Home Notes From the Fishing Grounds

Sewing with Fatboy

Went to the cabin on Friday with the portabote punt planning to leave the big skiff on the haul out, and row the portabote to Admiralty to deer hunt on Sat. Forecast called for big winds and rain. Forecasters were not kidding. Saturday morning I went down to the boat and seas too big to get to Admiralty. So, I returned to cabin. I had a pair of military fleece overalls with holes in it that I was going to cut up to fix some other items.  I’d pulled the zipper pulls out of my Outdoor Products backpack that is attached to my bullpac, so I decide to sew in a new zipper using the zipper from the  sacrificial overalls. I simply cut out the zipper from the overalls and sewed it to either side of the zipper on the pack. It was a pretty significant job and took a couple hours by hand using dental floss for the thread. I also used a piece of the overalls and zipper to sew in a pocket on my hunting overalls.

I listened to the UW Huskies game against Oregon State on the local station. That took me to about 330 pm, which is sundown. I took a break from sewing, and hoped to find a station on my old radio that was carrying the Washington State game, as coach Leach is one of my favorite sports characters. Sure enough, I was able to tune into 710 KIRO from Seattle, and got the game tuned in. I then started to prepare the pocket for the hunting overalls. WSU took it to Arizona the first half, scoring over 50 points. I checked the boat on the haulout again near sunset.

Sunday forecast was not much better than the Saturday weather.  I cleaned up the cabin for next week in the event Sara and my niece Francesca came over. I loaded the boat and got off the beach without incident. I checked the crabpots and had 8 keepers. When I got home, i steamed the crab, picked the meat whilst i watched NFL games, then put the shells in a pot and made stock.

My long-time buddy Geoff had on his Facebook post that he’d gone vegan to support sustainability. He’s a professor at a South Carolina University. and I thought how non-sustainable being a vegan in Alaska would be. Rather than eating the deer, moose, salmon, halibut, ling cod, and crab we can catch right outside our door (except the moose, I guess), I’d be eating greens probably grown on the West Coast, along with my own fiddleheads and berries I could get here. Sustainability  is where you find it, me thinks. I thought after reading his post – can you imagine a prospector on the Yukon saying – no, I’m not going to harvest the grouse and moose and salmon on my doorstep. I’m going to gather berries and hope the paddlewheeler has the flour and dried apples I ordered a year ago to get me through the winter…..

First deer

Took Major S from our Salvation Army Corps deer hunting on Friday.  I’d told him to meet me at Douglas Harbor.  He went to North Douglas Harbor. I made the same mistake with the earlier Lieutenant L I took hunting.  You’d think I’d remember to be sure they knew which harbor I was referring to.  No big deal since he was driving himself and didn’t get dropped off.  He arrived in about 20 minutes and we were first boat out of the harbor.  Another hunter launching his boat asked me where we were going and I told him and he said great, I don’t want to cork you.  He soon caught up and passed us in his bigger boat, and true to his word, he went to a cove south of where we went.

After a short cold spell and a little snow, it had warmed up to the 40’s and was now shower after shower.  When we got to our anchorage, we were the only boat there, and the rain had let up to a drizzle.  It was low tide, so no need for a punt to anchor the boat.  Just throw out the anchor and tie one end of a rope to the anchor and the other end to a log above high tide.  We uncased our guns, offloaded my dry bag of emergency gear for the beach, and I carried my corks up the beach and changed out boots.

Off we went up the hill.  It was pucker brush for awhile as we climbed uphill.  We got to the first muskeg in about 20 minutes.   I positioned S at one end and myself in sight of him about 30 yards away at the other end.  I blew the call for several series.  After about 10 minutes, out of the corner of my eye about 20 yards away, I see the flash of a tail.  Then through a tree root, I can see a deer quartering away, looking at me.  I  get it in my scope, click the safety off, but didn’t shoot.  Looked like a bambi.  It didn’t wait long, and walked out of sight.  I continued calling hoping it had a buck with it.  About 15 minutes later, I saw another deer cross after a call, but it looked like the same yearling.  Finally, I motioned to S we were moving, and we gathered our packs and started up the hill.  We immediately saw a nice doe and the yearling bound away.  I’d have taken the doe if she’d have come in.  I was happy we were seeing deer already.

