colors. I watched them for several minutes before climbing up to the road. Roy and Zeke were waiting for me, and it was an exciting discussion when I learned they’d seen an elk and a deer.

We had our first of many excellent meals that evening that Roy and his wife Brenda had cooked and freeze dried – spaghetti. It was a joy every day to go hunting and know we’d be eating great meals in the evening. Zeke would heat a litre of water in the jet boil each evening, and then add a little to each of our mylar bags of freeze dried dinner, and in 10 minutes, it would be re-hydrated gourmet dinner. Other night’s meals I remember were venison strogonof, venison chili, salmon chowder, and macaroni and cheese with venison.

Another “must have”, along with the cots, turned out to be a buddy heater that screws directly into a 20lb propane bottle my brother in law bought me for Christmas years and years ago. We lit the heater each night for 30 min to an hour before we went to sleep, and then in the morning, I lit the heater at first light and put the coffee on, as the heater can also be used as a stove.

On Day 2, I went with Zeke to the clear cut, and Roy took a turn going along the lake. While Zeke and I were each atop a stump and looking for elk in the clear cut, an official looking brown truck with antennas pulled up 15 yards to my left on the road, and the two occupants glassed the same clear cut. They never saw us. They continued down to the end of the road about 50 yards below to turn around, and Zeke and I hopped off our perches and the truck exited non the wiser. Roy walked all the way over to the clear cut and joined us later in the day. Like me, he’d seen the elk sign along the lake, but no elk. He’d also sampled the blueberries along the lake like I had, and we agreed they are much sweeter than those here in Southeast. Zeke left ahead of us on the way home and took a walk down a muskegy valley from the road to call for deer. He saw one, but the deer took off before he could shoot. Another sunny and dry day. I was wearing hiking boots for a change, as I didn’t need to wear my rubber boots with the dry weather and mostly dry ground we were hiking.

On Day 3, we decided to try around Gretchen Lake. Roy and I were sure we heard a cow elk the first night we were camped, so hoped they might be near our lake. Roy went to the timber on the higher elevation around the north side of the lake, and I walked somewhat parallel to him nearer to the lake. Zeke went around the other side of the lake from us. We were out of camp less than an hour when I heard Zeke shoot. I hunted most of the way to the lake outlet, then returned right along the lake to camp. Roy crossed the inlet and kept going around the lake and back to camp. Zeke had shot a small buck black tailed deer, and returned to camp with the meat in his pack. As I was heading back to camp, a trooper landed on the lake in a super cub. He checked Zeke’s deer tags and his meat sack to be sure he’d salvaged all he was supposed to. Zeke cooked a backstrap from the deer over our campfire and we had that along with our evening freeze dried meal. Another dry day and beautiful weather.

Day 4 saw a change in weather. It started raining and blowing at dawn, and continued til dark, when it let up. No one was up for hunting in the wet blow, and we huddled in the tent. The wind was blowing right into the wall tent door and under the sides, and we scrambled to stake down the tent sides with stakes and baggage, as well as plug up the areas of the tent at either end of the roof peak where the ridgepole went through. The rain fly threatened to blow away all day, but only one corner tore free, and I retied it right away. We were especially appreciative of having brought the heater. Zeke made a great scramble of eggs and cheese and other leftovers for breakfast, and later some no bake cookies that went great with all the coffee and tea we had time to drink. The storm blew itself out at dark, and by evening it was calm and the stars were out again.

On Day 5, Roy and I headed in yet another direction to the country behind the far side of the lake. The road there lead to a massive clear cut that made the country look like what I imagine it would if a nuclear bomb was set off. The forest had been clear cut for miles and miles, with no trees left at all. It makes me sad to see that for some reason. I saw not a single sign of elk there. Only bear scat. As we returned to camp in the evening of another bluebird day, the temperatures were falling noticeably colder in the evening. Some of the puddles in the muskeg had a thin film of ice, and we were ever more appreciative of the propane heater at night and again in the morning. We had more back strap over the campfire and freeze dried mac, cheese and venison for dinner.

