FINALLY back out fishing after 6 months of watching it
rain. We’ve sold our boat and are now fishing with
others – just could not catch enough fish by
ourselves. Our first opening was at the Taku River,
and I fished with a friend aboard his gillnetter. I’d
never fished this way, so it was a great learning
experience. And, lucky for the skipper, I was a
former old-wood-boat owner, so when anything breaks,
I’ve probably fixed it before so can get to it while
he watches the fishing. The anchor winch went, and we
had to pull the anchor by hand – I think impossible
for one, and barely possible for 2 of us, but we
finally got the anchor up and secure. Of course, that
meant no sleep for the skipper until we fixed it 36
hours later as we weren’t about to set it and have to
pull it by hand again. I eventually jerry-rigged a
broken pin and we were both happy to have the anchor
working so we could get some sleep for a couple hours.

This opening was for 2 days, so you don’t sleep much.
And, as I learned from this experience, the right set
can make all the difference – if you have a good set,
you do all you can to stay in position to keep it, and
if you know where a good set is that someone else
already has, you keep a watchful eye for any
opportunity to get in there and fish yourself.

My skipper had not seen fish handling, dressing and
bleeding, but – and this can be unusual, especially
for old salts – he was willing to let me do my thing
with the fish, and even take in some advice on good
practices for fish handling on his boat. It’s always
fun to see someone’s reaction to pressure bleeding
fish for the first time. The fish came out beautiful
– I was able to watch the professionals at my
processor fillet our catch, and it looked as good as
any fish I brought in off my own boat, and allayed
some of my fears for controlling quality on someone
else’s vessel.

The weather was great. A medium pod of killer whales
came through, which was fun to see after not seeing
them all winter. A seal or sea lion got half a white
king salmon, which was bitter sweet as although the
fish was not saleable, the skipper and I could now
split this fish to take home to our families as
there’s nothing better than the rare white king.

I also bought and had installed a tail gate lift,
which I can’t believe took me so long. I can wheel
the fish up the dock ramp, set them on the lift, and
then up it goes into the truck bed. This used to be
the worst part of moving fish, and now it’s a breeze
and well worth the $1,300 paid.

With few king salmon fisheries on the west coast due
to low returns, and a lower than expected return to
the Copper River, fish prices are through the roof, so
to speak. So, we’re getting into the fish buying
business at the riskiest time, but with many years of
quality control behind us it’s nice to know you’ve got
the best of the best to sell.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
F/V Dutch Master
Hook and Line Fresh, Frozen, and Smoked Wild Salmon
Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

The planning for the upcoming season is finally
starting to come together. The boat and permit are
sold. We’re in the final stages of completion of our
store displays for our smoked salmon and pet treats.
Today, I got my surety CD at the bank and went to the
state building with my completed (hopefully)
application to be a fish buyer – a little bit more
involved process than just selling my own catch.

But the news was bad – the F/V Slayer, a boat I’ve
seen around and may even know the skipper – went down
at Point Gardner today with no sign of life – just
some debris picked up by another boat. Two souls were
thought to have been on board, with just one Mayday
saying they were going down. Point Gardener, at the
nexus of Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound, is not
always a pretty place, and particularly not today with
stong winds.

Before I started fishing, I used to think a boat
sinking had to have some good explanation of a lack of
maintenance or judgement in inclement weather. Now I
know it can happen to any boat at any time. A wave
over the stern, a clogged bilge pump, a thru-hull
fitting giving way, a rogue wave. Some accidents are
strictly pilot error – it seems like there has been a
spate of skippers “asleep at the wheel” accidents in
recent years, but these are usually collisions with
rocks and not fatal (it’s hard to sleep in rough water
that might bash you on the rocks. I think most of the
accidents happen when it’s flat water). Why the boat
went down today has yet to be determined, but
everytime I hear of one of these now – especially in
our part of this country, it ends up being personal.
Either I know the crew or know someone that does.
Rarely, it seems, do these accidents take old timers.
They seem to take the married ones with kids. It’s
always sad.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
F/V Dutch Master
Hook and Line Fresh, Frozen, and Smoked Wild Salmon
Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Went clamming last night with my good friend Ken. I
wanted to go to an island about 12 miles from town
where there are abundant steamer clams, but the
forecast was for high winds. So, I decided to try for
my first time “in town” with Ken, and experienced
local clammer.