We worked our way up to the next muskeg and again set up.  As I was settling in to call, I see a deer looking at me across the muskeg about 30 yards away.  I got it in my scope and clicked off the safety off.  But no shot.  Another bambi.  Not sure if it was one from the earlier muskeg or just another one.  I watched it for awhile, and it started feeding.  I blew the call, and it looked at me but didn’t come or go.  Then it kept feeding.  It looked behind it a few times and I thought maybe a doe or buck was back there but I couldn’t see anything.  At some point, the yearling bounded into the far side of the muskeg.  Maybe winded me or its mama called.  Just one minute it was feeding, and the next instant away it went.

We worked our way up hill and called in the muskegs, but no deer.  Seemed like the deer might be down lower where the snow was less and where we saw the earlier deer.   It was after noon, and the sun was on it’s way down.  Sun set is 430 now, with the time change last week.  As we moved downhill to hunt the lower area on our way back to the boat, I thought, remember what Uncle Gerald from Ketchikan once told me – always hunt all the way back to the truck / boat.  A moment later, we jump a deer.  I see it trot uphill and I immediately toot on the deer call.  I see the tail when it stops.  I quickly chamber a round and get the scope covers off.  I can’t remember if I duffed my pack or not.  I look through the scope and it’s all misted.  I try to clear it, but here comes the spike back to us to the call.  When it was 10 yards away I got it’s neck outline in the misted cross hairs and fired and down it went.  Funny how bucks always seem to come back like this at this time of year and does may not.

I dressed the deer, and threw the heart in the snow for burger and the liver in the snow for my Persian mechanic friend who likes to eat it. I cut out the tenderloins, too.   I had S help me hang the deer up to start to butcher, then had him go to the nearby muskeg to see if he could call another deer in.  All the spruce trees nearby had really young, limber branches.  I thought I’d picked a good one, but it soon drooped down. I was able to skin about half the deer and then was stuck as the head was touching the ground.  With snow on the ground, I remembered the moose hunt and that it wouldn’t get dirty on the ground so brought it to the ground, and skinned the rest of it.  I got more hair than I like on the meat skinning it on the ground so will be more careful with that next time.  Otherwise, it worked great and the snow helped cool the deer.

I got out my two pillow cases and started loading the quarters into one.  I left the meat on the torso.  I cut the pelvic bone off at the rib cage, and put the bone into the ribcage, which had the neck attached.  I loaded this into the second pillow case.  I loaded it all into my pack, and S and I discussed that he needed to replace his little day pack with a frame pack if he was going deer hunting in Southeast Alaska.   Maybe he’d only hunted not far from a vehicle in his other hunts and could drag the deer to the vehicle.  Dragging is a lot of work and can be a long, long haul here.

We weren’t all that far from the beach as it turned out, and in about 15 minutes we were back at the boat.  The tide was going out, and when I got the boat to the beach, I headed up to get my pack and change my boots and untile the shore line, I told S to be sure to keep the boat floating as we couldn’t move it if it got tided and we’d be there till night when the tide came back in.  He didn’t quite get my meaning, and when I looked down, he was struggling to get the boat off the rocks as the tide went out.  I stopped putting my second boot on, trotted down the beach, and with both of us straining, we got the boat off the rocks and floating again.  I went up to put my second boot on, and it happened again.  This time I had to push until I was way over my boots to get the boat floating.  Next time I’ll have to remember to get the second person on board and paddle off shore til I’m ready to get on.  This boat is bigger than the other skiffs I’ve had hunting so I’m still learning.  I should make sure we both have hip boots with us at the beach, too, so we can keep the boat off without getting wet.

It’s getting to be dusk by now, and we head for the cabin, which is about 30 minutes away.  We get to the anchorage and look for my crab pots.  We find one easily, and have half a dozen keepers.  The next pot takes longer to find, but we finally do right at dark and another 6 crab.  We have the same problem getting the boat on the haul out line, trying to keep it afloat without going over our boots.  We both had gone over our boots by now, though, and so just grin and bear it, knowing a warm cabin was only minutes away.   I get the game bags out of my pack and hang them from one of the stuts to the windshield so hopefully they’ll stay dry and away from marauding otters and continue to cool.  We take the buckets of crab into the cabin.