The last day of hunting started with light rain. Neither Roy nor myself were much interested in hunting in the rain after seeing no elk in the area after looking in most all directions from camp. Zeke put his rain gear on and went looking for more deer. Roy and I started packing up our gear in preparation for pick up first thing in the morning at 9 am, just after sunrise. I decided to tackle sewing a patch on a hole in the front wall of the tent. I had tried using flex seal tape to patch it, but the tape was not wanting to stick to the canvas, so I sewed the tape as a patch with the sewing needle and dental floss I had in my camp kit. It took quite awhile to complete, but in sunny weather with nothing else to do, it was quite enjoyable. In the end, the patch looked okay and was solid. Zeke returned in the afternoon having not seen a deer or elk. Roy said it was time to eat lots of food “for fun” to lighten our load the next day. I cut the rest of a chub of dry salami into rounds and fried both sides in the pan over the camp fire. Then I cut strips of cheese for each round, and put on the pan cover until the cheese began to melt. We then ate the salami and cheese on Ritz crackers, and we all agreed life at that moment was pretty damn good,.

The next morning was sunny and calm. Again. What a week. When I called in our weather at first light to Seahawk, however, they said it was really blowing in Kodiak and to call back at 10 am. We weren’t sure if we’d get out now, so we packed most of the gear to the beach pick up spot, but left up the tent just in case. The call back at 10 showed it had calmed down, and now the pick up time was going to be around 1230, so we relaxed for awhile in the sun, and then took down the big rain fly tarp and tent. We folded up the tent, and bulldogged it into the duffel bag it came in. The wall tent and bag weigh 47 lbs, so just right to meet the 50 lb max for airline travel.

Rolan showed up right on time. He said due to the wind direction, he’d have to ferry us to Izhut Bay in two loads so he could safely take off from Gretchen Lake. We loaded half our gear and me in with Rolan, and made the short hop to the bay, where we offloaded the gear and me on a gravel bar. Rolan soon returned with Roy, Zeke and the rest of the gear, and on to Kodiak we went. On the way back we had a big surprise – fin whales. I’ve never seen them before and initially thought they were humpbacks because of the white coloration on the underside. Fin whales are the second longest whale after the blue whale, and are more sleek than the humpback. We could clearly see several of them swimming and blowing for quite awhile as we flew from Afognak to Kodiak.

The fun wasn’t over when we got to town. Roy’s wife found out there was a cutting edge farmer in Kodiak growing greens in a 40′ container. Roy made an appointment to see them the next day. We all got showers and told Kevin about our trip.

We visited Gideon Saunders and wife Siene Allen’s Brightbox Farm the next day. It was like looking at the future of farming and perhaps how we can feed the billions of new people who will need to eat in the coming decades. When we met Gideon, I saw he had a BP hoodie on, and asked him if he’d worked on the North Slope. He said he had, for 25 years and finished as a plant operator. A perfect background for this new venture. Three vertical panels hang in the container, with lettuce, chard, kale, and other greens growing out either side of each panel. LED lights alongside the panels provide light for the plants, and nutrient rich water drips from top to bottom to provide fuel for the plant growth. Gideon said he can harvest 1000 heads of lettuce a week, and demand is so high he could operate two more containers just to meet it. He sells weekly to 30+ customers who pick up orders at his garage, and he delivers to local grocery stores and restaurants. The various lettuce, chard, herbs, etc grow from seed to harvest in about 7 weeks.

Kevin took us all to the local brewery later that afternoon, where we met his son and son in law and heard stories about Kodiak life. We picked up some Salvadorian food from a nearby food truck after the brewery visit, and headed back to Kevin’s for dinner to watch the playoff baseball game.

It was another trip of a lifetime. It was weird to have people send their “condolences” that we did not harvest an elk, as if a family member had died. Could be I’d have been disappointed in my younger years, but surely not now. We had beautiful weather, great food, good company and solitude on our week at Afognak, and none of the 3 of us thought it was anything but great. And we’re already planning the next trip. Plus, when we all jumped on the scale for our return weight for the plane charter, we’d collectively lost 10lbs!

End of a great summer

Saturday started out with a lot of frustration from a simple random car issue.

