Traveled to Chatham yesterday. Caught one king upon arrival. Today, 3 kings and 2 lost at the boat so far. Sunny and warm again. Incredibly, now the autopilot, which I repaired last year, is acting up. Hpoefully just a little air in the system, as after a midday nap, it now appears to be working fine. The rebuilt transmission appears to be running just fine. It appears our waters are becoming more and more of a police state. The Coast Guard appears to be checking every fishing boat in their radar range. Not sure what threat our little fishing boats are to national security so far from any important strategic or economic center, but it makes you wonder hoe much of our freedom and privacy we are willing to give up. We, after all, elect the people who dictate national security policy.

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

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When it rains it pours. New muffler last week. Now have to pull the transmission this week and get it taken care of once and for all, as it still is not maintaining oil pressure properly. I hope my customers can bear with us. So, returning to town after a short trip.

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

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Caught a half dozen large king salmon fishing 4 am to 9 pm. Kelp everywhere, and hard to keep it off the trolling wire. Never seen so much in this area. My old standby spoons – #7 Mother of Pearl Canadian Wonder, have caught no fish lately. I’ve been using a much smaller spoon behind a flasher, and these seem to be catching a good percentage of the fish. Very fish weather today – overcast and flat calm. It rained a little last night as well. No fish this morning, so moving to the other side to try there.

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

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The welders at Simpco did a great job, and it took less than an hour to install the new muffler. I bought 150 gallons of fuel, took on about a ton and a half of ice, and was on my way aat 1:30pm. Transmission still seems to be running a little hotter than normal, but within book tolerances.

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

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Sometimes you think things can’t get any worse…and then they do. It took us about 6 hours to pull the transmission, then 6 hours to get it back on after it was repaired. I was covered in oil, tired, but relieved we were finally going to get fishing again…until my mechanic called. He asked if I had already put the tranny back on, and I knew that wasn’t a good question. He found a part in the parts washer his mechanic had not seen come off when it went in the parts washer, and said the tranny had to come back off to put on the part.

Luckily, I only had to take off the rear of the tranny, which took about an hour, and then about 30 minutes to put it back on. I took the boat for a quick spin around the block, and so far so good. Hope to leave tomorrow – we’ll be the better part of June just filling orders we have, but having our fish in demand is a good thing, too.

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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

Looks like the transmission needs to be rebuilt, so we are out of commission for several days. I’ve gone through and fixed other issues on the boat – broken water pump for the sink and unworking anchor light. Just hope we can get parts here in a timely manner and that my mechanic has time to put the transmission back in order.
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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