Mark Stopha,Alaska - Alaska Wild Salmon Company

Battery Redo

I replaced the two, 65 pound each, 235 ah 6 volt lead acid batteries that were bought in 2021 by the former owner with two, 22 lb each 100 ah mini lithium batteries. Lithium batteries should give me 10 times the life of the lead acid batteries – which lived right up to their 5 year house battery life I found online. Much more useful power. And so much lighter.

I bought the batteries from Renogy and had them shipped to Lynden Transport in Seattle to come up on the barge. I note the shipping would have been $176 if the batteries were sent by Renogy in the same shipment, but they were not. The batteries arrived on separate days so I was charged $176 for the first and $85 for the second because, as the agent told me, Lynden does not consolidate shipments that arrive there. When I asked Renogy why they didn’t ship the batteries together as one piece, since that’s how I bought them, they said they could not do that due to hazardous material regulations. Tuition paid. Lessons learned.

I found Blue Marine, a Seattle business that seemed expert in lithium battery systems, online, and emailed to ask them what I would need to change from my old lead acid batteries to lithium batteries. I described my current system and said I mainly wanted to be able run my little 5 cu ft AC freezer overnight during the summer, as the lead acid batteries were at the end of their useful life and weren’t doing it anymore. I thought a 200 ah single lithium ion battery would work. They advised me to get two, 100 ah batteries instead – sort of for “backups to backups” system, which is my style. I’d written to them and didn’t hear back for a day or two, so continued searching for batteries when I found the Renogy mini batteries. Wow. 100 Ah each and so small. There were lots of cheaper batteries imported from overseas, but Renogy was a Canadian company with a US office, and I liked that. I found out at check out that the batteries were also on sale, so even better. I ordered two of the batteries. I then got a lengthy, detailed explanation and advice on the system I needed from Blue Marine.

I really appreciated their great information in layman’s terms, so I ordered the rest of the pieces they said I’d need to put the system together. For charging the battery bank – two 100 Ah lithium batteries connected in parallel for the boat’s 12 V system (the 6 V batteries were connected in series) – I’d need a DC-DC charger. This was because unlike conventional batteries, the lithium batteries would call for a lot of juice from the 80 amp boat alternator and likely overheat it. The charger meters the charge into the lithium batteries at a proper rate via the starting battery. Hooking up the wiring for the charger was the biggest chore. The 4 AGW wires were very difficult to get rounded to size to go into the little square compression clamp fittings of the charger. Two wires from the starting battery being charged by the alternator go into the charger, along with two wires going to the battery bank. I got three wire in tight, but one just would not hold and repeatedly fell out. So, I took a 4 AGW ring terminal, crushed the eye together by squeezing the sides of it with vice grips so it would fit in the square socket in the charger, then soldered the end of the wire into the other end of the ring terminal. That’s one part of the system I don’t like. The wiring sockets are right next to each other. You wind the stripped wiring as best you can and jam it into the socket and screw it down as tight as you dare. The + and – are adjacent to each other, and I worried a spark could jump across the bare wire that is slightly below each socket after you screw it it. I tried to make sure there were no stray strands sticking out, and used some heat shrink wrap up to where the wire insulation meets the exposed wire to make is safe as I could. I’d much prefer a ring terminal for a safer, more secure fit. These chargers would not take a 2 AGW or larger wire. 4 AGW wire was definitely the max.

I was a bit confused by the directions for the smart shunt gauge, but finally found it was simple after seeing an explanation on some facebook group: all your negative connections to the battery go to one side, and the other side has a single wire from it to the negative on the battery bank. It’s so simple, it sounded complicated. It’s like a single negative post that’s remote from the battery, except it has two posts instead of one, with a bar in between. The shunt is for monitoring the battery health. I’m not sure how useful I’ll find it over the battery meter on my plotter or battery guage on the electric panel, but Blue Marine said I should have it, so I got it.

There is a concern about fires with lithium batteries, and that was where the massive T fuses come in. I put one of these on each of the positive leads of the two batteries. From what I’ve read, traditional fuses blown in a lithium system can get so hot they actually fuse back together, and now you’ve got current and heat flowing unchecked and a fire can start. These fuses are made so they can’t melt back together.