I was cleaning out the garage and had some fishing gear to give to Jeff. When I set it on the passengers seat, some halibut rigs engaged the electric parking brake on the Leaf. I never use the brake. And that might be why it’s now seized. I looked up how to mechanically release the electric brake, and that didn’t work. Of course, the car was in the wettest part of the driveway where the water trickles down to the road, right under the middle of the car. I could sort of run it in reverse, with the back wheels that are locked up dragging, and the front wheel drive able to push the car backwards down the hill. I figured I’d get it down to the level pavement by the road, and then I could work on it. That was all working well as I inched it back wards down the driveway, until the car would go no further when it got to some soft mud under the shot rock from all the rain.

It looked like there was enough room to squeeze the truck between the house and the car so I could drive the truck below the car, and then try to drag the car the rest of the way down to the road. Well, there was not enough room. There was maybe an inch clearance between the house and the truck bed on one side, and an inch between the other side of the truck bed and the car on the other side. And my eyes can’t do an inch anymore. I crunched the side of my car a little bit, and was worried I wouldn’t be able to back out back up the driveway, but managed to do that without more damage.

Now I needed to pull the car back up the driveway somehow and get it out of the way so Sara could get her car past it from the garage to the road. There was no place to hook up a tow chain underneath the car. I went online and found there’s a tow eye in the emergency tool kit in the car, even though the owners manual doesn’t talk about this as far as I could find. I threaded the tow eye to the front of the car, and dragged the car up the driveway carefully with the truck. The car was now in a drier spot, but still on an incline that was enough that I don’t feel real safe trying to jack up the rear of the car to work on the brake mechanism, which I think I could tackle after watching a good you tube on this repair. I think I’ll see if I can get a mechanic to do this in town, and get the car towed there.

Then a bright spot. The outboard mechanics called. My boat was ready. And the engine still works! The engine would not idle properly, and I thought it was the reed valves. Turns out the answer was much simpler. Not cheap. But simple. The stud holding on the alternator had snapped after I’d replaced the alternator when I got the engine (a common issue with Optimax engines, I found out from online discussions), and when I tried to drill out the part of the bolt threaded in the mount, I buggered that up (of course), and ended up putting a smaller bolt sideways next to it. The alternator was now on a little cockeyed, but it worked. Until it didn’t. I think it stretched the belt or something, and so the belt wasn’t turning the air compressor properly. The air compressor on this outboard is akin to the computer on my diesel truck I came to find out, controlling alot of functions, including the idle.

The mechanics have a crafty welder next door. All of us consulted on how the welder could try to fix the mount for the bolt. We decided he’d grind off the part of the mount that I’d buggered up, then carefully reform the mount (which is located on the engine block) by building up welds. He’d have to go slow and be as careful as he could to not heat up ruin the engine cylinder on the other side of the engine block wall from the mount. He said he couldn’t guarantee he could do it, and I agreed to take the chance.

The mechanics called just as I got the car moved to it’s current spot, and they said my boat was ready. They sounded a little giddy, so I hoped for the best. I asked if the engine still started, and they said it was running as they spoke! The welder succeeded in reforming the mount, then the mechanics drilled and tapped a new hole for the bolt. I was happy. They were happy. They said it was a challenge for the welder but he fixed it in the end. It took about 50% or more longer than the welder expected, but I was fine with that. It is what it is, as they say. I love the outboard, and the engine wasn’t gonna really work if the repair couldn’t be made. Plus, now I have working relationships with both the mechanics and the good welder – all of which I’m satisfied with – for future work. And another good thing was when I went to pick up my boat, there was a boat with a home built hard top that was just completed, and so I’m hoping to get info on the welder who built that so I can see about getting one for our boat. Things were looking better from the morning.

I checked the forecast, and after days of wind and rain, the forecast was for calm and drier tomorrow! I picked up ice from Chris on the way home from getting the boat. After emptying the boat when I left it at the mechanics, I started to re-outfit the boat so I could go trolling tomorrow. First I had to remount the kicker I’d removed so the mechanics could have easy access to the big motor, and re-attach the new rectifier I put on the kicker to charge the battery when I’m trolling. Next was to put on the downriggers I use for hand troll gurdies, and put the fishing gear back aboard. I remembered at the last minute to put back the new cleaning tray set up. I was ready to go in the morning.
I didn’t sleep well the night before, so got a late start. I launched the boat and headed out in almost calm seas to the fishing area. On the way, I realized I forgot my spoon leaders, so I tied up what I needed for the day on the way there. As I turned into Chatham Strait, the southerly wind was making a 1 to 2 foot chop, so I headed south as far as I’d caught fish in this area, then turned north to go with the wind, and put the gear out. There was only one other boat sport fishing.

