With three openers under our belts the fishing season here is starting off with a bang. The first opener, which was 12 hours, the fleet caught 155,000 sockeye salmon verses an anticipated
32, 000 according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) www.adfg.alaska.gov and the price was pretty high at $4.00 a pound! Not as many kings as anticipated were caught, 1,100 verses an anticipated of 2,100, but at $6.50 a pound, we’ll take it! The sonar is clicking away steady, counting fish up stream that are returning home. The cumulative count, as of May 23rd is more-less on track at 17,184 with an anticipated count of 18,418 fish.
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| Tender and gillnetters out on the fishing grounds |
Monday’s opener turned out to be a good one, too, except for
the fact that the price dropped like an anvil in a Road Runner Cartoon. But the weather was nice and there were a few
fish around. The fleet caught 219,000 reds. That is huge! The anticipated catch was 94,000 reds. 1,300 kings were caught verses an anticipated of 3,455. The price is still shaking
out and there are a few discrepancies between canneries, like one offering
$3.10 a pound for sockeye and the other offering $1.75. That’s a big price difference. We’re still waiting to see if the low ballers
are going to come up on price or how on that.
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| Tender out on the fishing grounds |
I just got in from another 12-hour opener, our third of the season. It started out pretty sloppy out there, not much wind but tide running against the current, seemingly both against the wind. Just made it lumpy. My guts took a beating when we ran. Nothing too bad, but you certainly couldn’t
make Eggs Benedict.
That’s how I gauge how bad the weather is out there. Is it a peanut butter and jelly day or can I
make an actual sandwich? Can I fry an
egg or will it end up paper thin and the complete diameter of the pan? Crepes are probably a good thing to cook out
there on a snotty day, the thinner the better, right? I was working on a tender one summer and
tried to bake a cake. For some reason or
another, we had a port list. And the
cake, you guessed it. Lemon list
cake. One side was about a half in high
and the other was 3. Anyway, I digress. Like I said, I'm writing this after the fishing opener. I'm still rocking.
The price dropped again for reds (sockeye) to $1.30 a pound! I think that's lower than it went last year and this is only the 3rd period! Wouch! That is what I heard anyhow maybe it will come up. But I’m curious. What are you guys paying a pound at the store? And where? Do tell!
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| Rain-gear blowout. I thought I felt a draft.... |
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