There was lots of room now in the battery box due to the smaller batteries. I actually could have fit 3 of these 100 Ah batteries in there and that would have made for a nice tight fit. I considered lots of options for securing the batteries in place. I had a couple expired survival suits I got from Bear for some projects. I’d used a piece of another one to cover my anchor capstan on the bow, but realized after a few seasons that the closed cell neoprene was subject to fairly quick deterioration from sun/UV light, so I ended up not using the suit material for that. I cut off the arms and a leg of the suit. I rolled each piece up tight, and jammed them between the batteries and between the sides of the batteries and the battery box. That stuck the batteries in place well, and it will be easy to remove the neoprene rolls should I need to do anything with the batteries. I also found that closed cell neoprene is a very “non-flammable” material, which also made them a good choice. There is lots of air circulation between the batteries and the rolled neoprene and battery box, so I’m not worried about the neoprene material keeping heat in the battery box.

I tackled the job over several days. If I got tired or hungry or under caffeinated, I quit for the day. It’s alot easier not to be in a rush nowadays. This is the kind of job you don’t want to rush. I’ll be excited to see how it performs during deer season.

Now to tackle the pesky leak in my skiff. I took the skiff for a test ride with the new fuel tank and when I returned and pulled the plug, a significant amount of water drained out for the short run. I have a leak somewhere, but cannot find it with the naked eye. I parked the skiff on its trailer in the driveway on levelish ground and filled the inside of the hull with water from the garden hose. I checked awhile later and the hull below decks was nearly full. And not leaks. Except for the drip at the drain plug. What a relief. No patching or welding needed. Just need to coat the threaded plug with pipe dope each time I put it in for now. End of boat chores for now.

Person standing on rocky shore beside canoe near forested lake

Jesse 2026

Jesse got here the day Pat and Sean left. I thought he got here two days later. Luckily, I asked him to pick up a sink part when he came on Tuesday, and that’s when he said I’m coming today!

Since it was a rainy day, and we would not get back to the boat until late in the day, we smoked and canned fish I had on hand, as he wanted to learn. We finished canning after midnight, so we slept in the next day. I learned something new on this batch of fish: the meat and skin and bone and fat left under the pectoral fins (which I cut off when I butcher the salmon) make great material for smoking and canning. I also tried using my 10 trays Cabela’s food dehydrator to dry the fish after taking it out of the brine, and that works great, too.

On day 2, we headed out in the morning. I decided to head to the outside waters as this might be the only day it wasn’t lumpy out there, as the north west wind was to return tomorrow. We made it to Ulitka at midday. No one was fishing at Ignace when we ran bay. Or at Gertrudis. Only one boat was fishing on either side of Ulitka when we got there. Uh oh.

We fished all afternoon. I caught a ling cod. We shook several pinks and a chum. We caught no king or coho. We tied up to my personal buoy and had ling cod and salad for dinner.

We were up at sunrise on Day 3. We fished in the lee of St Joseph’s Island at Hawg Rock to avoid the lump at Ulitka. I caught a smaller yellow eye rockfish and a ling cod. We moved to Hole in the Wall, and finally found some coho. And even better, only had to shake a pink or two. We also caught a nice chicken halibut. I set my skate and anchored up at midday to limit our processing time for the day. I saw a lot fewer charter and trollers out here so far this trip. I cooked rockfish for Jesse and I had ling cod for dinner.

We were going to hunt first thing in the morning on Day 4. Jesse wanted to see how I hunted blacktail deer here, as that’s what he hunts in California. There was fog at first light, so I checked the skate instead. Something had been on there that broke or bit through the 150 lb monofilament line. Then we fished til about 10 am and caught a couple coho. By then, the fog had burned off near us, so I used the coho heads for bait and reset the skate. We anchored and went deer hunting.

I called in a doe at two of the three locations where I called, and Jesse loved it. Jesse got to see a deer come to the call, complete with lots of nervous snorts. It was so warm that I think the deer were sleeping in the shade. We got back to the beach at midafternoon, and went back out so I could check the skate. Nothing. We continued on trolling and caught more coho. We headed to the new island anchorage and processed fish on the way. I set the skate on the way to anchor. I cooked sauteed canned deer burger with bell pepper, tomato, cheese and spinach for dinner with salad and tortillas.

Today marked Jesse’s last day fishing and my last day fishing for the summer. This was my 48th day fishing this summer. I caught about twice as many king salmon, and about 2/3 of the coho, that I caught last year. I checked the skate and somehow shook off the 70 lb halibut on there. I sure didn’t mean to. When I saw it come up, I thought: finally, a good halibut on the skate that’s been dry all summer. And what a great end to a great summer. It was pretty quiet in the wheelhouse for the next several hours. I was not happy with myself.

