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Stikine Ducks and Geese 2018

We’d decided on a date of about Oct 24 to go to the Stikine to pull the dock at B’s cabin and also duck hunt.  I came down to Craig to go on the trip with him, and turns out Sara’s sister was going, too, so we all rode over. From Craig, we trailered their boat to Coffman Cove.  From there we crossed Clarence Strait, which can be a rough stretch of water, but was not bad at all, despite a forecast for 25 knot winds. Once in Wrangell, we loaded the gear into Mike’s boat, who is a good friend of my B’s since childhood.  His boat is a jet boat, which is better for the shallow water running we’d have to do to cross the Stikine Flats and then got up the river to the cabin dock.

We saw lots of waterfowl on the way to the cabin.  Once there, we hauled in our gear, opened up the cabin and started the generator, got our beds in order, and relaxed.  I picked high bush cranberries in the last hour or two of daylight. We had moose burger, pepper and onions for dinner.   Lots of shotgun shells came with us from Paul. We weren’t going to run out of ammo.

At first light, we headed downriver to a slough on the end of the same island the cabin is on.  We set up geese silhouettes on the bank of the slough and put some mallard decoys in the slough. B and E and their lab walked the island to jump shoot birds, and some of those they didn’t shoot get found their way to me in the decoys.  We all got a handful of ducks.

On day 2, at first light, we headed downriver as far as we could at low tide.  When the water ran out, we beached the boat, threw out the anchor, grabbed our guns and some decoys, filled out pockets with ammo, and struck out towards the island across the dry river bed.   A moose or two had crossed here overnight from the looks of their tracks. We set up the decoys along the river, and hid behind a big tree on the beach. We got a few ducks.  E decided to walk downriver and found a spot on the bank where she could get ducks passing along the bank where she hid. She got 5 ducks down there. She was pretty excited when she came back about it as she learned to let the birds get by her before she stood up to shoot. That way, the ducks didn’t see her and flare up.  I got a couple ducks at the tree blind. That evening at dusk I looked out into the woods from my perch in the outhouse and there was an owl on his own perch a short distance away, ready to start his hunting day.

On Day 3, we went further down the island we’d hunted day 2, and set up the deeks.  As we were further out towards the mouth of the river where most of the ducks and geese were, we had pretty good action.  E hiked all the way down to the end of the island. We could see her in the distance close to a mile away. She disappeared at one point when she had to climb down into a slough to cross it.  Right at that moment, a flock of geese flew by, unaware she was there. We saw 2 big honkers drop from the sky. B left me sometime later to get the boat for high tide, and on his way, he, too, jump shot a goose. I got a handful of ducks at the blind, and a lesser Canadian goose – my first.  I still can’t shoot worth a dang but starting to hit a bird now and then. I lost some birds I hit, though, and surely don’t like that, although the eagles, hawks, marten and foxes roaming the flats surely do.

We had dinner that night with neighbors that live on the island full time.  Of course, they have lots of great stories about living out there and it was an enjoyable evening.   In the middle of the night, when I went outside to pee, I heard some growling in the big cotton wood tree I was under.  When I shone the light, there was a marten looking down at me.

Leaving the next day was going to be tricky as it would be low tide in the morning, and we’d have to first go upstream and around the upriver end of the island and back down the other side to find our way out to the ocean. The Stikine has several fingers where it dumps into the ocean, but the finger we were on does not have enough water to run at low tide.   High tide was late in the day, and we couldn’t wait for it if we wanted to get back to Craig that day, which we did. The neighbor drew a map of the path to take the previous evening, and we were doing good until we weren’t.  We came to a screeching halt. I saw the shallow water coming, and was on the bow of the boat to ballast the outboard and allow us to run in the shallowest water possible. When we stopped, I just slid forward a bit but was able to hang on.  B and E were in the seats behind the windshield, and B got a fat lip when we grounded when he hit his mouth on the top of the windshield. A little lower and he’da lost some teeth. We had to empty the boat, muscle the boat off the sand bar to deeper water, then pull it upstream to a spot deep enough for us to get a running start and on step before we grounded again.  With alot of complaining, we got the boat off the sand bar, upstream 50 yards, then started hauling all our gear up to reload the boat. Less than an hour later, we restarted and were on our way again. This time we made it around the island without incident and back to the bay and crossed to Wrangell in decent seas.

