Life in Alaska

August tradition

Tom arrived on his annual first week of August fishing trip. In the past, he’s brought his wife, daughter (a long time ago), and grandson (The Cheese). This year, the Cheese was off with his cousins, working a job with them poisoning ponds in Michigan, rather than going fishing with his Grandpa and me (I’m not kidding). So, Tom brought his brother in law Al, a career GM worker from Detroit, Tom’s hometown.

They arrived on the 130 flight from Ketchikan, and we were fishing at the coho Island drag at 3:30. After just a few fish with the last group of Peace Corps friends, I was hoping the cohos would move inside, where I could fish for them in calmer waters. I was not disappointed.

By 6:30, we were motoring to the anchorage with over a dozen coho. Lucky for me, Tom is now an experienced fish cleaner, and was able to keep up. All I could think of was that Al is ruined for life. He’ll think it’s always like this. I caught myself helping out a bit too much with the lines, and we almost ran aground. Crap. I’ve got to watch that. The fish – coho and pink – were thick. Fish were swirling at the surface like I’ve never seen. The coho were full of needlefish. Tom, a deacon in his Catholic Church, thought the luck might be because of all the prayers he said. I told him he needed to try swearing once in awhile so he could catch up cleaning. There were no other boats around.

We finished processing about 915 pm at the anchorage, right at sunset. I made pink salmon and salad for dinner. The boys had their take-home fish supply assured already. We could spend the rest of the week replenishing my freezer after I gave last week’s crew all the salmon Julie and I caught the week before they were here.

The next morning, we weighed anchor at 515 am and ran to my favorite king drag. We’d fish with larger lures and deeper if necessary. We put the gear down at 630 am. We caught 2 nice kings and 3 coho for the day. A welcome breather from the day before. As we motored out on the first day, Al said said he didn’t get a king salmon stamp to “save a few dollars”. I wasn’t having that, and had him get one online. That was a good thing for him. He realized when he caught the two kings that the few dollars were worth it, as I would have made him release them if he hadn’t.

By the end of the second day, we’d out fished our cooling capacity with the big kings, so we headed to town to offload. By 630 pm, I was wiped out, and fast asleep before 7 pm. I slept hard.

The next morning, we vac packed all the fish after sleeping in a bit. One of my Foodsaver vac packers kept throwing a red “liquid tray full” light, and these units will not work with that light on. Try as I might to dry everything, it would stay on. I searched the internet for help, and saw a thread about cutting the white wire to bypass the light. That worked! I’ve Craigslisted the several vac packers I have here, and with three of us vac packing, that sure speeded up the operation.

We headed back out about noon and had our gear in about 2 pm. We caught 3 nice coho, and lost the biggest one of the day at the net. We kept a pink salmon for dinner, and it was excellent as usual. We at one of my new spots behind an island in idle seas.

On day 4, I weighed anchor at 4 am for the 4 am high tide. We got a nice king at 515 am. Then the wind blew up, and we moved to a new spot for me called Hole in the Wall (HITW). On the way there, we saw two spectacular bull orcas that popped up right next to the boat. One of them has a distinctive notch on his dorsal fin, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for him.

I switched the lures to whole herring king kandy on one side, and a big lime green king spoon on the other, and dropped down to 100 ft from the standard 70 ft, to try to target kings and limit cohos and pinks . We caught a keeper king and a 22 lb king that jumped and jumped for Tom at HITW, along with 5 coho. We anchored at 115 pm in a new spot for me, so as to not overload our cooling capacity again, and processed fish for 1.5 hrs. So glad to find a king spot for NW winds with a nearby anchorage, as I really didn’t have a spot to move to when the winds come up at my favorite king salmon drag. Salmon trollers joined us later in the evening in the unique anchorage called HITW.