We caught nothing at Gertrudis. Except a consolation chicken halibut we later had for dinner at the cabin, which was on one of the rods, riding along behind the downrigger release without tugging it loose, until we brought the rods up to leave.
We made a pass at Ignace, and caught nothing, even though lots of feed showed there.

It’s been a different season, for sure. Although the season has been tough for trollers who don’t venture far from home or their traditional fishing area, the boats that ran to fish chum salmon near hatcheries at $1.75/lb sound like they may have had a banner summer. And after hardly any pink salmon showed up at all over the summer, they came in all of a sudden and there were, incredibly, record seine catches in Sitka Sound. And at 60 cents/lb – double last year’s price.

So, the end to another fishing season with good friends in the nice country I choose to live in. I learned several new fishing spots where I can get out of a west and northwest wind, and these spots produced larger lingcod than other places that we bycatch while trolling for salmon. Lingcod has quickly become one of my favorite and easiest to prepare fish.

We lost Bob, who fished with me last summer, to pancreatic cancer over the winter. He fought the Bastard with Eastern and Western medicine, and he lived a lot longer than most. I talk of him often with the other friends who come to fish. And also lots of kind reminders of Sam on the boat, as we use the camping plates and silverware for dinner each evening in the galley, and I sleep under a sleeping bag he gave me each evening. End of 2026 summer fishing!

The Boys are Back In Town

My grade schoolmates Pat and Sean arrived on the ferry Aug 20. We slept in the next day because their favorite establishment in Craig doesn’t open until 10 am. We headed out later that morning, and started fishing. We caught a few coho at the island coho drag and had coho salmon for dinner after we anchored at the island anchorage.

The next day, we fished the same drag and caught a handful more coho. I kept a pink salmon for dinner as well, and the boys loved it. It’s really hard to beat fresh pink salmon – regardless of what any Alaskan might tell you. We anchored by the island anchorage again – the time we’d anchored in the same spot this trip.

On day 3, we were plagued by pinks at my favorite king drag, so we headed out to H.I.T.W. We caught a handful of coho there, and I got a lingcod. We had lingcod for dinner, and I think both boys had seconds. This was their first time eating ling cod, and it would not be their last. The salad greens from the store were a little past due for eating fresh, so I sautéed them with some sliced onion, and the boys liked that too.

On day 4, we tried to get to Ulitka, but on approach, the swell was too big, so we hung a right and fished behind a big nearby island that is in the lee of the NW wind- my first time fishing there. I caught nice ling cod, but we caught no salmon. So, we moved back to HITW, and the boys caught a few coho. We tried my favorite king drag again, but it was still one pink salmon after another, even using all my bag of tricks I learned while power trolling, such as fishing lures with no red on them, and fishing large lures. For dinner, I made fixings for burritos, including canned deer burger, onions, beans, some ancient pre-cooked Costco rice bowls, and some canned tomatoes, with tortillas.

We moved back to inside waters and tried the coho island drag. We caught a few coho and lost one in the first hour, then the place went absolutely dead. Not even a random pink salmon. So we left for town just after noon, as the boys were almost out of beer and other necessities. We topped up the fuel and water tanks on the way to the harbor. The boys got beer and other fine things, and I restocked salad greens and my near beer. The boys had a hard sleep at the cabin, and I slept on the boat in the harbor.

We left South Cove about 830 the next morning. We caught a couple rock fish trolling at Cruz Pass buoys. I caught a king salmon there once, so had to try it on our way north. We continued running north east, and fished by the island site of a former Tlingit community, but nothing there. We motored further northeast, and I idled shortly in the channel to show the boys the sacred shaman grave site that is, I’d say, one of the more significant sites I’ve ever seen.

I set a 2 hook skate at the confluence of some channels. After I let the buoys go, I thought maybe I needed to put more line on the longline after I saw the current dragging on the buoys. When I tried to pull the line back up, the line – halibut groundline, no less – parted – so I lost some gear. I think the line that looked good to my inexperienced eye must have been rotted, so more life tuition paid.

We ventured up into Sea Otter Sound. We trolled around at some of the locations listed in my fishing book, but caught nothing. Then we tried what I went up there for: to try fishing my shrimp trawl. I went to the only site I knew – where my friend Mike introduced me to it a decade (?) ago.