Back in Wrangell, we offloaded to B and E’s boat, said our goodbyes, and headed back towards Clarence Strait.  I sat on the back deck and started to butcher the ducks. Clarence was a little sloppy and it took about 1.5 to 2 hours to get to Coffman Cove.  I had a couple dozen ducks ducks and 4 geese to butcher. I got about ? of them done on the ride over, and finished the remainder when we got back to Craig.   All the waterfowl meat went home with me for Sara in Juneau and B kept the carcasses for trapping bait.

Fall Seafood Bonanza

Jeff and I went fishing at low tide Friday morning.  He picked me up at 7 am and I had to be back for a 10 am meeting.  We drove to the trailhead a few miles from the house, put on our chest waders, and headed down the trail and out to Gastineau Channel.  I was surprised we didn’t see any one else.  Jeff said he’d been out the day before and had not seen many fish nor caught any, so I thought maybe the run was about over.

Jeff motioned to a spot directly across from the trail head.  I sort of wanted to go back to where we were last week, but thought what the heck.  As we got closer, I could see some fish finning and swirling in the water.   Jeff went to the top of the little run of knee deep water, which was about as deep as any pool would be at low tide.  I fished the lower part.  It took a while but I finally got the hang of it, and got my first one.  Then another one.  And another. And another.  We got 11 by 9 am.  I brought a big rubber backpack, and the small one with my fishing gear.  I put 7 fish in plastic bags in the big bag, and four in the little one.  The big bag was like packing a deer with all the weight.  Jeff took the smaller pack.

We slogged up to his truck and then headed to the house.  We’d done this last week and so soon had the cleaning table set up.  Jeff hosed off the fish, I dressed them, then Jeff rinsed them again and put them into a cooler.  Jeff took half the fish and I gave my half of the catch away.  I’ve got enough fish in the freezer and canned in jars, but the fish left in the channel aren’t gonna catch themselves.

I told Andrew what had happened and as he had the next day off, he was headed there.  I was going to the cabin to check the crab pots and would have taken people deer hunting, but had no takers.

On the way over to the cabin, I realized I’d forgot the bait, even though I went up to the freezer to get it, but by the time I got to the freezers I was doing something else and forgot.

Ron’s little round pot had 5 crab in it.  With nothing to rebait it, I kept it aboard.  The next pot seemed overly heavy, even for a commercial sized pot.  When I got it to the surface I realized why.  There were 20 crab in it.   Since I could only keep 20 a day, I left 5 in the pot to pull it on the way home tomorrow.

I reset the pot, motored to the easy out, offloaded the crab, and pulled the boat out to deep water on the clothes line haulout.  In addition to the bait, I didn’t bring any gloves.  I cleaned the 20 crab and both hands were bleeding when I finished.  I hauled a 5 gallon bucket full of crab halves in each hand up to the cabin, where I steamed them in two batches.

With the first real rain forecast in nearly a month, I used water from the rain catchment to steam the crab and clean all the dishes since I anticipated the rain would refill all the water I could use.

The next morning I split kindling wood to fill the box and did a cleaning of the cabin.  I pulled the pot on the way home and now had 7 in the pot.  I stopped at Bob and Laura’s on the way home and gave them three.  I called Lorraine, who had company in town, to come get the other four.

I asked Andrew if he went fishing.  He’d caught 12 this morning.  It took him an hour to catch the fish then 2 hours to clean and haul them by himself to his car.  He said he was the only person fishing he could see.  Then he went to work at noon.  He was pretty happy being an Alaskan all by himself.

The Alaskan Temne

My Sierra Leone friend Andrew caught his first salmon on his own from the beach here last night.  We are in the midst of a big coho salmon return to our hatchery (called DIPAC) and the fish are really big this year.  Andrew went down the area the fish were milling near the fish ladder at the hatchery.  I asked him how fishing was today and here is his email.  I’d be hard pressed to tell a better story of why we live here:

“Sorry I was slow to update you because my evening and this morning was very busy. I indeed went to Dipac around 7pm after I picked up Samuel from school activities and stopped by at grandma Pat’s house after another hip surgery.  I reached at the beach around 7:15 and met six other people fishing and no one was catching anything. I casted and immediately got one. I was happy because that was my first experience. It took me almost 15 minutes to bring it offshore. I casted again and got a second one. Everyone was surprised I was catching fish while they were not. I struggled again to bring it offshore. I casted for the third time and got other. The third fish gave room to others fishing along side me to catch one each because as I was trying to bring my catch offshore, the fish fought so hard making flips and other fishes started jumping around and the guys standing closed to me casted towards them and got one each. I was so happy for the experience and I planned to go their again on Friday. I cleaned them last night I will bring them for vacuum tomorrow because I’m working tonight.”