When we arrived at the pull out to the beach trail,
Ken was worried that the 12 vehicles already there
would mean the beach would be picked clean. We got
out buckets, rake, shovel, lantern, and headlights and
headed for the 1/4 mile walk to the beach. When we
arrived, there were several lights twinkling in the
long tide flat. Ken led us to the water’s edge in the
part of the beach that was primarily sandy mud- pink
neck habitat. I was used to digging in a more gravel
substrate for steamer clams, so this was new to me.
Ken pointed at a pink tip sticking out of the mud, and
when he sent his shovel behind it, the tip
dissappeared. Ken dug down about 10 inches, picked up
the clam, and tossed it in the bucket. I saw one or
two myself, but Ken kept digging and pulling clams
while I found little. Then I watched and saw that it
wasn’t always the neck sticking out that drew Ken to
dig, but a particular shaped hole in the sand. I
studied the hole Ken showed me, and then starting
finding more on my own, although, like Ken, I
occasionally picked the wrong shaped hole and dug up
butter clams, which was not what we were looking for.

We filled the 5 gallon bucket about 3/4 full, washed
the clams in the gentle surf, put the clams in my
backpack, and headed to Ken’s truck. As we headed
home, individual snow flakes on the roadside twinkled
in the headlights. Ken was going to process the clams
to take to his family on a visit later this week.
Another lucky winter day to live here in Southeast Alaska.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
F/V Dutch Master
Hook and Line Fresh, Frozen, and Smoked Wild Salmon
Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

I went crabbing with 2 friends near Juneau of Friday
afternoon. The weather was beautiful. Snow bound
mountains all around, calm waters, and the temperature
near freezing. We used crab rings – a circle of rebar
with web stretched across. We put a mesh bag of
herring tied at the center as bait, and tossed the
ring, with line and buoy, overboard and waited. Over
the course of the next 3 hours, we caught 2 king crab
(one a mammoth), several dungeness crab and couple
tanner crab. My friends lamented that fishing was
slow with only the 2 king crab, the species we were
targeting. I was just happy to be on the water
again, even though we were just a stone’s throw from
the dock.

About sunset, another little skiff came into the bay.
The fisher drove around with a gps, searching for his
“spot”. He stopped, threw over his rings, waited
about 10 minutes, then pulled his rings….and had a
king crab in each one! He caught in 10 minutes what
we’d tried for half the day. He came up to the boat
smiling, and turns out he’s an old friend, Ed, who I
didn’t recognize under his float suit. He almost
apologized for his luck, and said the crab had been
hanging out where he set his rings – a place we had
set our gear all around, as it’s just a small cove.
Ed’s gaining legendary status as stories like this
grow – he’s younger than we are, but has spent a long
time studying and harvesting fish, game, and
furbearers. I laughed for days at his swooping in and
catching 2 king crab right next to us. It’s days like
today that snaps me out of the winter doldrums and
remember I live in Alaska.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
F/V Dutch Master
Hook and Line Fresh, Frozen, and Smoked Wild Salmon
Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Sold the Dutch Master today, as I’ll now fish on
someone else’s boat to catch our fish. The buyer is a
young guy fresh out of college with alot more fishing
experience than I had when I got started. He has that
same look of anticipation in his eye as I did when I
bought the boat, and he’s ready to start fishing his
own boat. I saw two of my other buddies at the
Division of Investments, one of who is looking to
upgrade his hand troll permit to a power troll permit.
They, too, looked excited to be making a move.

I’ll show the new owner how the boat runs and go
through it stem to stern. I didn’t even know what I
needed to ask or look for when I bought the boat, but
all the “discoveries” in the past 5 years are still
fresh, and hopefully I’ll get them passed on to the
new kid.

I read an op ed piece today about how Wal Mart is
underselling all other sellers of salmon by at least
$2.00/lb. They sell Chilean salmon, and the author
(from Orlando, no less) thought the fish farmers were
making a mess of it down there. I’m not sure that all
that’s true, but I certainly did agree with her about
1 thing – that shoppers, not Wal Mart, are who decide
where to shop. If people cared about where or how the
stuff was made that they bought, or who was selling it
to them, then Wal Mart wouldn’t have the stranglehold
that it does have now on the retail market.