The first drag went great! I fished the trawl at about 275 feet, and caught a gallon of spot prawns. The next 3 trawls in practically the same drag were a bust. I kept hanging up the net, and caught nothing. The shrimp was more than enough for dinner in a dish with red onion, bell pepper, tomato and cucumber with salad, plus leftovers for lunch the next day. I set the skate with new skate line afterward, and we anchored nearby. I was really enjoying exploring this new country.

There was nothing on the skate the next day. We tried fishing a few places my friend who lived most of his life in nearby Edna Bay suggested, but caught nothing, so we ventured to another spot on the chart book. We caught a king salmon, some coho salmon, and I caught ling cod on the drag that ended right by a long bay that was our anchorage for the evening.

On Aug 19, I was up early and we back-tracked to the spot where we caught the king salmon, but nothing there. We were there now at the opposite tide as when we got the king yesterday, so I noted that. We fished to the point, and with the swell from the big ocean bearable, we kept on going southwest around the outside of the island. I figured we’d fish it in one direction and end up back at HITW.

The boys caught a coho and 2 big rockfish. At Cape Lynch, Sean and Pat were tending to a small rockfish on the starbard rod when I looked back from the helm to see that the port rod had released from the downrigger. The line was going out at about 45 degrees from the stern, with very little bend in the rod and no indication of a fish on.

I turned the boat towards the fish, rather than put the boat in neutral, to maintain sterage in the heavy swell, and clicked on the autopilot. I made my way back to the stern. I lifted the rod, which made a big bend in the pole. There was no throbbing to it, so I thought – must be kelp. I started to pull back and reel, pull back and reel, pull back and reel. Still, nothing that would indicate a fish was on there, except that the flasher never came to the surface. By the time I worked the fish close the boat, the boys were done with their side, and came over to see what was on my hook. The boat idled back over the line, so we were surprised when the flasher suddenly popped out of the water, followed by the cop car king kandy cut plug, which had slid up the line when the hooks released from the lure. By now, I suspected I had a halibut, and saw something brown behind the flasher. Then realized: that’s no halibut, but a big linger! A 35 lb lingcod to be exact.

I called to Pat to bring the big net and he netted the fish on the first try. I sure like the huge mesh net. I took it off the boat as I thought it was too big, but then returned to the boat just for netting bigger chicken halibut, big king salmon, and now, big lingcod.

The waves built up as we landed the fish, and the rain started in heavy. When I asked the crew if they wanted to keep fishing or retreat, they voted unanimously for warm and calm, so we ran the rest of the way around Heceta to the Maurelle islands and found calm anchorage in the islands. After I set the pick, we took care of the fish.

What an impressive fish these lingcod are. Teeth you don’t want to mess with. Built sort of like a pike for ambush. We had lingcod again for dinner. Our first repeat seafood of the trip. The crew’s new favorite fish.

Aug 20 was our next to last day fishing. I weighed anchor at 615 am, and cautiously felt my way for the first time through a little channel called Launch Passage. I put the track on the gps plotter so I’d have it for next time (if I didn’t hit bottom, of course). The trail took me through rocks and little islands. At the exit, rocks shown that did not show on the plotter navigation chart. I was grateful we were traveling at low tide when the rocks were exposed or I could easily have hit them. With a sigh of relief, we flushed back to open water in thick fog, and ran to Ulitka by radar and GPS.

Ulitka had about a 7 ft swell, but the boys said they were up for trying it. They caught a nice king, and released a few pinks, along with a coho with a bite out of its side. I caught a ling cod. In mid-afternoon, we returned inside of the cape, and I tied up to my personal mooring buoy there attached to the anchor that I hung on the bottom earlier in the summer.

My inlaws were out fishing and stopped in to say hello. When they left, we were enjoying a beverage in the evening sun on the back deck when we heard folks on the boat Grand Finale, anchored further out in the bay, hollering about something. A couple folks fishing in a raft near the boat landed a nice salmon, and high-fived each other. The woman squealing on the back deck of Grand Finale played a nice chicken halibut up on her salmon rod.

On our last day fishing, I was up early. The boys were still waking up, so I put the gear out for the first time this trip, and saw that flashers were rigged upside down! Yesterday, I’d told the boys to experiment with any lures they wanted, and somehow the flashers got flipped on the rod. Well, they caught a king salmon the day before, so whose to say which is the right way to rig a flasher??!? We caught a couple coho outside of the cape, then trolled to the inside of the cape, and kept going towards Steamboat Bay.

