Spent the day (June 20) marketing in the
Cleveland/Akron area. Cleveland looked like a great
area – somewhat like Minneapolis, with a somewhat
small “downtown” area of high rise buildings, and lots
of other small neighborhoods. Lots of trees and green
all around – I think I saw something that called it
the “forest city” or something like that. We went to
a couple food coops and several independent
natural/organic food stores, and always great to meet
independent business people making it in a world
dominated by industry giants.

There seemed to be little of the “wild salmon” mania
in Cleveland. Stores wanted to know if our fish was
“organic”, which of course it is not and will likely
never be. The ocean is not a controllable
environment. But in the purest, not regulatory, sense
of the word, wild salmon is what “organic” means. So,
the fact that some of our customers wanted our fish to
be “organic” led us to believe we needed to be
prepared to explain this in the future. And I think
we spurred some interest in the retailers to research
this on their own.

We arrived about midnight in my hometown of Bolivar,
NY, and the next day visited our distributor in
Genesee, PA, which is a few miles from Bolivar. We
had a great time with Diane as she showed Sara her
funky warehouse/retail area, and then took us to the
Environmental Center, where they are slowly building
awareness for recycling and environmental stewardship.
She and her husband Larry are inspiration to the
small natural foods/organic movement. She and Larry
started their business literally miles out a backroad
from a crossroads town in the Allegany mountains in
the mid-1970’s, and they are still here today. No
fancy storefront or advertising program or convenient
location. People come to them from 50 to 75 miles
away to buy organic and natural foods and have for
years. And they continue to move forward with the
Environmental Center. I think there’s a website
PotterJams.com or something like that that has
information on the song writer series that they host
at the center.

Spring and early summer has certainly hit the
northeast foothills of the Allegany Mountains – tree
branches flush with leaves crowd the road canopy,
nearly touching branches with trees from the other
side of the road. Lots of wild flowers in purple,
white and yellow butter cup colors. Things not seen
for years, like red-wing blackbirds, crickets and
wasps catch my eye. I also thought that after being
gone for 20+years, my home area is much the same as it
was when I left, with the forest apparently still in
tact, and no major industrial sprawl. As I commented
to Sara, it’s nice to live in an area where people buy
land because it’s valuable for deer hunting because
they aren’t looking to come and change things, but
keep things the way they are.

We also traveled by Alma Pond, a place I remember as a
wild place, and it remains much the same. My granddad
took me there fishing for bluegill with a bobber, and
I continued to fish there through my late teens,
graduating to a canoe fishing for bass with rubber
worms in the lilly pads on the far side of the pond.
I recall the spring splashing of carp spawning, and
the prehistoric call of the great blue herons that
live on the pond. A little wetlands where I used to
trap muskrat is still untouched in between Bolivar and
adjoining tiny community of Richburg, again a
condolence in a “progressive”, consumptive-driven
country, which does not exclude our hometown of Juneau.

–
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 had a final, 1 day opening at Taku Inlet. We tried
a different spot for future reference – where another
boat reportedly scored well last week – and only
managed about 14 kings and half a dozen chum salmon.
Still, not bad for a day of fishing. We quit early at
7 am due to water haul after water haul. My skipper’s
youngest son enjoyed being “the man” with his older
brother off to basketball camp in town, being the deck
hand, grabbing the bouy, driving the boat, with no
in-between-set nuuggies from his brother. Beautiful
weather – in the 70’s and breezy. Not as much
wildlife on this less protected fishing area – had a
few humpback whales to watch out for, but not as many
eagles, seals/sea lions, etc.

Ran to town in my skiff while my skipper took his boat
out to the harbor on the northern end of town. I met
up with one of my earliest buyers from the Shrimp Dock
in Knoxville, TN, who was on a cruise with his son.
He and I jawed about the seafood business from when he
got in the truck till he got out and back on his ship
enroute to Skagway. He’s starting a ship-out business
for retail customers in the US, so I actually was able
to give him a few pointers, instead of the usual,
other-way-around.

I’ll wait now until July 1 for the big king and coho
salmon troll opener on the outer coast.

–
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

After several days of hard rain, the water was very
murky at the outlet of the Taku River where we were
fishing. Not sure if it was the murky water that
caused the fish to either take a different route or
just not run to the river, or if the run of king
salmon is about over, but fishing was poorer than the
previous two openings – although still decent for two
days of fishing.

So, with not much going on, what do skippers do? They
try to tick other skippers off. My skipper did not
get the set we had found success earlier in because he
did not go down a day before the opening and anchor at
his set. Instead, another of his peers got the set.

