Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  Remember that saying, water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink? Well it's been kind of like that in the fishing realm here this past few weeks. The troll fleet from Sitka, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Yakutat and other spots around Southeast Alaska have amassed here in anticipation of the June run of Chum Salmon that normally makes there way through Icy Strait on their way to the hatchery from which they came some years back, but so far it's been a dry run. I keep hoping that they'll get discouraged and leave and then the run will show and I and my fellow Hoonah fishermen will clean house, smiling all the way to the bank. So far though, no one is smiling, well, except maybe the eagles. It's really kind of hard to tell if they are or not. They're pretty intent birds. They should be happy though. As you can see, the herring have moved in to the harbor en mass. Every stall has multitudes hanging around, as well as under the ramps that  lead to...

   Hmmm... welllll... it would appear that there was a slight miscalculation on the way to the grid iron the other night. Houston, we have a problem. When I see something like this, I think, there, by the grace of God go I. Anyone who has spent any time on a boat is bound to have an unfortunate incident of some kind or another. A few years ago the guy on the Antares was doing something or other- covering the ice with ice blankets or grabbing coffee or whatever, but in any event, he grounded his boat on Graveyard Island. Fortunately the Antares is a  big fiberglass boat, and it didn't hit all that hard, so the most damage done was to his ego, as every boat going to or from the harbor passed by it, plus all the boats docked at the cold storage. I think I would have gone up forward and to the aft where the name is displayed and covered it with a tarp to try and save a little face. I distinctly recall one morning some years ago when I was charging out o...

   I was heading out fishing this morning when I noticed that some of the whale watch boats were already leaving with their passengers. I looked down towards the cannery where the ships have been anchoring and saw nothing, although there were some lightering boats running to the cannery from around the corner. When I got around the bend myself, I could see that for whatever reason the captain decided to anchor on the other side of cannery point. There has been quite a large amount of conflict over the cruise ship dock and it's location. Icy Strait Point wants it built on their property, using state money, and the city says no they can't for that very reason. Unfortunately, one of the city council members has been pushing the ISP location, even though there is a conflict of interest and it has really divided the city. What a pain. I assume the captain docked where he did to make a point, I don't know, but in any event it was a nuisance to try and tro...