Home Notes From the Fishing Grounds

Pink Salmon, Sockeye, Canadians, and Cherry Jam

Spent a day canning about 30 pink salmon worth of fillets.  The fish came out great as the pinks were big and bright.  It kills me people who think they are “true Alaskans” turn their nose up at pink salmon.  The fish were bled and handled like king salmon and taste great.  I cut the fish into chunks when still semi frozen and packed the jars, which I realize now was not wise since some jars weren’t plumb full after the fish fully thawed but live and learn.  I also used reusable lids for the first time, and went through a little learning curve on those, too.  Did the canning on a single burner propane stove up in the garage, so didn’t even smell up the house.
Then Ron and  I went to Haines weekend before last. Up on Saturday, get off the ferry, hook up Roy’s boat, and head to the river.  We arrived at the river at 2 pm ish and had 30 sockeye by 530 or so.  Ron called it a day so we would not have to clean at night.  We got back to Roy’s, pressure-bled and cleaned the fish in about an hour as Ron and I have been doing this trip together now for 4 years or more so know the routine – including ordering pizza for dinner.  
Next day I got up pretty early eager to pick cherries.  Roy thought they were mostly past due, but they looked great to me.  I got out ladders and started picking cherries.  I think I got about 4 gallons of whole cherries.  I put them in a bag, and the bag in a box, and then used a hand pitter to pit them on the ferry ride home.  I figured nearly a 1:1 ration time for picking to pitting – 2 hours to pick and 2 hours to pit.  

I pureed them the next day, and then put them in the freezer as I wouldn’t have time to make jam for about a week.  My friend from the Peace Corps, Joe, came up from Smithers, BC, with his two children – aged 7 and 11.  Joe and his main squeeze came up to fish with me my first year on the Dutch Master, and I went down to their place a few times, but all before the kids.  So this was my first time to meet them.  I picked them up from the ferry and told them I’d been waiting their whole lives to meet them.  Could not have had 2 better-behaved kids.  No whining.  No crying.  No fighting.  They were up for doing anything we were doing, and never said “I’m bored” or “It’s raining” or “I don’t like that food”.  Not being used to kids around full-time, I had to explain that many of the words I said meant “happy”.  Kathryn said there sure were alot of words that meant “happy”.  

Could not catch them a fish or a legal crab.  We walked around Horse Island and they enjoyed tide pooling and exploring in general.  They loved the smoked salmon and deer kabobs and spaghetti with moose burger sauce. They swam at the pool while I delivered fish on Friday, then all 4 of us went for an open skate, and those kids looked like they were born with skates on their feet.  I was sad to put them on the ferry home.
After they left I pulled the cherries from the freezer to make jam.  Wish I’d had more rhubarb, but it’s late for that now.  Ron donated about 6 cups from his freezer.  I used 30 cups pureed cherries, 6 cups pureed rhubarb, 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar and 2 cups birch syrup, along with 10 packs of no-sugar pectin.  Set up pretty good, although not quite firm.  Might leave out the 2 cups of water next time if I use the birch syrup, and add another box or 2 of pectin.  Tastes great, though, and likely won’t last long, and handed out half pints to my coworkers yesterday.  With the jam and pink salmon jarred for the season, we’ll have plenty for the winter.  We’re off to a moose hunt near Juneau on Sunday, and hoping for some good weather and at least a look at one.

