At Last

 The summer King Salmon season has arrived here in Southeast Alaska, and much like a kid who has waited for Christmas all year, I'm ecstatic that it is finally here. As a general rule I don't bother fishing for kings in the winter. There aren't many around where I am, most of them are located out on the coast, and I have no intention of traveling to Sitka in the winter to try my hand a catching a few, so I'm always happy to get the chance to fish close to home. In years past, there has been what became known as experimental openings, where trollers were allowed to catch kings in April through June, in part because of a three percent tax that is imposed on all commercial salmon fishers to supplement the fishery. However, for the past several years, the King Salmon runs haven't done well, for a variety of reasons, which no one is really sure of. That resulted in fisheries being shut down in order to preserve the species. I don't mind taking a loss for  a few years if it means saving the runs, however, this winter a group of radical environmental types got into their heads  that a particular group of Orcas off the coast of Washington was starving to death because they weren't getting enough King Salmon to eat, and wanted to shut off the outside coast of Southeast Alaska to the troll fleet to insure the poor things didn't starve. That's like saying if I can't have steak every day I'll just not eat. How ridiculous. I can promise you, if something other than their preferred diet shows up, they will eat it. They aren't as stupid as people. I'm not sure how long the king season will last this year. No one really knows yet. I've heard that there aren't many showing up on the outside coast right now, even though prior to the commercial opening, they were apparently wall to wall out there. I feel blessed to have caught what I did. On opening day I caught three, the first one as I was making my first pass along the shore. I was unable to fish the second day due to the wind, but on the third day, the day this picture was taken, I caught four and lost one.  I also managed to knock a coho off the hook. That always makes me smile and dance on the deck. Yesterday I only caught one king, plus a dog salmon and a couple of pinks, but so far every day I've  been out I've scored, so overall I'm pretty happy. I do wish the price was higher, but the market is all jacked up because of this virus. My options are to go fish and accept the price I'm offered, don't fish at all or sell the fish to a local person for more money, which can be a hassle. I choose to fish one way or another. I just hope the kings keep on hopping on my gear and that I don't have to wait all day for a strike.