With headlamps we find our trail to make the 10 minute walk to the cabin.  I remembered then to text Sara and Jeff, our float plan holders, to let them know we were back safe.  Near the cabin, there was sign that the brown bear that’s been living on the island has been here again since I was last at the cabin, as there was several skunk cabbage root diggings along the trail to the cabin.

At the cabin, I get the gas lamp lit for some light, start a fire, then get my wet boots off and light the coleman lantern.  I go back outside and clean all the crab, put some water in the crab pot, and put the crab on to steam.  Then I get off my hunting clothes and into some dry cabin duds and start dinner.   Usual fare for first night in the cabin is costco cheese pizza with toppings we add.  I put moose sausage and fiddlehead pesto on all the pizza and onions on my half.  After lighting the stove, in goes the pizza.  I crack a beer, tune to the local NPR news, and settle into a rocking chair.  I get cramps in the front of my legs where I’ve never had them before.  I’m getting old.

We go to bed early.  We didn’t have a real plan for hunting the next day.  We both slept hard and when S wasn’t up early ready to go, I let him sleep.  I figured we could hunt the beach as low tide was first thing in the morning.  We first headed north for a ways, and there were boats in every cove and then some.  When I saw a boat heading south doing the same thing we were, I turned south and headed back along the beaches to where we’d hunted the day before.  I didn’t figure we’d be able to hunt there again as someone would already be there, but I did know a spot further south of there where Matt and I had gone a few years back that had a series of muskegs near the beach.  As we cruised the beaches, just about every cove that could hold a boat did.  It looked like every hunter in Juneau was out on this Saturday.  When we got to yesterday’s anchorage, there was a boat as expected.  Further south, there was a boat in the spot I thought we might still be able to go.  After cruising the beaches for an hour or two, we’d come as far as I cared to go as the tide was about half way in.  We hadn’t seen a deer so we headed for town.  I checked in with Jeff and Sara that we were safe.

After getting the boat on the trailer, we offloaded our gear.  I give S the bag of quarters and half the crab, and I took the other bag with the torso and half the crab.  He and his wife have 3 boys (I think).  And it’s good karma.

At home, I butchered my part of the deer. I keep a few back straps out for Sara, and put the rest in the freezer.  I text S and tell him to save me the leg bones to make stock if he’s not going to use them.  Then I pick the 6 crab, which yield about 8 cups of meat that I freeze in 2 cup portions.   A busy, satisfying 2 days.

Stikine Ducks and Geese 2018

We’d decided on a date of about Oct 24 to go to the Stikine to pull the dock at B’s cabin and also duck hunt.  I came down to Craig to go on the trip with him, and turns out Sara’s sister was going, too, so we all rode over. From Craig, we trailered their boat to Coffman Cove.  From there we crossed Clarence Strait, which can be a rough stretch of water, but was not bad at all, despite a forecast for 25 knot winds. Once in Wrangell, we loaded the gear into Mike’s boat, who is a good friend of my B’s since childhood.  His boat is a jet boat, which is better for the shallow water running we’d have to do to cross the Stikine Flats and then got up the river to the cabin dock.

We saw lots of waterfowl on the way to the cabin.  Once there, we hauled in our gear, opened up the cabin and started the generator, got our beds in order, and relaxed.  I picked high bush cranberries in the last hour or two of daylight. We had moose burger, pepper and onions for dinner.   Lots of shotgun shells came with us from Paul. We weren’t going to run out of ammo.

At first light, we headed downriver to a slough on the end of the same island the cabin is on.  We set up geese silhouettes on the bank of the slough and put some mallard decoys in the slough. B and E and their lab walked the island to jump shoot birds, and some of those they didn’t shoot get found their way to me in the decoys.  We all got a handful of ducks.