We slept in til 6am on day 5, and fished HITW all day in the lee from the NW wind. It was a beautiful sunny and breezy day. We released a few pinks, and that was it! On the last tack, we fished further east to some other islands, looking for a better anchorage, and we found one. As we pulled the gear to go anchor, we got a coho and a rockfish. We set the skate outside the anchorage. We went into the cove, dropped the anchor, and the 3 of us went to shore in the punt to beach comb. We got a nice hike on the beach. Tom found a troll gaff in a driftwood pile – his second troll gaff find in Alaska. Years ago he found one floating when we were trolling near Juneau, and it may still be one of the gaffs on the boat now. I told Al to watch his footing as we climbed around the rocks between driftwood beaches, as we were a minimum 3 hours away from a competent doctor. Doctor Tom cracked a grin. Al thought I was the George Carlin of Alaska. I cooked the rockfish and a piece of the coho for the boys for dinner, and I had leftover coho from the night before.

We checked the skate the next morning, and nothing. Fishing was dead at HITW, so we moved to my favorite spot for 2 coho, and then got blown out of there when the NW wind picked up. We ran back to the coho Island, and set the skate on the way. We picked up a few coho at the Island. Al started cleaning fish under Tom’s supervision, and he did a good job.

For the final dinner on the boat, I cooked canned venison, with salad, rice, onions, and mushrooms. It was the last night eating on the boat for the trip, so I tried to finish up the vegetables. I anchored by Muerta Island for the first time, and it was pretty good in the NW wind. The Bruce anchor I put on recently holds well.

The last morning, there was nothing on the skate. Again. It’s been a tough halibut year for Uncle Mark. We fished the Island for a pass and released a few pinks, but no cohos, despite lots of feed. We caught a chicken halibut we kept for the last dinner tonight.

It’s been a different year. Although there’s feed around, humpback whales seemed scarce this July and August, and the coho and king salmon fishing has been scatchy in the inside waters I fish. There are reports of good fishing and feed offshore, so maybe that’s where the whales are, too.

Another great trip with Tom and family.

Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer Tray Full Red Light won’t go off HACK!

This post may be the biggest read I’ll ever get.

I have a Foodsaver V3825 vac packer. The liquid tray full light came on, and try as I might, it would not go off, until it finally did. Then it happened again. I saw a DIY post that was only on the preview of the actual string, and that worked. Here it is.

Unplug the machine.
Take the screws out of the bottom of the machine, which allow the bottom plate to come out and expose the wiring to the liquid collection tray.
Cut the white wire going into the bottom of the tray.
Now just check the tray once in awhile to empty it, but it does not stop the machine from working.

You’re welcome.

Fishing is a Sci Fi Movie

Well, I broke my brother in law’s rod yesterday fishing with him. But it’s part of the end of a good story.

We were fishing on the outside coast. My brother in law’s son in law was in town, so he invited me to along on their fishing trip. The weather looked good that day, then was gonna blow up. I rarely go outside to fish but the seas looked okay so I gladly went along.

We were fishing for an hour and hadn’t caught a king salmon yet. Then my nephew gets a big fish on the one rod. As I bring in the other rod, we got a double! My fish feels a bit weird by the way it’s fighting – like maybe it’s a halibut or something.

My nephew continued playing his fish, and slowly works the fish closer to the boat. All of a sudden, we see his line and his flasher whizz by behind the outboards in the back of the boat – and I mean whizz by. Faster than any fish I’d ever seen. Turns out there was a good reason for that.

Out of nowhere, about 20 feet behind the boat, a HUGE sealion bull jumps vertically almost fully out of the water, with the big king salmon in his mouth! It happened so fast it took me a second to process what we just saw happen. It was like something out of a sci fi movie.

Then the sea lion ran with that fish across the props and broke off the flasher and lure and was gone!

I then bring my fish up, and it’s swimming, but sadly, it had no tail. A sea lion had bitten off the back of the fish, but it was still alive and swimming. As I lifted the rod, the end of the rod broke off and then the line broke at the flasher, so we lost all that gear, too. So, 2 kings on, and no kings in.

We might not remember the fish we caught this day, but you always remember the one that got away.