Cabin Time

Andrew finally was in a position to spend the night at the cabin.  He works two full time jobs.  So there’s rarely a day off.  If he didn’t have to sleep, he’d have 3 full time jobs.  That’s what opportunity in Alaska means for an immigrant.    He saw his father murdered by rebels in front of him, and instantly became the head of his household at the age of 14.  He and his family somehow survived on the streets of Freetown.  He managed to get himself through college there, became a teacher, and when he was drawn for the diversity visa, came to America.  After a year in Virginia he came to Juneau as he had fellow countrymen here.   So much work and opportunity here.  He said he’ll never leave.  
His daughter at first yearned for more people she thought were more like her.  But after a few years of awkwardness, she’s become an Alaskan, too.   She’s on the deans list at the University here, and works two jobs in the summer, just like her dad.   The place is growing on her.  
The son is 10 but mature in language and awareness.  My job in life is to keep him off the couch and away from the tv and video games.  It’s a struggle.  Sure, I watched Leave it to Beaver everyday after school, but we spent much of our childhood outside.  He’s not unlike his classmates.  I volunteered to be the assistant scout master for Boy Scouts when he and his buddies graduated from cub scouts to boy scouts.  Like his peers, once they are in the outdoors, they thrive in making fun where they find it.  We’ve been fishing the past two weeks for scout meetings, but the darkness is setting in now and soon that won’t be an option.  
Back to the cabin.  Andrew got off work at 5 on Friday and didn’t have to be to work till noon on Saturday.  I got off my second job captaining a whale watch boat about the same time, and by a little after 6, Andrew and Sam were here and we loaded up the boat and off to the cabin.  We pulled the crab pot but nothing there this time.  Then motored to our haul out line, where we tied up the boat, pulled it out to deeper water on the haul out line, and headed in to our cabin.
 
Andrew and his kids had both been there once on an afternoon fishing trip a year or two ago, but only Sam had stayed overnight on another trip. This was Andrew’s first time to be able to stay over.  They settled in as I got a fire going in the woodstove.   Sam brought a pizza from Bullwinkles, and we ate it at our leisure.  I tuned the Mariners game in on the radio, and Sam and Andrew found the deck of cards and were soon playing cards with each other as I listened to the game in my rocking chair.  The two get along famously, and it was nice to see a father and son just enjoying each other’s company like Ron and his boys did on the same couches with the same cards.  
We went to bed early.  Andrew slept on the bottom bunk and Samuel in his top bunk, as I took the couch downstairs.  I was up before daylight and got some coffee and pancakes on.  Andrew said he’s not slept so soundly in so long he couldn’t remember.   Samuel eventually drug himself downstairs and ate a pancake.  Then we were off to fish for a few hours.
We fished near Douglas at Pt Hilda for several hours and not a bite.  I used the red flasher and favorite yellow with red hootchie but no luck.  As 830 came and our leave time of 9 approached, I changed one line to just a green and yellow Canadian wonder trolling spoon on one of the poles.  Then it happened.  Fish on.  I grabbed the rod, and handed it to Samuel while I pulled in the other lines.  I got the net from it’s holder and handed it to Andrew.  Samuel played the fish in and Andrew netted it and it was another big coho.  They are really big this year.   We put the gear back out and not long after got another on the same spoon and rod.  This time Andrew grabbed the rod and played the fish while I pulled in the other gear.  Samuel was on the net.  Several times Andrew brought the fish over the net Samuel had in the water, but Samuel did not lift the net in time.  Both Andrew and I harassed Samuel not to lose the fish!  Finally, the fish was over the net and Samuel brought the net up and we had our second fish in the boat – another beauty.
As 9 o’clock struck, Samuel announced we were to go as that was the plan.  Despite catching fish, Sam always seems in a hurry to get home and to his electronics, I suspect.    I told Samuel that you get 15 minutes of overtime like soccer when you catch a fish.  Every African kid knows about soccer overtime.    As 915 came and went,  Sam again said it was time to leave, I told him the overtime was for EACH fish, so 15 minutes more.   He played along.   I cleaned our two fish as we continued fishing but we got no more.  We headed to the dock, and each of us took a fish home.   
I sectioned my fish, dredged it in salt and sugar, rinsed it off after 40 minutes, then put the fish in the smoker and turned the fan on to dry the fish.  The next day, I put the hot plate in the smoker, and put some alder chips on the hot plate for a little smoke.   This morning  before work I pulled the smoked salmon, now with a nice pellicle,  from the smoker, cut it up, and put it in a bowl in the fridge.  I loaded the jars with the fish for canning after work tonight, and just pulled 14 half pints from the canner, as I reflected on the fish in the jars and how they got to be there.