On day 2, at first light, we headed downriver as far as we could at low tide.  When the water ran out, we beached the boat, threw out the anchor, grabbed our guns and some decoys, filled out pockets with ammo, and struck out towards the island across the dry river bed.   A moose or two had crossed here overnight from the looks of their tracks. We set up the decoys along the river, and hid behind a big tree on the beach. We got a few ducks.  E decided to walk downriver and found a spot on the bank where she could get ducks passing along the bank where she hid. She got 5 ducks down there. She was pretty excited when she came back about it as she learned to let the birds get by her before she stood up to shoot. That way, the ducks didn’t see her and flare up.  I got a couple ducks at the tree blind. That evening at dusk I looked out into the woods from my perch in the outhouse and there was an owl on his own perch a short distance away, ready to start his hunting day.

On Day 3, we went further down the island we’d hunted day 2, and set up the deeks.  As we were further out towards the mouth of the river where most of the ducks and geese were, we had pretty good action.  E hiked all the way down to the end of the island. We could see her in the distance close to a mile away. She disappeared at one point when she had to climb down into a slough to cross it.  Right at that moment, a flock of geese flew by, unaware she was there. We saw 2 big honkers drop from the sky. B left me sometime later to get the boat for high tide, and on his way, he, too, jump shot a goose. I got a handful of ducks at the blind, and a lesser Canadian goose – my first.  I still can’t shoot worth a dang but starting to hit a bird now and then. I lost some birds I hit, though, and surely don’t like that, although the eagles, hawks, marten and foxes roaming the flats surely do.

We had dinner that night with neighbors that live on the island full time.  Of course, they have lots of great stories about living out there and it was an enjoyable evening.   In the middle of the night, when I went outside to pee, I heard some growling in the big cotton wood tree I was under.  When I shone the light, there was a marten looking down at me.

Leaving the next day was going to be tricky as it would be low tide in the morning, and we’d have to first go upstream and around the upriver end of the island and back down the other side to find our way out to the ocean. The Stikine has several fingers where it dumps into the ocean, but the finger we were on does not have enough water to run at low tide.   High tide was late in the day, and we couldn’t wait for it if we wanted to get back to Craig that day, which we did. The neighbor drew a map of the path to take the previous evening, and we were doing good until we weren’t.  We came to a screeching halt. I saw the shallow water coming, and was on the bow of the boat to ballast the outboard and allow us to run in the shallowest water possible. When we stopped, I just slid forward a bit but was able to hang on.  B and E were in the seats behind the windshield, and B got a fat lip when we grounded when he hit his mouth on the top of the windshield. A little lower and he’da lost some teeth. We had to empty the boat, muscle the boat off the sand bar to deeper water, then pull it upstream to a spot deep enough for us to get a running start and on step before we grounded again.  With alot of complaining, we got the boat off the sand bar, upstream 50 yards, then started hauling all our gear up to reload the boat. Less than an hour later, we restarted and were on our way again. This time we made it around the island without incident and back to the bay and crossed to Wrangell in decent seas.

Back in Wrangell, we offloaded to B and E’s boat, said our goodbyes, and headed back towards Clarence Strait.  I sat on the back deck and started to butcher the ducks. Clarence was a little sloppy and it took about 1.5 to 2 hours to get to Coffman Cove.  I had a couple dozen ducks ducks and 4 geese to butcher. I got about ? of them done on the ride over, and finished the remainder when we got back to Craig.   All the waterfowl meat went home with me for Sara in Juneau and B kept the carcasses for trapping bait.

Fall Seafood Bonanza

Jeff and I went fishing at low tide Friday morning.  He picked me up at 7 am and I had to be back for a 10 am meeting.  We drove to the trailhead a few miles from the house, put on our chest waders, and headed down the trail and out to Gastineau Channel.  I was surprised we didn’t see any one else.  Jeff said he’d been out the day before and had not seen many fish nor caught any, so I thought maybe the run was about over.

