After doing well last week crabbing, we went back to
the well again, expecting more of the same success.
We were after dungeness and king crab. The tanner
crab season was open, and pots were strung up and down
the channel, but I thought since the crabbers had to
throw back all the dungeness and king crab they’d
catch, we’d still do alright fishing our rings.

To my surprise, we hardly caught any crab at all – not
males or females or undersized crab – just about
nothing. We caught 2 keepers and half a dozen
undersized, but that was it. All I could guess was
that all the crab were in the pots in the channel, as
I’m sure the crabbers bait the heck out of the pots,
and that the crab would be back as soon as they
checked their pots and threw back those species they
were not able to retain. So, we’ll try again next
week.

It was a beautiful winter day, with little breeze and
we could see the sun at times trying to burn through
the high clouds. Much warmer here in the past 2 weeks
than in my hometown of Bolivar, NY in western NY state.

–
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

As I was retiring tonight, I had the radio on as I always do when I go to bed. And on the news, it was reported that Molly Ivans had died at just 62. I met Molly Ivins just once, here in Juneau, soon after Sara and I were married a decade ago. She was in town to speak at the ACLU chapter event. A friend of ours was taking her fishing, and asked if Sara would take her hiking at the glacier with a long time friend of her whose name I forget. I just remember her friend was a TV person who worked with Ed Bradley on one of this news shows.

Sara and I met Molly and friend at the original Ba Cars restaurant here in town. The place was known for it’s atmosphere and food, and certainly was not a place associated with elegance or “high end”. I remember how this Molly person was like a friend you’d always known, and how she commented that although newlyweds, that Sara and I seemed like an old couple with the way Sara finished my sentences. I had no idea of who Molly was nor ever had read her columns. It was only after I met her that I saw her columns and realized what a genius she was for seeing through the political hogwash and stating with clarity what reality really was. And the reality always seemed as how things actually were, not as she saw them. So, it’s a sad day that she’s now gone, and way too young.

My buddy Ranger Doug and I took my boat out to try our luck at with some crab rings yesterday south of town. We ran about an hour south to a place called Taku Harbor, where an old cannery used to be. There’s a public dock there now, and we were the only ones around. We measured out line – about 120 feet for each 6 foot diameter, net-webbed covered ring – on the ice covered dock in the sun. We attached a buoy to each line, baited the center of each ring with fish scraps I grabbed from my processor, and left the dock again as the wind picked up. We tried close by first. We tossed the rings about 100 yards apart in about 100 feet of water in Taku Harbor. We pulled up the rings in about 15 minutes, and didn’t catch a thing. We moved down to Limestone Harbor nearby, and repeated the process. This time we caught half a dozen legal male dungeness crab, and half a dozen undersized crab which we threw back. Although we were after king crab, the dungenss were at least something to take home.

We started home in a north wind, and got the crap pounded out of us for about an hour. The wind was coming right out of the mouth of the Taku, and the flat bottomed boat did not ride comfortably in the 2 to 4 foot chop. We finally cleared the mouth of the river, and the rest of the ride home was fine. I just made it into my state job at 5 pm.

We went clamming on Saturday’s minus low tide. The minus low tides are always in the evening in the winter. We generally only dig clams in the winter as most cases of Paralytic Shellfish Poisioning occur during the warmer months. We also only dig steamer clams, which I’ve never have heard of a PSP incident. There are many species of clams on the beach where we go – steamer clams, butter clams, mussels, horse clams, pink neck clams and cockles. Butter clams seem to hold PSP when it is present, and mussels have the highest PSP when it’s around. I don’t much care for cockles, and horse clams and pink necks are deeper and more work.

We arrived at the cabin about 3 pm, before it got dark. We hoofed it into our cabin to wait for the low tide at about 6:30 pm. We put on our headlamps and headed to the beach after starting a fire in the woodstove.

“Our” beach used to be full of steamer clams. We are the only ones who dig there that we know of. To my disappointment, we didn’t get many. About 7 gallons worth (2, five-gallon buckets about 2/3s full), between 3 of us digging. And, we dug all over the area. Not sure what the lack of clams could be – maybe we’ve harvested the beach and it has not caught up (hard to believe, but a possiblity); maybe the clams died off from the big fall storms we had this year, or maybe something else. Not any pollution, etc. in the area. Hey – it’s probably global warming!!

Anyway, we brought back the buckets of clams, and divided them among the families. I took ours and topped off the bucket with fresh sea water. A few days later, I poured off the water and replaced with more sea water. It’s supposed to allow the clams to expell any grit before we eat them.

We started in on them on Saturday evening. One good thing about clams – they’re easy to get and easy to cook. We just steam them open and eat. I think if you have to put them in butter or something else, they aren’t good enough for me. Even with the water change, though, I managed to eat a few clams that had some stones in them, but other than that, they were fantastic as usual. You can sprinkle corn meal in the water so the clams will take in the corn meal and expell any grit, so we’ll try that next time.