39 year reunion

Ray, Tim and Dave were here for 4 days of mostly boating and watching fishing rods. Not many fish. Julie and I went to help my brother in law check crab pots the day before she left, and I had some of the crab with me for dinner the first night. We had half of the one coho we caught for dinner on day 2. Then a chicken halibut for dinner on day 3, because we caught no salmon. And on day 4, we had a pink salmon – as the big and only king salmon we caught during the trip could not be butchered by law until we got to the dock…. that’s it for the fishing details.

Tim and Dave were a year ahead of Ray and I as Peace Corps fisheries extension agents in Sierra Leone in the about 1987. I’d seen Ray once since we’d been back, but not Tim or Dave. As is always the case, it seems, although we’d not spent time together in almost 40 years, we were immediately at ease with each other, having shared what we all agreed were the longest 2 years of our lives.

I picked them up at 630 pm from the ferry. An hour or so later we were underway on the tug to an anchorage. I realized about an hour out of town that I’d left my phone in the truck, distracted by all the catching up with my friends on the drive in. Oh well. We had dungeness crab for dinner. I asked them if they wanted a half or whole crab, and all of them said whole. And they ate every bit of it. After a few beers (and a near beer for me), we hit the rack. I was a bit worried they might feel a bit crowded on the boat, but all were game and said they slept well.

The weather blew up the first night and the anchor drug a bit, setting off the anchor alarm. This woke Ray at his bed at the helm, but Dave said he didn’t hear it sleeping in the forecastle. Tim, sleeping across from him, said he heard the alarm, but nothing of the wind and rain whipping the boat as a front moved through. I put my clothes on and let out more scope on the anchor line and that fixed us. By morning, the front had moved through.

We fished my favorite drag the next day in the rain. We caught one coho, had another good strike that came off before someone grabbed the rod, and that was it. We set my halibut skate, and anchored in a new anchorage. We had coho salmon fried in butter with salt, pepper and rosemary for dinner, and again, the boys cleaned their plates.

The next day the weather was a bit less rain, but still slow fishing. We fished by the high island and the island near town. Just nothing! I got ahold of my friend Mike through Tim’s phone – why yes, I happen to be coming out to the cabin right near where you’re fishing tomorrow! Can you get my phone, I asked? Sure, he said! A while later he texted – do you have a PINK phone case – that when I knew he’d found it in the truck! He was soon out with his family to the cabin. Part of his crew idling to the beach had my phone in their skiff, and as I swung by on the tug, Tim held out the net and they dropped it in. We caught a small halibut that I normally would release, but this one, I thought, would feed all four of us, and our prospects for a salmon were looking poor for the day, as we only released one shaker. So that fish was dinner. I melted some butter, dredged each fillet in the butter, then dredged the fish pieces in almond flour to bake. Then the oven decided not to work. A first, as it has always worked just fine and I use it very little. The pilot light worked, but no gas came into the heating tube to light. So, I fried the fish in butter. I was worried the almond flour coating would come off, but it held on surprisingly well. Not a morsel left after dinner.

We anchored that evening in a brand new anchorage for me. Steve told me this spot was better than were Julie and I had anchored in the same area, and he was not wrong. It was flat calm in there. As I anchored, I saw a buck on the beach. Then another one joined it! We saw movement behind them, and it was a pair of sand hill cranes. The two bucks rubbed antlers a bit, but didn’t aggressively spar. Then, whatta ya know. The two cranes joined them, feeding right next to them. We didn’t bother any of them being there, it seemed, as they paid us little attention.

My neighbor had fished next to us by the island near town before we got the phone from Mike’s crew, and then headed further out towards open ocean. I texted my neighbor after we ate dinner to ask if he found any fish today, and he said no, but he’d heard there were fish at Hole in the Wall, a place I’d not fished before as it’s pretty exposed to the big ocean on the outside.

The next morning we tried my favorite spot, and nothing. There were two seiners fishing at the point, which meant we’d have to negotiate around them if we stayed where we were. It seemed like every charter boat in the area was cruising buy us and headed to Hole in the Wall. Must be they got the same intel. It was flat calm, so we decided to make a run to Hole in the Wall and try it.