Well, it’s really down to business now. I’ve been
happily surprised at the reaction I’ve received in
trying to get other trollers to practice the handling
guidelines we have developed. Once they see the
quality, even though it takes them longer than what
they’ve had to do in the past, they see that the
difference is worth the effort. If we’ve learned one
thing since starting 4 years ago, it’s that if you
provide great fish, people will keep coming back and
support you. That’s what we’ll be trying to do with
those we fish with as well.

I do some office work on the side to try to make ends
meet until (if ever?) we can make a living fishing.
There was a discussion that the state of Alaska has to
ready itself for rationalization – that is, that we
have to understand that the price of fish is only
going to decline, and so fewer and fewer fishermen on
larger and larger vessels will have to do all the
catching. I disagreed. Our resource here is finite –
we only can catch so many wild fish, and cannot, like
a farmer, simply plow more ground and plant more seeds
to grow more crops. Therefore, as demand for wild
salmon continues to grow for our finite resource, the
price does not have to decline anymore than the price
of our oil reserves in the Arctic will decline. When
demand goes up and supply stays the same, the price
does not have to go down…unless you believe that Wal
Mart is the only way. We’ll hang in there as long as
we can – mainly because I don’t know now where I’d
turn to for such a decent way to spend my time.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
F/V Dutch Master
Hook and Line Fresh, Frozen, and Smoked Wild Salmon
Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Sold the Dutch Master today, as I’ll now fish on
someone else’s boat to catch our fish. The buyer is a
young guy fresh out of college with alot more fishing
experience than I had when I got started. He has that
same look of anticipation in his eye as I did when I
bought the boat, and he’s ready to start fishing his
own boat. I saw two of my other buddies at the
Division of Investments, one of who is looking to
upgrade his hand troll permit to a power troll permit.
They, too, looked excited to be making a move.

I’ll show the new owner how the boat runs and go
through it stem to stern. I didn’t even know what I
needed to ask or look for when I bought the boat, but
all the “discoveries” in the past 5 years are still
fresh, and hopefully I’ll get them passed on to the
new kid.

I read an op ed piece today about how Wal Mart is
underselling all other sellers of salmon by at least
$2.00/lb. They sell Chilean salmon, and the author
(from Orlando, no less) thought the fish farmers were
making a mess of it down there. I’m not sure that all
that’s true, but I certainly did agree with her about
1 thing – that shoppers, not Wal Mart, are who decide
where to shop. If people cared about where or how the
stuff was made that they bought, or who was selling it
to them, then Wal Mart wouldn’t have the stranglehold
that it does have now on the retail market.

Well, it’s really down to business now. I’ve been
happily surprised at the reaction I’ve received in
trying to get other trollers to practice the handling
guidelines we have developed. Once they see the
quality, even though it takes them longer than what
they’ve had to do in the past, they see that the
difference is worth the effort. If we’ve learned one
thing since starting 4 years ago, it’s that if you
provide great fish, people will keep coming back and
support you. That’s what we’ll be trying to do with
those we fish with as well.

I do some office work on the side to try to make ends
meet until (if ever?) we can make a living fishing.
There was a discussion that the state of Alaska has to
ready itself for rationalization – that is, that we
have to understand that the price of fish is only
going to decline, and so fewer and fewer fishermen on
larger and larger vessels will have to do all the
catching. I disagreed. Our resource here is finite –
we only can catch so many wild fish, and cannot, like
a farmer, simply plow more ground and plant more seeds
to grow more crops. Therefore, as demand for wild
salmon continues to grow for our finite resource, the
price does not have to decline anymore than the price
of our oil reserves in the Arctic will decline. When
demand goes up and supply stays the same, the price
does not have to go down…unless you believe that Wal
Mart is the only way. We’ll hang in there as long as
we can – mainly because I don’t know now where I’d
turn to for such a decent way to spend my time.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
F/V Dutch Master
Hook and Line Fresh, Frozen, and Smoked Wild Salmon
Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com