The lone occupant of the sport boat came out on deck gesturing to me with his hands out and turned up that he’d caught nothing, and I gestured the same. As I got to the north end of the fishing area after a couple hours without a strike, I picked up my gear to try another spot north of this spot. The sport boat pulled his gear, too.

It took me about a half hour to run north to the area open for me up near Berners Bay. I caught 5 fish here late in the season last year, so thought I’d try it again. I saw lots and lots of sea lions hauled out on Benjamin Island on the way. I dropped the gear, and fished north with the wind. I got one fish – still bright – but that was it – for a couple hours of fishing. But a nice end to the season. It was a nice dry day so warm in the wheel house of my little cruiser. And knowing I’d fished to the end of the time when I could catch fish, so I wouldn’t be thinking I’d missed catching more fish for the season if I didn’t go again.

It was a pleasant hour+ run back to the boat landing in calm seas. I saw cow and calf humpback whales on the way home. At the launch, a duck hunter was pulling his boat, and he said hunting was good with early migrant ducks and it was good to get out with “the little one”. I wasn’t sure if he meant his hunting dog or child, neither of which I could see. As I was backing my boat down, I saw that he’d meant his son, who was wrapped up in his phone like a an addict getting his fix. Just like some of the scouts and parents might be at the campout I was missing this weekend. I felt a twinge of pain. Technology has so many benefits, but there is a downside.

When I got home, I filleted the lone fish I caught, and put the frame and head and fins, along with the eggs I left on the boat, into the crab bait jars for checking the pots the next day. I started cutting up the fish, and saw it was the rare fish filled with parasitic cysts. I looked them up and found they aren’t dangerous to humans, but there was more of them than I wanted to eat, so we passed on fish for dinner.

We had a mailed package waiting for us, and after I cleaned up from messing with the fish, I opened it. It was a beautiful rectangular glass tray with a salmon on it. From Andrea and the twins. When I emailed to thank them for it, Andrea said Odessa had made it! Even better.
That capped an August of memories with friends and family here, and an enjoyable September of fishing. Fishing and selling to a buyer, without having to worry about packaging, storing and selling them myself as I did in the past, sure has made fishing enjoyable and satisfying.
I’ve been walking daily getting ready for elk hunting with Roy and Zeke, and so now looking forward to fall hunting and maybe some high bush cranberry picking if I can find some.

Coho fever

Andrew went with me hand trolling on Monday. It was so choppy I would not have been able to fish I don’t think if he wasn’t there driving. The jacked up cleaning tray worked great. My back is still sore, but better. We caught 23, which is another good day and for sure I caught many more than I would have if Andrew wasn’t driving.

Too windy to go out to the hand trolling waters today, so I delivered my catch from yesterday to Chris, then took Andrew and his newly arrived daughter sport fishing. We only caught one coho, but it was a hog, and there were half a dozen crab in the pots, so the daughter got a good first boat ride and day fishing. When I got home, I decided to swap out the home made hand troll gurdies from Cannon to the Penn downriggers I picked up over the winter on craigslist.

It took a couple hours but once I did the first one, the second one went quickly. I like the brake on the cannon over the penn, but the penns are more skookum built, especially the handle, which is metal. I’ve already broken off 2 cannon handles. We’ll see how they fish tomorrow.

Perfect trip for good friends

Chris and Sheila left this morning after a week of fun here. Sheila is the sister of my late friend from grad school, Jimmy, who made me feel most welcome among his family during my 2 years in Mississippi. Chris was Jimmy’s best friend growing up.

Dropped them off at the airport shortly after 3 am for their 5 am Delta flight to Seattle. Wheeled in their fish box and it was dialed in at the maximum 50 lbs on the nose, which was not surprising given the week they’d had.

Every day was exceptional for them.