On the way, I put the boat on autopilot to go to the galley to put on a second pot of coffee. I was gone maybe 2 minutes, and hear a “thwack” in the back. I ran to the helm and saw I’d run us up on 45 ft of water and kelp with 70 feet of downrigger line out! We lost a cannon ball and all the terminal gear on one side. Just goes to show experience is no guarantor. Paying attention wins the day.

Thick fog then moved in, and I put the radar on. As we trolled inland, not being able to see more than a few hundred yards in the fog, a full grown humpback that seemed to have been sleeping suddenly blew and dove right next to us with it’s magnificent white colored tail, inside the kelp tideline I was staying to the outside of to avoid the kelp. Normally, kelp is the bane of my trolling existence, but in this case it may have saved us from running over the whale, which would not have been good for us or the Jeanne Kay.

We fished my favorite drag and caught nothing so pulled up the gear and headed for Craig City. Another great trip with the Bolivar Homeys.

Boats named Jeanne Kay and Craig AK docked at marina

August tradition

Tom arrived on his annual first week of August fishing trip. In the past, he’s brought his wife, daughter (a long time ago), and grandson (The Cheese). This year, the Cheese was off with his cousins, working a job with them poisoning ponds in Michigan, rather than going fishing with his Grandpa and me (I’m not kidding). So, Tom brought his brother in law Al, a career GM worker from Detroit, Tom’s hometown.

They arrived on the 130 flight from Ketchikan, and we were fishing at the coho Island drag at 3:30. After just a few fish with the last group of Peace Corps friends, I was hoping the cohos would move inside, where I could fish for them in calmer waters. I was not disappointed.

By 6:30, we were motoring to the anchorage with over a dozen coho. Lucky for me, Tom is now an experienced fish cleaner, and was able to keep up. All I could think of was that Al is ruined for life. He’ll think it’s always like this. I caught myself helping out a bit too much with the lines, and we almost ran aground. Crap. I’ve got to watch that. The fish – coho and pink – were thick. Fish were swirling at the surface like I’ve never seen. The coho were full of needlefish. Tom, a deacon in his Catholic Church, thought the luck might be because of all the prayers he said. I told him he needed to try swearing once in awhile so he could catch up cleaning. There were no other boats around.

We finished processing about 915 pm at the anchorage, right at sunset. I made pink salmon and salad for dinner. The boys had their take-home fish supply assured already. We could spend the rest of the week replenishing my freezer after I gave last week’s crew all the salmon Julie and I caught the week before they were here.

The next morning, we weighed anchor at 515 am and ran to my favorite king drag. We’d fish with larger lures and deeper if necessary. We put the gear down at 630 am. We caught 2 nice kings and 3 coho for the day. A welcome breather from the day before. As we motored out on the first day, Al said said he didn’t get a king salmon stamp to “save a few dollars”. I wasn’t having that, and had him get one online. That was a good thing for him. He realized when he caught the two kings that the few dollars were worth it, as I would have made him release them if he hadn’t.

By the end of the second day, we’d out fished our cooling capacity with the big kings, so we headed to town to offload. By 630 pm, I was wiped out, and fast asleep before 7 pm. I slept hard.

The next morning, we vac packed all the fish after sleeping in a bit. One of my Foodsaver vac packers kept throwing a red “liquid tray full” light, and these units will not work with that light on. Try as I might to dry everything, it would stay on. I searched the internet for help, and saw a thread about cutting the white wire to bypass the light. That worked! I’ve Craigslisted the several vac packers I have here, and with three of us vac packing, that sure speeded up the operation.

We headed back out about noon and had our gear in about 2 pm. We caught 3 nice coho, and lost the biggest one of the day at the net. We kept a pink salmon for dinner, and it was excellent as usual. We at one of my new spots behind an island in idle seas.

On day 4, I weighed anchor at 4 am for the 4 am high tide. We got a nice king at 515 am. Then the wind blew up, and we moved to a new spot for me called Hole in the Wall (HITW). On the way there, we saw two spectacular bull orcas that popped up right next to the boat. One of them has a distinctive notch on his dorsal fin, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for him.

I switched the lures to whole herring king kandy on one side, and a big lime green king spoon on the other, and dropped down to 100 ft from the standard 70 ft, to try to target kings and limit cohos and pinks . We caught a keeper king and a 22 lb king that jumped and jumped for Tom at HITW, along with 5 coho. We anchored at 115 pm in a new spot for me, so as to not overload our cooling capacity again, and processed fish for 1.5 hrs. So glad to find a king spot for NW winds with a nearby anchorage, as I really didn’t have a spot to move to when the winds come up at my favorite king salmon drag. Salmon trollers joined us later in the evening in the unique anchorage called HITW.