So, when we didn’t catch many fish elsewhere, it was
time to “steal” “our” set back, which he did, much to
the disgust of the prior “owner”. The other skipper
merely waited his turn fishing at the legal boundary
for fishing, where everyone waits in line, gets 20
minutes of uninterrupted fishing, and then the next in
line sets in front of him for 20 minutes, and so on.
The other boat came over to where we were and set his
net right in front of ours – which is his right by the
unwritten rules of fishing here, but which, of course,
ticked my skipper off.

We proceeded to do the same maneuver when our turn
came at the line, and so it continued between the two,
all for just one or two fish each per set!

Overnight, the skipper of the other boat was dozing
while tending near his net, and ended up drifting over
his net. He called to my skipper for help to pull him
off his net so he wouldn’t tangle it in his prop. So,
two guys who were going at it for hours on end were
now best friends helping each other out of a
predicament all get in at one time or another it
seems.

After that, my skipper thought he could share the set
with the other skipper, which we did. I told my
skipper I thought they were going to have a group hug,
and that I might break down and cry…..

I moved all the fish up the ramp by hand from the boat
to parking lot at the harbor on the high tide last
night, then to my processor for weighing, and back
home by about 1 am.

Two hours of paperwork later, I hit the sack about 3
am, then up at 6:30 am to ship fish to a new
restaurant customer, BistroLouise in Fort Worth,
Texas. Alaska Airlines has made their seafood
airfreight even more inefficient now, requiring
shippers to call in to book their freight before they
go to the local airfreight office to drop off their
items, where they are booked again as they always have
been.

You have to now call a main office somewhere else in
the world to book your freight. I was on hold for 12
minutes with Alaska Air Cargo, then told by the agent
that finally answered that I was at the wrong desk
(even though I followed the instructions of the long
instructional recording!), and was sent back to
exactly the same recording and waited again! The next
person apologized that the previous should have helped
me, blah blah blah. And now, you have to weigh your
items before you go out to drop them off, which is
another royal pain. Furthermore, they asked for the
address of the place I was shipping to last week, but
never printed it on my airbill. I always use a
previous airbill as it supposedly has all the
necessary info on it, but of course, now it apparently
doesn’t with the new and “improved” shipping process.
I’m trying to get customers that it makes sense for to
go with Fed Ex, who makes shipping so easy. They just
come by and pick it up and get it where it’s going –
and even guarantee timely delivery – imagine that!

I hope for one more week of fishing here before my
skipper leaves for Sitka and I leave for a marketing
trip near Cleveland, then on to my 25th year high
school reunion. So far, so good this year. Our
customers are raving about our fish, and sales are
strong.

–
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

Why I need to leave fishing: So this morning I go to
Alaska Airfreight. Yesterday, I take the fish in, and
all is it always is – weigh the fish, where’s it
going, here’s my id and credit card. Today, I walk in
and everything has changed. You can’t book your fish
here – you have to call or do it online. You have to
know the weight of your fish. If it’s transferring
airlines, you need to tell them what carrier to put it
on (like I’d know what carriers go to Rooster Poop,
Mississippi). So, I go back, weigh the boxes, and
then try online. After I tell them everything, I get
a reply that says we’ll get back to you within 6
hours! Not six minutes – six freakin’ hours! So, I
call, and of course, it’s a minute telling me all my
options, then I’m on hold, then told it’ll be four
more minutes. An hour later, I’m back with my air
freight and watch the counter person (who I really
like and cannot like how this is going) does
everything they normally would do with paper work,
etc. so now it takes twice as long to ship a box of
fish, and at a higher price. Then, a guy parks his
camaro in the middle of the street right across my big
back bumper with the gate lift on it, and although I
see him when I first come out, I make a call, and
forget he’s there, and don’t see him till it’s too
late, and now his nice camaro has a dent and I’ve had
my first accident insurance claim of my driving
career! Which leads me to the notion that I like
fishing as much to get away from business and the rat
race of our little podunk town as it is to be out
fishing. I also realize our customers keep coming
back because although our service may not be perfect
every time, we always make things right if anything
goes wrong and they know we want to make them happy,
and not just take their hard-earned money!

–
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

Great 3 days of fishing at Taku Inlet. Caught plenty
of fish, and had enjoyable weather. Eagles, otters,
seals, sea lions, humpback whales, and killer whales
all came by to visit. Pressure-bleeding the fish is
coming out beautiful, and customers are very happy
with their fish. About every bone in my body aches
from fishing, moving 2,000 lbs of fish up the boat
ramp by hand, then transporting to my processor and
weighing them all in, re-rinsing, and then on ice to
await filleting and packaging. But it still beats
sitting in an office 8 hours a day. I don’t know now
how I did it for so long, and sure appreciate the
opportunity to fish at least part of the year.

–
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

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