Stuck in town waiting for a replacement marine muffler
for the boat. In a larger town like Juneau, with so
much commercial fishing activity, you’d expect there
to be someone who would carry them, but there is not.
I called a store in Juneau who referred me to a store
in Anchorage who referred me to a firm in Oregon. I
tried explaining what I needed and even e-mailed a
photo only to not have my phone call or e-mail
returned. So, I called another business in Seattle
(Hamilton Jet) and about 5 minutes after Dave the
Parts Guy received my e-mail we were in business.
He’s shipping up the part air freight, so it should be
here tomorrow or the next day at the latest, which
pretty much blows fishing this week. However, my
anniversary is May 26, so if I’m gonna get stuck in
town, this is a great time to be so!

Spent the day moving remainder of my catch to my
processor, got things ready on the boat for the new
muffler, mailed out orders of our pet treats. In a
business like ours, the work starts from the minute
you tie up to the dock coming in from a trip to the
minute you untie to leave again. It’s always a great
feeling to feel the tension of town melt away as I
motor away from the dock and back in search of more
salmon.

I’ve been noticing a lot of large white squid eaten by
the big salmon I’m catching. I read in the paper
these are California squid, and they’re catching them
right off the dock in Sitka now. I’ll try to rig up a
big white spoon with a hootchie skirt to see if I can
imitate the things. I’ve been using big white
hootchies behind a flasher, and they have been
producting any better than the other gear I’m fishing,
so maybe a spoon/hootchie combo will work.

–
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

–
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

A good trip turned sour in a hurry yesterday. I had a fire in the area of my
ceiling where my exhaust stack goes through. It smelled like a fish smoker,
and took me a while to find it. More smoldering than a fire, but would have
burned through the ceiling had I not caught it. In between running fish around
today and selling from our boat, I removed the cowling cover on the roof of the
wheelhouse, and was relieved to find that the problem was a muffler that had
rusted or burned through in a few places. Always like the easy fixes, rather
than going on a rabbit hunt. Hope to be able to get the part in short order,
as I have to order it from Oregon as none in Juneau or Anchorage. I’m sure the
fishing will be fantastic every day I miss…

Spent yesterday hopefully finishing repairs on the transmission. After the replacement part did not fix things, a friend suggested that my oil cooler line may have separated and collapsed. This made sense, so I ordered a new pair from a small shop in Hoonah. I installed the lines and left the dock. After I sped up to running speed, I thought to check the fittings and one was leaking profusely. I turned around and limped back to the dock, disconnected the fitting, and found I’d cross-threaded the male fitting. After replacing that, I decided not to head out to the outer coast since there was only one day left open there this week, and had dinner at Mary’s Inn in Hoonah.

Hoonah is a neat little town on Icy Strait. The community is a mixture of commercial fishing, logging, sport fishing and hunting, US Forest Service, a cooperative-type farm, and now a destination stop for a small fraction of the cruiseships. I thinks it’s this diversity that has allowed the community to better weather the economic ups and downs of the resource-based economy of the region. All looks good with the tranny today,and back out fishing at 4:30 this morning.

A few large kings by noon, and the same score as my buddy who called by cell phone from out on the coast, so happy now I didn’t try to run out there last night and then fish for a day on a few hours sleep. My friend has a much larger boat and a deck hand, so easier for them to get sleep than it is for me fishing solo. Beautiful weather- partly sunny, light northerly breeze, and about 60 degrees. Passed a mother humpback whale with her calf earlier, and several eagles along the way.
Mark Stopha
F/V Dutch Master
Alaska Wild Salmon Co
4455 N Douglas Hwy
Juneau, Alaska 99801
907-463-3115

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On my way out of town. Spent the past few days doing repairs on the boat. I hope I correctly diagnosed the tranny problem. I took the suspected part to my mechanic, who showed me some scoring on the control valve barely perceptible to the uneducated eye. He led me up to his used parts loft, and rooted around in coffee cans until he found the replacement part. He then found a new o-ring and gasket, and sent me on my way. I cranked up the engine after replacing the part, and so far so good.

The anchor winch motor had been leaking hydraulic fluid, and I took that into my hydraulics man. One of his mechanics was eager to try out their new lathe, so I said to have at it. I put back on the motor, and tested the motor, and so far so good for that, too.

The final chore was to address a sticky starter. It could take a whole lotta pushes on the starter button, listening to the solenid click but not move the starter. My friend Eric, who showed me how to troll, gave me some good advice: 99% of the time, the fix to a problem is the simplest fix. So, before I tried replacing the solenoid or the starter I just tightened the nuts holding the wires on the solenoid and wah la, now the starter works much better.

After selling my catch and replacing the fuel I used last week, I was left with about $100 dollars — so not much to show for a week’s work but like most fishermen around the world, I expect things to get better next trip.
Both of these mechanics get fresh king and/or coho salmon delivered to their door every season, regardless of whether they’ve done work for me that year or not. These two businesses are a fisherman’s lifeline to staying in business. Many times problems occur out on the water that can’t wait for a return to port for repairs. Knowing you can call a mechanic who knows who you are and is willing to talk you down from a situation is no small comfort. The respect shown them each year with a gift of king salmon is greatly appreciated and remembered.

My engine mechanic Mike grew up in Juneau and used to troll himself. He is highly regarded as “the man” for diesel engine repair in Juneau. Jim, the hydraulics guy, grew up on a homestead on the north west side of Prince of Wales Island. Jim always has an interesting childhood memory to share if the conversation turns to his home of New Tokeen. One I distinctly remember is that while he enjoyed growing up there, it was tough life. A toothache was not a drive down the block to the dentist. It was an expensive floatplane ride to Wrangell, and if money was tight or the weather unflyable, there was nothing to do but take some asprin and bear it.

Both know the trials and tribulations facing a commercial fishing operation, and that their repairs can mean the difference betweeen making
money or falling further into debt to a fisherman and his or her family.

We got the first real rain we’ve had in weeks – just a few showers, but a welcome relief to the spruce pollen which has coated everything in the absence of rain.

Mark Stopha
F/V Dutch Master
Alaska Wild Salmon Co
4455 N Douglas Hwy
Juneau, Alaska 99801
907-463-3115

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Fished my way home on Tuesday. Lost a king at the boat at a place called
Homeshore, so had that to stew about for the next 5 hours running to Juneau.
Sold my salmon to my Juneau customers today, and doled out rockfish to salmon
buyers as well as friends who help us with the business. We had 3 for dinner
tonight – just incredible how good they are. I just fried them in olive oil
with lemon pepper, paprika and tabasco, then we ate the fish with rice.

As usual, a long day of shipping pet treat and canned salmon orders, working
with my webmaster (and sister) regarding our webpage, taking an order for
salmon from a Florida customer over the phone, and just running around in
general. I also removed a leaky anchor winch from the boat for repair, got a
start on finding and fixing my boat’s transmission problem, changed the oil in
my Detroit Diesel 453 engine, and painted the hold hatch cover before the
forecasted rain.

Finally getting some relief from all the sunny weather. Clouded up today, and
supposed to rain in the next few days. Pollen from the spruce trees is all
over everything now – cars, boats, the ocean – everything. Need a good rain
to wash it off. Not sure if there is an unusually large amount this year, or
that it just seems so because it’s so dry. The change in weather should move
some fish our way, and I hope to have the boat all repaired by weeks end so I
can get back out fishing.

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