Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  I was going to do a blog post about my last days of fishing on the Bonnie J. I've given the boat to a worthy person I believe and I wanted to reflect a little bit on my time with her, but yesterday my son Brian called with the news that my friend and long time Hoonah resident Fagan Skaflestad had passed away. It came as quite  a shock to me for some reason. I don't know why. He was in his early eighties I believe, but he always seemed so robust, so full of life. He was one of those guys that just seemed like would live forever. I can't even recall when we first met, I feel like I've known him most of my life. His family has been around Hoonah for decades. His dad, Alf, had a logging business and he and the boys logged up and down Port Frederick for years. They had a camp up in Salt Lake Bay if I recall correctly, and Fagan used to tell me about running around in a skiff up in the Narrows, fishing for King Salmon. He had the uncanny ability of finding fish when few oth...

 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 ...

  As any fisherman knows, there is no guarantee that you're going to catch something when you go out. That was made very real to me this year. For the first six or so times I went out trolling, I was skunked. It was quite a contrast to last year when I picked up  a total of 29 king salmon during the spring opening. Finally a week or so back, the fish decided to make an entrance. I was out fishing last Wednesday and picked up a few dogs, a couple of sockeyes and some pinks, which was all fine and dandy, but I really wanted to land a king. When my tattle tale spring started jumping, I could tell it was a decent king salmon on the line. When I started pulling it in with the gurdy, he was towing the 50 lb cannonball around pretty good.I was starting to get excited when the line went dead. I wasn't sure why I lost it until I examined the spoon he hit- the hook was broken in two. He swam off with the business end of the hook and I was left with a great bi...

A Pacific Halibut about 71 pounds before gutting and removing the head Three troll caught, ocean bright Alaskan King Salmon. The largest one was 22 pounds Locally caught Dungeness crabs. My son's caught these in two pots set overnight Fresh blueberries from the back yard. The kids picked about two gallons in a few hours Samonberries from around the house               One of the joys of living in Alaska is that there is so much to enjoy of nature's bounty. Many Alaskan's, especially those of us who are living outside of the larger towns, utilize the abundance of food sources that are prevalent here. Every season brings something that can be harvested. Right now salmon and halibut are abundant, and the wise person catches some for now and some for the long winter ahead. For many people, especially those out in the bush, smoking fish has been a way to preserve it for hundreds of years. Now we...

  I went out fishing for the first time this year this past Friday. Fish and Game opened up the commercial king salmon troll season for five days in this area. I wasn't going to go initially. The forecast was for twenty knots out of the East, and it's always a hassle when it's blowing that hard from that direction to dock the boat when I come back to the harbor. Plus it's not fun to be out in a cold wind when there really isn't all that much around to catch. However, the dog had to go pee and decided to wake me up at 5:15. I noticed that the wind that was forecast hadn't developed yet, and it seemed like it might be a good day, and since I was up anyway, I thought, what the heck, so I made enough lunch to feed three people and went down to the boat.  It was really nice to be back out on the water. Last year I was hauled out so I could get some planks replaced. I stayed on dry land from March 29 to mid-July. The season wasn't ...

Flasher and Hoochies Flashers and hoochies on the job   For my birthday or perhaps Fathers Day, or perhaps both, I don't know, my daughter Jen and her family blessed me with a flasher and some hoochies from Cabelas, the giant outdoors outfitters. You would think that being in the fishing business as they are, they would be well familiar with all of the jargon that fishermen have for assorted fishing gear. However, that isn't the case. Jen went in and asked the salesman where she could find the hoochies. I guess he must have thought she should have been shopping in a sex shop or something from the look he gave her. She had to explain what they were used for and that they mimicked an octopus. I think they call them skirts or some such thing. Anyway, I'm the proud owner of a glow in the dark flasher and two new packs of hoochies that I love. I tried out the flasher on one line, but even though that line was catching fish when I used the conventional gear, when ...