I texted Mike and got info on fishing the area as he’s fished around it quite often. We arrived there in about an hour, and dropped our gear. We followed the sport and commercial boats trolling along the shore of the islands. It was the best day yet for weather, with sun, a breeze, and calm seas. At about an hour into fishing, as we cleared the island to the west, whammo! Dave grabbed the rod and this wasn’t another false alarm or kelp. We did the firedrill to get the other rod reeled in, and both downriggers up and cannon ball weights aboard. Then we pulled up the drag buckets so there’d be no opportunity for a tangle in them. By that time, Dave had played the fish beautifully to the boat, and I admit I was a little gun shy with the landing net now after losing 3 fish last week with Julie. But we got this one on the second try, and it was a beauty. About 18 to 20 lbs or so. Ocean bright and fat. I don’t remember being more relieved for a day’s fishing. Ever. That made the whole trip to catch a beautiful fish on the last day. The closest thing was fishing with Joel and Clay 3 or 4 years ago and not getting much action til the very last day. Anyway. Whew!

We caught an ocean bright pink salmon on our next pass, then tried Ulitka. The seine fleet was fishing on the outside waters as their opening coincided with favorable weather. It was spectacular seeing all the boats out there fishing. We got to watch 2 seiners working at Ulitka. We caught nothing at Ulitka, and we heard a mayday on the radio. A crewman on a seiner had gone overboard when setting the seine net, and by the time they could get to him, he’d drowned. They called the Coast Guard for a helicopter and it sounded like they did CPR. The Coast Guard got a helicopter on the way – from Sitka, I presume – and I knew it would take awhile to get to our area to the seine boat.

The swell was getting to us at Ulitka, so we tried HITW again. I look north, and there’s the helo! The boat in trouble was not far away at all. When the boat captain started talking with the pilot, he said they’d got the crewman breathing and he’d come around. That was a relief to everyone in earshot. The helo dropped a rescue swimmer, who went aboard the vessel to assess the crewman, then the helo lowered a basket for the crewman and rescue swimmer to get in, and away they went. Wow.

We caught nothing at HITW and it was getting later in the afternoon. It was about a 3 hour run to town, so we decided to try one last pass at my favorite spot on the way in. Seiners were also working there, so we didn’t put our gear out til we were passed them and half way up the drag. Not long after our lures were working, we went through a big ball of feed. I turned to watch the rods. The one between Ray and Tim got a fish on, but they were yaking and oblivious till I yelled. By the time Ray got the rod out of the holder, the fish was there for just a second and gone. Kind of par for the course for the week!

We trolled the rest of the drag, and Ray managed to break an Ugly Stick rod just trying to pull it out of the downrigger release. This is the second time this has happened to me – I broke the first Ugly Stick the same way. The only painful part of it was that I bought these at Log Cabin in Craig for real money. They weren’t garage saled or thrift store bought like most of my rods (and possessions in general). When I was a kid, Ugly Sticks used to brag about being “unbreakable” with a lifetime guarantee, but when I tried getting ahold of someone for the first rod, I spent a lot of time getting zero response, so I gave up trying. Live and learn.

We checked my skate on the way home for more nothing. Once we got around the corner to the deep water for town, I put the boys in charge of the helm with the auto pilot, and fried up the pink salmon. The fish was just enough for the four of us, and not a crumb was left. The boys cleaned up the galley afterward, and by the time we got to town, the boat was ship shape. We got their gear offloaded and headed back to the cabin.

We yaked for an hour about the days on the boat. They said they had a fantastic time- fish or no fish- just being out on the water for several days. Sounds like they’ll be back. I specked them out on the shower and futon operation and the beds for the night. Since they would occupy all the available bunks, I headed for town to sleep on the boat.

