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...

     When it comes to the life of Riley in the animal kingdom, few pets can rival our dachshund, Rigby. Dachshund, in German literally means badger dog. They were bred to go into holes after badgers and other burrowing animals. I believe that badgers can be ferocious, but these dogs were up to the task. They're ears are purposely long to keep out the dirt, leaves and grass that would enter otherwise and they have large paws for digging. The long snout helps to sniff out prey and they're large chest gives them a capacity to keep at the task at hand without getting winded.I read that the tail was bred to be curved so that they could be pulled out by it in case they got stuck in a hole. Apparently they're known for being stubborn, a fact that I can attest to.  Author E.B. White who owned a dachshund wrote, " whenever I address Fred I never have to raise my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do." He...

      It used to be when someone mentioned Spam, they were talking about the meat in the blue and yellow can put out by the Hormel Corporation. Back in the 1930's the good folks at Hormel were left with a dilemma- what to do with all the pork shoulders? I don't know all the particulars, I'm not a butcher nor do I understand the in's and outs of commercial meat processing. When I'm fortunate enough to bag a deer out hunting I cut it up myself, and we don't let the shoulder go to waste. If nothing else it goes into ground meat for hamburgers. On pigs though, I don't know why the shoulders wouldn't have a market, but apparently they didn't, so someone came up with the idea of grinding them up, adding salt, water, and whatever else they put in there-I'm not sure I want to know, and sticking it in a can. Down through the years Spam has been an affordable meal in many a home. I never ate it growing up, but when I bought the Bonnie J and experience...

   From time to time I get a little bit of guff, usually from family members, who feel like I don't post here often enough. The fact that I actually have to do something that will bring in a little moola doesn't seem to appease them any; apparently they feel like my primary job is to entertain them. Now, in all fairness, I have to admit, I didn't receive an e-mail or phone call reprimanding me, but had I gone another day or so without posting, I no doubt would have gotten some form of complaint, so, being the saint that I am, I'm going to sacrifice some of MY time to put out this post. Hopefully they'll feel entertained.    As you can plainly see, I've posted  a couple of pictures of this year's garden. I would dearly love to take full credit for it's beauty, but I have to admit, outside of pulling a few dandelions and picking up some rocks which were tossed, willy nilly into the yard, I haven't done too much gardening. Largel...

  I took my oldest daughter Jennifer out fishing with me a week ago. She enjoys being outside when the weather is sunny, even if it's kind of cold. As you can see from the top picture, it was chilly that morning when we started out. I asked her why she just didn't come inside if she was cold, but she wanted to experience the outdoors first hand, cold or not. She spends all week inside, which is fine when it's rainy or snowy, but when the weather starts to turn she chomps at the bit to get out. It was my second time dropping some lines this year. We had gotten a late start and the wind was blowing a bit,so I opted to just go to Point Sophia and troll around. There wasn't much sign of feed or fish, but we had to try anyway.  I heard from a few people the other day that there were some fish out in Cross Sound, but I'm not going to go out there right now. There's a relatively small area to fish in and I don't feel like being in with a ...