Copper River Salmon Season 2014 Kicks Off!

It's here! It's here! It's here! It's here!  Copper River Reds are here!  I don't know about you but I have been lucky enough to eat fresh salmon for the past few days now.  But, look at me, getting ahead of myself already.

The Copper River gillnet fishery opened up for a 12 hour period last Thursday, May 15th.  The weather was pretty nice as we all charged out the harbor floating on the excitement of the first opener of the season.

Anchored out the night before the 1st opener

The weather started off pretty decent for us, no wind, sunny and warm.  As the opener progressed, a westerly kicked up, making running west to home at the end of the opener a bit of a kidney buster.  All in all, though, not too bad of a day on the Flats.

The price started a little low then crept up through out the day as it became clear there weren't too many fish around.  I think we ended up somewheres just north of four bucks a pound for reds. We managed to scrape up a few fish and with the good price we get at the beginning of the season, even a few fish add up just fine.

We had a second opener on Monday, another 12 hour shot at the fish.  There were a few more fish around but not so, so much.  But again, the price held and so did the weather. 

There is usually a slough of media coverage around the beginning of the season and this year was no different.  Articles about fish and the price of fish have been popping up left and right.  Here is a great little video capturing a few of our local characters of the fishing fleet along with an article about the price of fish.  Simply click the links below.

Meet the Fleet


The story behind the $50/lb hype of Copper River salmon.

Copper River Salmon in Seattle & Anchorage


Too bad we fisherman don't get paid that kind of money!  But, we don't.Which is why we have to go out and do it again.  Speaking of, I'm about to do just that!  Fishing opens again tomorrow for a 36 hour period.  The fish counter has just gone crazy so we are getting lots of fishing time.  Wish us luck!

Green Eyes, Part II

 

 I have to pull a net full of green eyes in by hand.  My situation just got depressing.  This is one of those times I wish there were someone else aboard.  But, alas, I fish by myself, so all tasks fall on me to do, even the unpleasant ones.

            I take a big sigh and start to pull.  “This is going to be a mess” I think to myself.  As I pull these bastards in I have to pile the net on deck.  It doesn’t take long before I have no place to stand.  I’m trying to pull with all my might and I keep losing my footing because I’m standing on net and spiky fish.  Adrenaline is pumping, sweat is pouring.  I’m burning up inside my raingear.  It doesn’t matter.  I have to get this net in.  I put one foot on the gunnels for leverage.   And there is no place for my feet on deck anyway.  I pull.  I get pulled. “What the hell, over?” I exclaim (again, to myself).  I put both feet on the gunnels.  This gives me more leverage, but if whatever is weighing to much wins, I’m going in the drink.  I heave.  Again I get pulled.  I feel like a cartoon character as I can’t see what is causing this.  Then I hear “watchya doin’?”  Where did this voice come from?  Surprised, I look up and there is Phil.  I was so engrossed in my tug a war I didn’t hear him pull up.  I yank on the net one more time.  This time I win.  As I do I go flying backwards and land on my back on top of my pile of net and green eyes.  As I land I see a big king salmon come flying over the rollers!  “Holy shit!” I cheer.  I didn’t even see him.  It was pure luck that he didn’t fall out of my net during my tug a war session.  He must have weighed 40 pounds.  I stand up to answer Phil.  “I’m having a blast. Did you see that king?” I pant, as I am out of breath from my current task.  I am now also all slimy from falling on my net and fish.  “Can I give you a hand?”  He asks casually.  “Yeah”.

            He motors over to the end of my net and starts picking it up, as his reel is bigger than mind and can accommodate this.  I take a moment to catch my breath and sigh in relief as my net is finally out of the water.  It only takes Phil a few minutes to pick up my net.  We are now bow to bow.  My work is not done.  I still have to pull my net in by hand, but it’s much, much easier now.  I pile it on my bow.  Once I get it all aboard I thank Phil for his help.         

            I head into my cabin.  My coffee is still on my counter.  I take a swig, its ice cold.  Ah, the life of a fisherman.  I put on my headset and head south to deeper waters.  I have to get rid of these green eyes but I have to run far enough away so I don’t catch more in the process.  My boat feels funny as its all bow heavy from all the green eyes.  It looks deck loaded.  And it is, just not with salmon. 

            I run about 15 minutes wishing I could run longer as I’m not looking forward to the task at hand.  Alas, I can delay the inevitable any longer.  I find a spot where no one is around.  I throw it in neutral.  I crawl back into my raingear and head out on deck.  I throw my buoy over and put the boat in reverse.  I play my net that is stacked on deck out by hand.  I groan in disdain as I can hear it ripping from all the green eyes in it.  I cringe every time I hear that sounds.  Once I get to the net that is on the reel, its goes out a little more smoothly now.  But, I am still setting very slowly as not to rip it up.  Once I get the whole thing out I can start to haul it back in.  The green eyes are still in it, but the come out much easier now that they are dead.  For one, they are not fighting me and they are more limp.   But these things are even more disgusting looking now that they are dead, if you can believe that.  And they stink.  So, I pick them out and throw them over, one by one.  There is no market for these things in Alaska.  To bad too, otherwise I could have just made a lot of money.  I finally get my net cleaned out and back aboard and am ready to fish. I look at the clock, it’s 12 noon.   That venture was only a 5 hour waste of time.
  