I was back to the house before 5 am. Luckily, I had plenty of fish in the freezer to share with them, and they were incredulous at getting so much fish. We headed to the ferry and got there right as passengers were boarding. We said our goodbyes and they were soon off to Ketchikan.

I got back to town and got right on my next task to complete before Tom and his brother in law get here in a few days: an oil change for the Jeanne Kay. It took me the usual too long to get that done, and I left then engine area opened up and will clean up the boat tomorrow. Such a great trip with these long lost friends.

Smiling fisher on boat deck with large halibut catch

Sister here

Julie arrived and immediately began organizing our container cabin, despite my pleas that she can’t fix me. And I don’t say reorganize. But organize. I don’t know that it ever has seen organization, except for the periods Sara has spent here. Julie also thrifted me a sweet set of cop car color size 15 Crocs and a spare wash down hose I saw on a picture of something else she asked about at the thrift store in Ketchikan, while she was waiting for the ferry to Hollis after her flight to Ketchikan. Sean came in the next evening, and we were off fishing on day 3.

The forecast was solid for NW winds of 15 kts. We had one on for a short time that got off before someone could grab the rod, then the winds blew up. We moved to the world renouned chicken hole, where I’ve never caught more than a rockfish maybe, and caught. With nowhere else to fish in my rolodex, we returned to an anchorage near Gertrudis so we could fish it again in the morning until the winds came up.

Sister Julie – an Annapolis grad and helicopter pilot – is a fix-it person. I bought a spare downrigger on Haines buy sell trade facebook that Roy brought down, and she and I soon had it apart, and she helped me fix it. Then we got the downrigger I bought new last year that has been nothing but trouble. She helped me diagnose it to… just a loose belt all this time! Luckily I grabbed a piece of white king from the freezer on the way out the door, so we still had salmon for dinner and a beautiful evening. They got to see a lot of whale action, including a poka-dot-tail-whale – the first of it’s kind I’ve ever seen. I was the only person aboard who seemed aware we didn’t catch anything today.

The next day, we were skunked again. We did get a nice show of a seiner fishing at Gertrudis, but they only made one set, as there aren’t many pinks showing yet. Instead of going to the chicken hole, we went to Ignace, where there might be coho. There were not. But, I did see my good friend Lew, who got me my job on the North Slope. He made me feel alot better saying he hadn’t caught fish anywhere either due to a lack of options from the wind. He told us to go check out the cost recovery seiner fishing in Port Assumption, a project that started while I was still at ADFG in the hatchery section. We headed to a protected anchorage, and I set my halibut skate on the way. The next day we caught nothing again, BUT, there was a nice 30 lb halibut on the skate, so not skunked for the trip! Sean left the next day, and Julie and I chilled at the cabin, with her doing more organizing and me more watching her organize. She also helped me get my sewing machine working, then sewed a couple patches on my favorite Carhartts.

Julie and I headed out early the next day. We were working on the downrigger, fishing across the strait towards Lulu from Gertrudis. We turned around and back toward Gertrudis and as we were working on it, the rod bent down right in front of my face. I thought it was kelp. I was wrong. Finally, a king salmon! We even got a second one that day. We might have got a third, but I allowed the line to wrap in the drag bucket line and it got off. On the way to our anchorage, we saw 2 bull orcas and a cow. One of the bulls may have been the largest orca I’ve ever seen. It was just enormous, with a huge dorsal fin that seemed extra wide at the base.

The next day we were up to beat the wind and soon caught a king. The next one- a 25? lber maybe, I lost due to pilot error at the next. The next one – another one close to 20 lbs, I lost at the next as well. It was amateur hour in the landing net department. It overly bothered me the rest of the day, and the only thing that could make it better happened – we caught another king, which also jumped out of the net once but we got it. We anchored up early and Julie repainted the punt that our nephew Eaton originally painted in Tenakee a couple years ago.