Jeff motioned to a spot directly across from the trail head.  I sort of wanted to go back to where we were last week, but thought what the heck.  As we got closer, I could see some fish finning and swirling in the water.   Jeff went to the top of the little run of knee deep water, which was about as deep as any pool would be at low tide.  I fished the lower part.  It took a while but I finally got the hang of it, and got my first one.  Then another one.  And another. And another.  We got 11 by 9 am.  I brought a big rubber backpack, and the small one with my fishing gear.  I put 7 fish in plastic bags in the big bag, and four in the little one.  The big bag was like packing a deer with all the weight.  Jeff took the smaller pack.

We slogged up to his truck and then headed to the house.  We’d done this last week and so soon had the cleaning table set up.  Jeff hosed off the fish, I dressed them, then Jeff rinsed them again and put them into a cooler.  Jeff took half the fish and I gave my half of the catch away.  I’ve got enough fish in the freezer and canned in jars, but the fish left in the channel aren’t gonna catch themselves.

I told Andrew what had happened and as he had the next day off, he was headed there.  I was going to the cabin to check the crab pots and would have taken people deer hunting, but had no takers.

On the way over to the cabin, I realized I’d forgot the bait, even though I went up to the freezer to get it, but by the time I got to the freezers I was doing something else and forgot.

Ron’s little round pot had 5 crab in it.  With nothing to rebait it, I kept it aboard.  The next pot seemed overly heavy, even for a commercial sized pot.  When I got it to the surface I realized why.  There were 20 crab in it.   Since I could only keep 20 a day, I left 5 in the pot to pull it on the way home tomorrow.

I reset the pot, motored to the easy out, offloaded the crab, and pulled the boat out to deep water on the clothes line haulout.  In addition to the bait, I didn’t bring any gloves.  I cleaned the 20 crab and both hands were bleeding when I finished.  I hauled a 5 gallon bucket full of crab halves in each hand up to the cabin, where I steamed them in two batches.

With the first real rain forecast in nearly a month, I used water from the rain catchment to steam the crab and clean all the dishes since I anticipated the rain would refill all the water I could use.

The next morning I split kindling wood to fill the box and did a cleaning of the cabin.  I pulled the pot on the way home and now had 7 in the pot.  I stopped at Bob and Laura’s on the way home and gave them three.  I called Lorraine, who had company in town, to come get the other four.

I asked Andrew if he went fishing.  He’d caught 12 this morning.  It took him an hour to catch the fish then 2 hours to clean and haul them by himself to his car.  He said he was the only person fishing he could see.  Then he went to work at noon.  He was pretty happy being an Alaskan all by himself.

The Alaskan Temne

My Sierra Leone friend Andrew caught his first salmon on his own from the beach here last night.  We are in the midst of a big coho salmon return to our hatchery (called DIPAC) and the fish are really big this year.  Andrew went down the area the fish were milling near the fish ladder at the hatchery.  I asked him how fishing was today and here is his email.  I’d be hard pressed to tell a better story of why we live here:

“Sorry I was slow to update you because my evening and this morning was very busy. I indeed went to Dipac around 7pm after I picked up Samuel from school activities and stopped by at grandma Pat’s house after another hip surgery.  I reached at the beach around 7:15 and met six other people fishing and no one was catching anything. I casted and immediately got one. I was happy because that was my first experience. It took me almost 15 minutes to bring it offshore. I casted again and got a second one. Everyone was surprised I was catching fish while they were not. I struggled again to bring it offshore. I casted for the third time and got other. The third fish gave room to others fishing along side me to catch one each because as I was trying to bring my catch offshore, the fish fought so hard making flips and other fishes started jumping around and the guys standing closed to me casted towards them and got one each. I was so happy for the experience and I planned to go their again on Friday. I cleaned them last night I will bring them for vacuum tomorrow because I’m working tonight.”