Prince William Sound Pink Salmon

Spent much of the last 2 weeks in PWS.  I first went out on a boat to test fish with purse seine gear for pink salmon coming into the sound.  Since this is an even year, the pink return is expected to be lower than the odd year, but it looks like it will be another strong year.  Valdez Arm may be a record return.  We make three sets, estimate how many fish we catch, then let them go, except for about 30 fish that we pull otoliths to see what the wild to hatchery ratio is at the time.  The thing I look forward to most going to Cordova is eating at Baja Taco.  Best food I’ve had in Alaska.  The fish burrito or any breakfast meal is fantastic.   
A few days later, I went back to PWS, this time to chase pink salmon up their spawning streams.  Baja Taco was again a highlight of the trip.  We were there to collect otoliths and tissue samples for a genetic study.  We traveled on a 28 foot planing hull with an outboard that was a tight fit for the 4 of us, but everyone was good natured about it and knows going in about the tight quarters.  We anchor near the stream, then take a small inflatable raft with outboard to the stream mouth, and then walk upstream maybe half a mile and start collecting pink salmon with a beach seine – and if that doesn’t get all we need, we collect more with landing nets.  On the very first stream, my two collegues were in front of me, and I was trailing behind saddled with a backback of the sampling gear.  As they came to bend in the creek, I decided to cut across a grassy area in a straight line to catch up with them further up stream.  I heard them say “hey bear” as they rounded the corner, thinking this was just a practice to let any bears know we were there.  Then I heard a quick growl, saw the grass moving across my horizon 40 yards away, then heard one of my collegues say there were 2 bears (grizzly bears, it turns out) that they’d scared up into the woods.  So glad I wasn’t further across the field or they might have scared them right on top of me.  Each day, during the time we’d travel from stream to stream, the weather would be overcast with little or no rain.  As soon as we got to the stream to start work, it would start raining.  And not just a drizzle.  Torrential downpour.  We’d do our work the next 3 hours in the pouring rain, then pack up, and head back to the boat.  Within 20 minutes of arriving back at the boat, the rain would quit until our next stop.  This happened time after time after time.  We tied up in Valdez on day 2 near the Coast Guard station.  I bought a new poly pro hoodie as the cotton one I had was not appropriate for all the rain.  2 days later we landed in Whittier, then back to Anchorage and I caught the noon flight back to Juneau after 5 days of good  exercise in the PWS wilderness.

A year’s salmon

Went dipnetting for sockeye salmon with my 2 college friends and one of their friends on the Kenai River this weekend.  I flew up to Kenai after driving the whale watch boat here on Friday, we dipnetted the afternoon tide on Saturday and the morning tide on Sunday and got all the fish each of us wanted.  It was the usual madhouse of 200-300 boats of every size and power, with boats drifting under power along the banks and then running back up the thalweg to get back in line to drift again, creating an egg beater with 2 to 3 foot waves at times.  But everyone seems a good neighbor and I’ve yet to see anyone yelling at each other in my 2 years of fishing there.  Some people you can tell are not as good at running boats as others, but they at least seem to try to stay out of other’s way.
I dressed the fish at the river at Keith’s Beaver Creek Cabins and Guide Service and then chilled them in ice and water for the trip to Anchorage with Todd and his parents.  I planned to just send the coolers down on air freight and was stunned to arrive at Alaska Airlines Airfreight on Sunday.  And find it closed.  In the middle of the summer.  Wow.  So we scrambled for fish boxes at Fred Meyers (sold out) and then to Walmart, where I bought 3.  I first each box with fish and gel packs and Todd dropped me at the airport. I then took fish out of each box at a vacant airport luggage scale until they were 50 lbs per box, and put the extra fish into the soft case cooler with gel pacs that I carried on. To round it off, I somehow lost my boarding ticket from Security to gate C4, walked all the way back with the back pack and heavy -ass soft cooler and did not see it, so went back to C4 and the agent issued me another ticket.  It ain’t easy bein’ me.

I ran whale watch boat on Monday till 9 pm, and then Sara helped me fillet, portion, vac pack, and freeze the fish about 3 hours.  We are set for salmon for the year.  I watched Keith a little closer this time when he was cleaning his fish on how he filleted and noticed I was better at it when I did it last night.  I also noticed how he bagged the portions as we cut them, which saves another rinse as the portions can get slimy if they are are sitting in a bucket all together.

Perfect Sockeye

Sara and I bought some sockeye from Len’s boat yesterday for some friends coming to town.  Even though I know what to expect, it’s still impressive to see perfect salmon.  Len’s fish are pressure bled and all kidney removed.  All I had to do was fillet the sides off then Sara helped me to portion and vac pack.  No further removal of viscera here and there or further rinsing.  I don’t trim fins or ribs.  We filleted, portioned and packaged the dozen or so fish in about an hour I would guess and these fish will still be good a year from now from the freezer.

Drowned Rats

Been pouring rain here the past few weeks. Which is a comfort after last year’s sunny weather and the potential for lots of visitors to think this would be a great place for them to move to. Bob and I took my new boat out to Pt. Retreat. Cozy cabin. Fast boat. Comfortable seats. We were both getting used to it in a hurry. It was pea soup fog that we thought we could idle out of but it took an hour or more of going round in circles, even with a GPS, and the scary fog horn and radio chat with the ferry before we busted out of it into Stephens Passage and on around to Chatham Strait. We fished with several other boats. Caught a big early coho, then a pink, within minutes of each other, but nothing else. Didn’t see any other fish caught but many of the boats were too far away to see. Warm, dry cabin in the pouring rain. We were already used to it and looking forward to more of warm and dry during deer season.