The next day, we got one at Gertrudis the first hour fishing, then a shaker later. The big NW wind came up on schedule, and we got blown out late morning, so headed to Ignace. Another boat that got blown out of Gertrudis was there and we saw them catch 2 coho salmon – one right after the other, but that was it for both of us. I was glad to at least see some cohos in inside waters. We anchored in the islands behind Ignace, and Julie took a kayak her nephew Clay sent up for me to the beach while I took care of the fish. Julie brought back a pile of seine web and some cool little Japanese floats, maybe from the tidal wave there a few years ago. Sadly, as usual there were lots of plastic garbage that she herded up, hoping to make it easy for the next person in something bigger than the folding Tucktec kayak she was in to haul out. We had salmon burger wraps for lunch and salmon burger and salad for dinner.

We slept in til 530 this morning and headed to town. We checked the skate I set but nothing on it. As we got to town, Brian called. Want to go check some crab pots. Of course we do. So, we got fuel, returned to the slip and refilled the freshwater tank, then offloaded our gear and fish, including a pile of stuff Julie asked me about that I had on there and had never used. Now I have room in my cabinets for the boots and crocs that littered the floor under the galley table so you could never sit down, plus lots more. I told Julie she needs to come for 2 weeks next year.

We pulled pots out of Hollis, then stopped when we saw Lew on his lot cutting wood. He got to meet Julie and I met his friends who went on a trip to Telegraph Creek from Wrangell that Sara went on a few years ago. In an unusual sequences of events, the trip was just to check the crab pots, and not the usual extra curricular events like setting a halibut skate or grabbing some equipment or other day long adventure.

Julie was wiped out when we got back and I let her snooze. We took 6 of the crab and I cleaned and steamed them. Julie had one for dinner and I’ll take the rest with me when I leave on my next trip tomorrow.

Person in rubber boot beside animal paw prints on dark sand

Fishing with Roy, 2026

Got Roy from the plane and went right to the boat to get to the anchorage at my favorite drag ahead of the forecasted blow. We had king salmon from my last trip and greens from Roy and Brenda’s hydroponics for dinner.

Day 1

We had the fishing gear in about 430 am the next morning. The blow came and it rained hard all day. The wind built all day til about 3pm, when it laid down. Might not have fished in it if I was by myself, but with two of us, one can man the wheel and keep us going straight. We caught a king every few hours. No big dogs today. A batch of smaller fish and a great start to the week. We had fresh king salmon burger and greens from Roys hydroponics for dinner, which I’ll just got ahead and not repeat: it’s what we had every night for dinner.

Day 2

Gear down 430 am. Got our first fish at 6am. Then a shaker. Then a just-28 incher. That was it for keepers. We caught several more shakers, and some or all of the kings we caught today had their adipose fins clipped, meaning there was a good chance they were from a hatchery somewhere. We ate dinner with plates on our laps up on the help, listening to an MLB game. When the game ended, I turned off the stream. A few seconds later, I heard some puffing outside. I looked out into the cove towards the bay, and a little pod of 3 adult and a calf orcas were nearby. They looked like they were doing some maneuvering like they were feeding on something, maybe. Then, we saw a sea otter porpoising repeatedly. And not how they normally porpoise, where they don’t leave the water. This one was in a panic, with arched back at each surfacing all the way clear of the water, like a diver doing jacknife dive off the diving board. It was headed to the kelp bed near shore as fast as it could go. It surfaced in the kelp, stopped, and looked back towards the orcas with its head up high. If the orcas were messing with it out there, they didn’t pursue it. Or, maybe they ate another otter and this one got away. Might be training the calf like the pod Sean, Pat and I saw training juvenile whales two years ago with a seal. The pod nonchalantly cruised back out of the cove to parts unknown.