We slept in til 6am on day 5, and fished HITW all day in the lee from the NW wind. It was a beautiful sunny and breezy day. We released a few pinks, and that was it! On the last tack, we fished further east to some other islands, looking for a better anchorage, and we found one. As we pulled the gear to go anchor, we got a coho and a rockfish. We set the skate outside the anchorage. We went into the cove, dropped the anchor, and the 3 of us went to shore in the punt to beach comb. We got a nice hike on the beach. Tom found a troll gaff in a driftwood pile – his second troll gaff find in Alaska. Years ago he found one floating when we were trolling near Juneau, and it may still be one of the gaffs on the boat now. I told Al to watch his footing as we climbed around the rocks between driftwood beaches, as we were a minimum 3 hours away from a competent doctor. Doctor Tom cracked a grin. Al thought I was the George Carlin of Alaska. I cooked the rockfish and a piece of the coho for the boys for dinner, and I had leftover coho from the night before.

We checked the skate the next morning, and nothing. Fishing was dead at HITW, so we moved to my favorite spot for 2 coho, and then got blown out of there when the NW wind picked up. We ran back to the coho Island, and set the skate on the way. We picked up a few coho at the Island. Al started cleaning fish under Tom’s supervision, and he did a good job.

For the final dinner on the boat, I cooked canned venison, with salad, rice, onions, and mushrooms. It was the last night eating on the boat for the trip, so I tried to finish up the vegetables. I anchored by Muerta Island for the first time, and it was pretty good in the NW wind. The Bruce anchor I put on recently holds well.

The last morning, there was nothing on the skate. Again. It’s been a tough halibut year for Uncle Mark. We fished the Island for a pass and released a few pinks, but no cohos, despite lots of feed. We caught a chicken halibut we kept for the last dinner tonight.

It’s been a different year. Although there’s feed around, humpback whales seemed scarce this July and August, and the coho and king salmon fishing has been scatchy in the inside waters I fish. There are reports of good fishing and feed offshore, so maybe that’s where the whales are, too.

Another great trip with Tom and family.

Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer Tray Full Red Light won’t go off HACK!

This post may be the biggest read I’ll ever get.

I have a Foodsaver V3825 vac packer. The liquid tray full light came on, and try as I might, it would not go off, until it finally did. Then it happened again. I saw a DIY post that was only on the preview of the actual string, and that worked. Here it is.

Unplug the machine.
Take the screws out of the bottom of the machine, which allow the bottom plate to come out and expose the wiring to the liquid collection tray.
Cut the white wire going into the bottom of the tray.
Now just check the tray once in awhile to empty it, but it does not stop the machine from working.

You’re welcome.

Fishing is a Sci Fi Movie

Well, I broke my brother in law’s rod yesterday fishing with him. But it’s part of the end of a good story.

We were fishing on the outside coast. My brother in law’s son in law was in town, so he invited me to along on their fishing trip. The weather looked good that day, then was gonna blow up. I rarely go outside to fish but the seas looked okay so I gladly went along.

We were fishing for an hour and hadn’t caught a king salmon yet. Then my nephew gets a big fish on the one rod. As I bring in the other rod, we got a double! My fish feels a bit weird by the way it’s fighting – like maybe it’s a halibut or something.

My nephew continued playing his fish, and slowly works the fish closer to the boat. All of a sudden, we see his line and his flasher whizz by behind the outboards in the back of the boat – and I mean whizz by. Faster than any fish I’d ever seen. Turns out there was a good reason for that.

Out of nowhere, about 20 feet behind the boat, a HUGE sealion bull jumps vertically almost fully out of the water, with the big king salmon in his mouth! It happened so fast it took me a second to process what we just saw happen. It was like something out of a sci fi movie.

Then the sea lion ran with that fish across the props and broke off the flasher and lure and was gone!

I then bring my fish up, and it’s swimming, but sadly, it had no tail. A sea lion had bitten off the back of the fish, but it was still alive and swimming. As I lifted the rod, the end of the rod broke off and then the line broke at the flasher, so we lost all that gear, too. So, 2 kings on, and no kings in.

We might not remember the fish we caught this day, but you always remember the one that got away.