Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 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 ...

Obviously this post isn't about the four legged kind of dog we all know and mostly love. I say mostly because my neighbor has decided to dog sit for a friend of theirs whose dog is unruly and loves to stick his big mouth out the window and bark-for hours on end. I so wish I could live on my own private little estate away from unruly dogs, neighbors and other riff-raff. However, I digress. This post is about fishing for chum, or dog salmon as they're known. It's about the only game in town right now. The king season is closing tonight, and it has been poor, and so far the humpies and cohos haven't shown, even out on the ocean. I'm not sure what to make of it. The upside of such poor fishing is that the price to the fishermen is good. The downside is that there are few fish, and the consumer is going to pay a lot more.The second picture shows the difference between ocean bright chum, and one that is ready for the creek. The closer they get to fresh wa...

The Village Idiot This Bald Eagle is enjoying his perch atop the Village Idiot's trolling poles      While the above named post might lead the reader into thinking that this post is about myself, I can soundly reject that notion and would encourage you to look closely at the stern of the boat in the top picture. As you can see, plainly or not so much so, the boat in question is none other than The Village Idiot, home ported in what used to be a lovely little fishing village on the outer coast of Chichagof Island, at the very entrance to Cross Sound. Unfortunately, like so many fine places in Alaska, the area has been taken over by the tourist industry and it's changed the whole character of the the village.I believe that there are nine lodges crammed into the harbor now, puking out an ungodly number of charter fishermen several times a day from spring to the fall every year.  I would much rather see the moniker Village Idiot on one of those boats, alo...

  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...