Day 3

Gear down 415 am. We got the first fish at the other end of the drag. Just before we got the fish on, I saw a first: sand hill cranes standing in the kelp patch around the reef, feeding. Neither of us have ever seen them feed out offshore in a kelp patch. We don’t know what they were eating, but they were definitely feeding, and were there a good while. Then the rod bent hard over and we forgot about the birds. It was a nice 40 lb halibut. We caught a small keeper king soon after, then nothing for awhile. I changed lures to a Mepps cyclops 3 red blue and green spoon that had a marginal hook on it. I sharpened the hook as best I could, and was about to send it out, but stopped and put on a brand new hook. Good move. The next fish was on that line. Another keeper, in the same location where we caught the first one. We fished several more hours with nothing, then down around the point where we caught the halibut, we got a nice 17 lber on the Mepps. It was then that I saw that most of the paint from the lure was gone! Oh well. We fished back to the anchorage with no more action, and called it an early day at 3 pm. Soon after we anchored, the local humpback cruised into the cove by us, seeming to just come by to say hello. Or maybe goodbye, because we didn’t see him much again the rest of the week, as whales were strangely absent this week.

Day 4

We saw more cranes on the kelp bed than yesterday. Caught 2 small keepers and a few shakers. Then anchored up mid afternoon and went ashore to gather sea asparagus while it wasn’t raining. Roy showed me how to identify a new plant to me – goose tongue – on the same beach and I must say that is a tasty green. Nice flavor and just a hint of saltiness. Fresh wolf tracks in the sand went right through the wild greens garden. I wore Jimmy’s hat today. The Mississippi State beanie Chris gave me. Then, out of the blue, I got the first ever text from Jimmy’s widow. She was on a church mission in Seward and wanted to know how to ship fish to Mississippi. Wow. Jimmy must be smiling somewhere. The drive shaft seems like it’s making a noise. We can see the whole shaft in the shaft alley. The midshaft bearing is greased, there’s no metal filings around it that would indicate maybe a shot bearing, and the shaft at the shaft seal doesn’t wiggle or vibrate. Then we checked the shaft at the drip seal, and it was solid, too. Maybe it’s making the noise it’s supposed to, and I just now noticed it. Sure nice having Roy here for a second opinion and a big help to move the table to get to the drip seal to look at it.

Day 5

Gear down 450 am. Boats were already fishing on the drag. I knew they were all local boats by their single outboards and because charter boats wouldn’t be out here this early. It’s the nicest morning this week. Mostly clear and flat calm. We fished down the drag. The 3 local boats were trolling at the point. We rounded the point and went around the corner. All the town boats picked up and ran towards the outside waters. Right then, we got our first king. It jumped a couple times while Roy played it to the net. We were back to having the drag to ourselves. With the light winds, we decided to run an hour+ to try the outside coast while we could. We fished the afternoon at Ulitka and caught nothing. In the afternoon, we tied up to the bouys tied to my hung anchor that was still fast to the bottom in the anchorage. Lots of feed, as usual, in the bay. Rhinoceros auklets were chasing feed to the surface, and then eagles were swooping in for the spoils. I hoped the resident whale would come by for Roy to watch, but he didn’t show. Several trollers joined us in the bay in the evening, as the July commercial trolling king salmon opening was in full swing. An announcement from ADFG today said that the troll fleet had caught less than half its July target harvest number 10 days into the opening. So, catch rates are low, indicating there’s not many king salmon in the near shore areas where most trollers (and me) fish. So, we’re doing pretty good, all things considered.

Day 6

We put the gear down at Ulitka at 4 am. We caught one fish – actually had a double, but the first hit got off and maybe went to the other rod. We saw one other king caught in the dozens of charter boats that showed up later. We also got the biggest lingcod from the boat this year, and a couple nice rockfish. The fishing was slow and the swell was big enough that we headed to inside protected waters after another hour, and fished our way home. With no more fish, we picked up our gear and ran to Craig at 115 pm, arriving about 330 pm.

Today, we got up for an espresso starter, then two french presses full of more coffee. Roy didn’t break the bad news to me me until just before he left: he cut down my cherry trees in his yard in Haines because they were shading his garden. I told him I’d probably let him come back fishing next year, anyway. We packed up Roy’s luggage and headed to the airport. I dropped him off, did a few errands, then blanched my share of the sea asparagus to freeze. Another great trip with Roy.