Makin’ Dreams Come True

Took the boy scout troop fishing again this week. Instead of going in the boat, we went to a beach right in town that has a run of coho that passes right by it. The tide needs to be low tide to fish it, and luckily low tide lined up just right with a 6 pm scout meeting.

The scout master got some loaner rods and gear from the local Alaska Dept of Fish and Game office, and I strung up 4 of my rods. We got big spinners or pixie spoons on the rods and headed down to the beach. There were half a dozen people fishing, which was very light effort for this place and probably due to the heavy downpour that let up right when we got there.

Sam and Ferguson were fishing to my left. About 10 minutes into casting, I see Sam’s rod bend. The brings up his lure and I see there’s a piece of line he’s caught. And on the other end of that line is a coho salmon. I immediately cast over the line, too, so we get two sets of hooks on it. He and I reel up out lines til we each have about 10 feet out, and we start backing up off the beach. I get ahold of the line – which turns out to be fly line- and I call Ferguson over to pull in the line. He gets the coho in the shallow water and I see it’s a real hog. Maybe 15 lbs. Just as the fish gets onto the beach the leader breaks, and I drop my rod and run forward and keep the fish on dry land. We’ve got him. What a big coho.

I show Ferguson how to stun the fish with a blow to the top of the head, and then break a gill to bleed it. We put the fish in a little tide pool that’s forming with the incoming tide. I later show Ferguson how to clean the fish. I forgot to bring a bucket, so we hang it form an old piling by the fly line we caught it on. At dark,  we head to the vehicles, and luckily Keith’s truck bed is clean, so he takes the fish and Ferg home while I take the rest of the boys home.  We head back to town and within a mile or so are soon in the heart of downtown Juneau and I think – this is why I live here.

More Canning

I put all 6 coho in the smoker that I caught on Sunday, except for the half a fish I gave my neighbor. I steaked all the fish, dredged them in 50:50 mix of salt and sugar to brine for 40 minutes, then rinsed the steaks off and into the smoker. I like to use the bones and all because you can eat them once they’ve been through the canner, so that’s why I don’t just use fillets. I’ve had a hard time with the fish flesh sticking to the rack, though, so tried to oil the rack first. It didn’t work so good. The fish on the bottom rack nearest the heat stuck, but the upper racks I was able to lift the fish and turn them over after they’d dried a bit but before they stuck. That’s the secret, I guess. Next time I’m going to try to fillet off one side and leave the back bone in on the other fillet side, then steak the fish so there’s a piece of skin that can go against the rack and that should fix it.

After a day in the smoker drying with the just the fan, I put the double burner hot plate in to further dry them for half a day. Then I put a couple chunks of alder wood on each burner and smoked the fish for a few hours. When I got home from work at 530, I took the fish out and started cleaning jars and getting ready to can. The fish was kind of mushy because I didn’t let it dry as much as usual in the canner, but I didn’t want to put the fish back in the smoker so just filled up the jars and moved forward. This was also my first time to try out the new used canner I bought in Kenai that is identical to the canner I have.

I cut the “wings” off the bigger steaks for strips. Then I used scissors and cut strips off either side of the backbone part of the steak, leaving the backbone with some meat still on it that went into a separate bowl. The strips I loaded into half pint jars. The backbone pieces and some of the small steaks I loaded into pink jars. I then took a wet paper towel and cleaned the rim off of each jar, put on a lid, and tightened it hand-tight with a ring. I put about 3 to 4 inches of water into each canner, and loaded the jars into each canner, stacking them all the way to the top. I’ve learned to start them on a crab cooker propane burner. This will quickly bring the canner water to a boil for the 10 minute venting process. After that, I put the pressure weight on and moved the canner to the kitchen stove and when it started to jiggle, set the time for 110 minutes. I did the same with the second canner, and it was on it’s 110 minute timer 20 minutes later.

I learned that the mushy fish firmed right up in the canning process, because the cooking draws out the moisture and oil and leaves that sweetness in the bottom of the jar. So it’s not that big an issue how dry the fish is when you put it in the canner. If you can get a good dry pellicle on the flesh surface, that’s all you need. The fish itself is firm and moist. I eat the pieces out of a half pint jar for lunch, then drink the oil on the bottom for dessert.