Cabin Time

Andrew finally was in a position to spend the night at the cabin.  He works two full time jobs.  So there’s rarely a day off.  If he didn’t have to sleep, he’d have 3 full time jobs.  That’s what opportunity in Alaska means for an immigrant.    He saw his father murdered by rebels in front of him, and instantly became the head of his household at the age of 14.  He and his family somehow survived on the streets of Freetown.  He managed to get himself through college there, became a teacher, and when he was drawn for the diversity visa, came to America.  After a year in Virginia he came to Juneau as he had fellow countrymen here.   So much work and opportunity here.  He said he’ll never leave.  
His daughter at first yearned for more people she thought were more like her.  But after a few years of awkwardness, she’s become an Alaskan, too.   She’s on the deans list at the University here, and works two jobs in the summer, just like her dad.   The place is growing on her.  
The son is 10 but mature in language and awareness.  My job in life is to keep him off the couch and away from the tv and video games.  It’s a struggle.  Sure, I watched Leave it to Beaver everyday after school, but we spent much of our childhood outside.  He’s not unlike his classmates.  I volunteered to be the assistant scout master for Boy Scouts when he and his buddies graduated from cub scouts to boy scouts.  Like his peers, once they are in the outdoors, they thrive in making fun where they find it.  We’ve been fishing the past two weeks for scout meetings, but the darkness is setting in now and soon that won’t be an option.  
Back to the cabin.  Andrew got off work at 5 on Friday and didn’t have to be to work till noon on Saturday.  I got off my second job captaining a whale watch boat about the same time, and by a little after 6, Andrew and Sam were here and we loaded up the boat and off to the cabin.  We pulled the crab pot but nothing there this time.  Then motored to our haul out line, where we tied up the boat, pulled it out to deeper water on the haul out line, and headed in to our cabin.
 
Andrew and his kids had both been there once on an afternoon fishing trip a year or two ago, but only Sam had stayed overnight on another trip. This was Andrew’s first time to be able to stay over.  They settled in as I got a fire going in the woodstove.   Sam brought a pizza from Bullwinkles, and we ate it at our leisure.  I tuned the Mariners game in on the radio, and Sam and Andrew found the deck of cards and were soon playing cards with each other as I listened to the game in my rocking chair.  The two get along famously, and it was nice to see a father and son just enjoying each other’s company like Ron and his boys did on the same couches with the same cards.  
We went to bed early.  Andrew slept on the bottom bunk and Samuel in his top bunk, as I took the couch downstairs.  I was up before daylight and got some coffee and pancakes on.  Andrew said he’s not slept so soundly in so long he couldn’t remember.   Samuel eventually drug himself downstairs and ate a pancake.  Then we were off to fish for a few hours.
We fished near Douglas at Pt Hilda for several hours and not a bite.  I used the red flasher and favorite yellow with red hootchie but no luck.  As 830 came and our leave time of 9 approached, I changed one line to just a green and yellow Canadian wonder trolling spoon on one of the poles.  Then it happened.  Fish on.  I grabbed the rod, and handed it to Samuel while I pulled in the other lines.  I got the net from it’s holder and handed it to Andrew.  Samuel played the fish in and Andrew netted it and it was another big coho.  They are really big this year.   We put the gear back out and not long after got another on the same spoon and rod.  This time Andrew grabbed the rod and played the fish while I pulled in the other gear.  Samuel was on the net.  Several times Andrew brought the fish over the net Samuel had in the water, but Samuel did not lift the net in time.  Both Andrew and I harassed Samuel not to lose the fish!  Finally, the fish was over the net and Samuel brought the net up and we had our second fish in the boat – another beauty.
As 9 o’clock struck, Samuel announced we were to go as that was the plan.  Despite catching fish, Sam always seems in a hurry to get home and to his electronics, I suspect.    I told Samuel that you get 15 minutes of overtime like soccer when you catch a fish.  Every African kid knows about soccer overtime.    As 915 came and went,  Sam again said it was time to leave, I told him the overtime was for EACH fish, so 15 minutes more.   He played along.   I cleaned our two fish as we continued fishing but we got no more.  We headed to the dock, and each of us took a fish home.   
I sectioned my fish, dredged it in salt and sugar, rinsed it off after 40 minutes, then put the fish in the smoker and turned the fan on to dry the fish.  The next day, I put the hot plate in the smoker, and put some alder chips on the hot plate for a little smoke.   This morning  before work I pulled the smoked salmon, now with a nice pellicle,  from the smoker, cut it up, and put it in a bowl in the fridge.  I loaded the jars with the fish for canning after work tonight, and just pulled 14 half pints from the canner, as I reflected on the fish in the jars and how they got to be there.