We took a ride with Larry to Tenakee and back and saw humpback whales bubblenet feeding.
We caught 13 coho salmon in a day, then saw orcas on the way home.
We took a ride to Haines with Larry and Roy showed them around town and we saw the cranky sea lions hauled out on the way home.
We caught a pile of crab and overnighted at our cabin eating all the crab we could for dinner, then picked the rest.
They took some walks and drives around town, and saw a sow black bear with cubs, went up the tram and climbed further up Mount Roberts, and they loved the whale statue park.

Yesterday, we drove out the road and stopped at the Shrine of St Therese, and they did some praying in the church, walked around the stations of the cross, and then Sheila walked around the labyrinth. Chris explained to me what a Columbarium is. On the way home, we were running low on electric for the car, and luckily Sara was also in the same area, so I plugged my car in at a station, jumped in with her and we all went over to Zarelda’s to order take out, then I took her car to get ice for fishing from Chris, dropped it back at my car, and when I returned to pick them up they came out with food in hand. I added leftover salmon to my vegetarian curry and it was excellent.

We learned a lot about the Methodist Church from these two ministers, and interesting to hear about their different congregations in Mississippi and their daughter’s in Atlanta. Also how long term a “mission” can be, as they spent 10 years at a site just helping to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, and now are headed back to see what the situation is with Ida, that passed through their area when they were here.

Back to fishing

Got in a couple days of hand trolling the past two days. Had my best days for coho hand trolling in my second year, two days in a row. My friend Gordy had his best day yesterday, too, fishing south of me, and he’s been hand trolling a long time.

And wow, is my back sore from cleaning because my cleaning trough is too low. Got to take tomorrow off at least. Now that I don’t need the money, my health takes priority over fish checks, and my back needs to be in good shape to go elk hunting with Roy in about a month.

The fish were coming about as fast as I want to have them come yesterday for awhile. I had to quit pulling fish and just clean, and in doing so, realized I should let the lines load up with fish like that all the time as the fish on the hooks attract other fish to hooks without a fish. I had four fish on each side – with the only hooks not with a fish were fouled and maybe one of the hootchie hooks was bare. Of course, fish could have got on and off with all the soak time as I was cleaning the other fish.

Coho dock price from my buyer is $3.50/lb, so the pay checks are somewhat stunning just for catching the coho with cannon manual downriggers rigged for trolling.

Of course, I lost the first fish of the day and the last. Both hogs. And I think each time – there goes 35 bucks.

Still refining my little troll show. Realized I can just take out one of the benches behind the captain seats and put the cooler there, instead of having it in the way all the time, so that’s one of the next projects. I must get some welding done for better mounting of the downriggers, too.

I started off just fishing flashers and hootchies as that’s what I’d been catching coho on sport fishing. I put in an orange spoon here and there as well. When I saw the coho start to hit the spoons, I swapped the flashers to spoons, except for some 4 inch flashers I got from Cabelas to try. They seem to work okay at times, and create no drag on the wire like the bigger flashers do.

Yesterday a humpback whale surfaced right next to me, then started cutting in front of me. I yelled to him or her, and she seemed to hear me and dove across my bow at a safe distance.

God on our side

We have the sister of one of my best friends who I met at graduate school who passed away too young in December, along with her husband, in town. They are both Methodist pastors from Mississippi. And they seem to have put God on our side, if God chooses sides. When we got to the harbor to take a trip to Haines with Larry on Wednesday, we got the parking spot right next to the ramp we had to descend with our day packs of food and clothes. Yesterday, the fishing was as hot as I’ve seen it. We had several instances where we had coho on both rods, and we did not lose any fish that got hooked. On the way home, we saw a group of orcas – 2 cows, a bull and an itsy bitsy calf and shared the viewing with just one other boat. We got to watch them as they cruised up the shoreline towards Pt Retreat Lighthouse. We had fresh salmon for dinner. While I was butchering the catch, I called to the new neighbor kids to ask their dad if they wanted a fish for dinner. He and the kids then came over, and the youngest picked out their fish from the cleaned fish in the tub. It was our first time meeting the dad and we’re glad to have such personable new neighbors like our good friends who moved were. And nice to have more kid chatter in the neighborhood.