It’s been along winter so far, and it’s still January. The days are getting longer, though, and we hope to get out and fish some rings for king crab in the next few days.

Well, it was a big deer harvest for just about everybody here but me. Had my chances, but choked. The last day, there was a deer 40 yards away. I knew I had a shell in the .270 chamber, so I clicked off the safety, raised the gun to my shoulder, and DOUGH!!, forgot to take off the scope cover. That’s all the deer needed. It was gone and I never did see it again. Had a chance at another one later in the day and missed that one, too.

I managed to beg a deer from my friend who had already harvested plenty. He was going on a planned hunt, so I told him not to come back with any unused bullets.

I butchered that deer this morning before work. There’s a certain satisfaction to skinning and cutting up a deer. I don’t know many of my friends in the lower-48 who butcher their own meat – most manage to gut the deer, then put it in the back of the truck and to the butcher they go. Here, sometimes you need to bone out a deer and bring just the meat back if you’re out in the toulies several miles or longer than you want to haul out a whole deer.

Now that deer season is over, it’s time to look at the tide book and schedule a clam dig. Looks like about the 19th of this month will work. Clamming is among the most productive harvesting treks – you always know you’ll bring back clams, the harvest occurs at a time defined by the tides, and when the tide floods or your back gives up, you know it’s time to quit and head back, usually for some coffee as the digging usually takes place in the winter evening with head lamps.

We’ve had about 5 to 6 feet of snow here in northern Southeast. It’s been a tough year for deer, but a gravy train for deer hunters. At least alot of deer hunters, me excluded. When the snow piles up in the woods, the deer are forced to the beach to escape the deep snow and also to find a food source in kelp, as much of their browse inland is buried.

With a number of mild winters, deer populations grew. A big snow winter like this really wacks the population. It also makes a boon for deer hunting, which is now just a matter of cruising the beaches in a boat in search of deer. To be legal, you have to beach the boat before shooting. The parking lots at the launch ramps were full, as everyone and his brother was out for the easy pickins’.

The snow is melting now. We were out in the woods hunting this weekend, and the snow was still up to your butt in places, so it’s still pretty tough going. If more doesn’t melt off, it will likely be a big deer winter kill this season, even with a higher hunter harvest. I’m sure the ecosystem here cycles around the deer in some way. The carcases will provide food for the eagles, ravens, crows, mink, marten, wolves, and bears when they wake up in the spring, and I’m sure they’ll populations will increase as a result.

We were out hunting on Sat., and it sounded similar to opening day of deer gun season back in upstate NY. We heard shots all day. My partner got a deer where we were hunting back up in the woods. I didn’t see a deer, but did manage to wrench my knee in the deep snow, and now am out of commission for awhile. Pretty tough going in the woods, and I sure don’t envy the deer.

– 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

We bought the new boat, the F/V Minnow, a 26 foot
skiff with a wheelhouse forward, to dress and move
fish from the fishing grounds to our processor.

I went to the Taku area twice in September to buy
fish. The first day, I bought fish from fishermen as
they caught them. I got down to the fishing area just
before it opened, and spoke to a few boats about
selling me fish. I had 4 selling to me, and thought I
should get more as it started off slow. Gradually,
though, each boat brought their catch and got back to
their set, and in no time, I had all I could handle
and was grateful I’d not done more soliciting.

The boat is equipped with a 2 stroke washdown pump.
It worked fine, except it was like having a chainsaw
running all day. I switched to a 12 volt water pump
the second trip. That was much better, but I did have
to keep an eye on the battery so as not to run it down
too far before starting the engine and charging it
back up.

The seagulls were fun to observe. They knew I was
throwing overboard lots of good grub for them like
airbladders and roe, but just could not bring
themselves to come right up to the side of the boat to
get it. They’d let it sink before they’d cross an
imaginary distance to the boat where they felt safe.
You could almost see the anguish on their faces as the
roe sank out of reach to feed whatever critters dined
on it below.

The new boat looks like it will work great for what we
need. It was hard going further into debt at the end
of the season knowing the boat will now sit until we
can use it next spring, but I’m confident it’s exactly
what we need and the price was right.

Wow, what a lot of rain over the last 14 months, even
for the rainforest. I’m really looking forward to
some deer hunting once the leaves drop. With all the
rain, even if you get a day of relief and go hunting
when the foliage is still lush, you get soaked unless
you wear raingear as all the leaves hold the water
from the previous days rain.

–
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
“GET OFF THE SOFA and VOTE FOR STOPHA!”
for Juneau Assembly, Oct. 2006
Download Campaign Sign at www.GoodSalmon.com