Fisher Poets 2011

Rich, Veronica, Pat, Ron, & Jon

Well, it rocked.  I can say that.  It was great.  Amazing.  You should have been there.  But, if you weren't, no worries.  With any luck, I should be able to post some vids of the occasion.  I hope.

But, allow me to recap first.  It was almost as intense as a fishing opener!  Somehow, with the same amount of sleep, too.  None!  One guy mentioned he'd have to go out fishing just to get some shut eye!

I started off with my flight out of Anchorage delayed about 2 hours then arrived Portland about 7 am on Thursday. The whole plane groaned in unison as we broke through the clouds of Oregon on approach.  All of us were expecting to see green, as far as the eye could see.  What did we get instead?  White. Snow.  Looked just like Alaska.

I was worried  when I got into my rental car, some cute red thing, the radio said practically all of Portland was closed.  School was cancelled, all the city buses had to don chains and could not go faster than 25 MPH, and were all, therefore, late.  This college was closed, that one was delayed.  I think even lunch was cancelled.  I was nervous, I mean, I can drive in snow like the any other Alaskan, but in a new city?  Its intimidating.  Alaska doesn't even have a freeway!  Not one in the whole state.

So I put out, white knuckled before I even left the garage.  And what to I find?  Nothing!  Not a thing.  Sure, it was snowing, a little, but it wasn't even sticking to the pavement!  And, on the grass, there was maybe, maybe an inch.  I guess I shouldn't complain, I think others coming down from Washington did get into some hairy sitchs with the white stuff.  But, not me.  Anyway, I did get lost though.  Then met up with my pal Kris, who I know from my Ohio State Day in the early 90's.  I think that was about the last time we saw each other, too.

After that...........IKEA! What a treat!  We don't have that in AK either.  And they won't ship to us.  I had to use extreme willpower and not buy everything, I still had to pack it back home.  With that, I headed west to Astoria.  After stopping at a few discount grocery stores, another thing we don't have up here! Wine for 4 bucks!

Anyway, Fisher Poets was great!  I was on at the Astoria Event Center Friday night on stage, lights a blaring, in front of a crowd of several hundred people and was also broad casted live on the radio.  No pressure there.  I kept thinking "don't f*#k up, don't f*#k up.....and don't say f*#k!"  I was also interviewed on the radio after my performance.  All the acts were great.  One of my favorites was the Cowboy's Trans-vocational act.  A cowboy gone fisherman, too funny. Then,  I finished out the evening listening to Ray Troll's band at the Voodoo Room.

Cowboy!
Ron McDaniel,who's turned "trans-vocational"
Half cowboy/ half fisherman

This just in.  Due to technological difficulties, I'm not currently able to post vid to this blog, but, I have my people on it (AKA, my guy).  Hopefully, it will be up this weekend. Now back to the regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.

Saturday was even better.  I had this amazing breakfast at the Columbia then went to a songwriter's workshop.  I'm not a songwriter, but figured, what the hay.  Turns out, it was amazing!  There was a panel of musicians, guitar in hand, to give advice on songwriting and perform a few of their own.  Allen Estes, http://www.allenestes.com/allenestes/Allen_Estes_Welcome.html from Souls of the Sea, http://www.thesoulsofthesea.com/music.shtml  a band from Gloucester was the first to sing.   And, man alive, were his songs moving.  I don't know if it was because it was the first time I heard them, or if it was because he was sitting about 6 feet in front of me, but his songs had a punch!  I was fighting back the tears.  Of course, they were all about Gloucester men lost at sea, not a happy subject by any means.   Jon Campbell http://www.jcampbellwampum.com/ was next, another east coaster, followed by Gordon Bok, http://www.gordonbok.com/ also from the east coast.  A few others pipped in, too.  Like Mary Garvey, an amazing  songwriter, a true natural with a great voice, too. They were all great.

Saturday's performance went much smoother for me.  I was way less nervous since I'd had a few open mic's under my belt and an impromptu story hour on stage that afternoon.  Plus, I was at the super cool Voodoo Room,  http://www.columbianvoodoo.com/voodoo/ a small, intimate joint. I read a few poems, the one I posted last night and another one called "The Halibut Diaries".  Again, the vid should be up soon.

I think though that Sunday was my favorite.  It was open mic at the Event Center and it was just fun!  Great music, everyone was on stage together, everyone was relaxed, mostly because we were all spent from the weekend.  But, all in all, it was an amazing time.  Not only because it was basically my first time on stage but because of all the collective talent.  There were many great poems and songs, to be posted soon.  But, I think for me the thing that made it most special was the camaraderie, the sense of community.  Being with so many like minded folk, fishermen, and on top of that, fishermen who write and sing, well, it was like coming home!

The Voodoo Room

Cowboy N Moe Bowstern

Pat Dixon & Jon Campbell

Tune in over the weekend and hopefully my technical staff will have the videos ready to go!

Catch ya on the flip side

How I got Hooked on Fishing: Part II

Last week's blog is the story of how,  a land-lubber from got hooked on commercial fishing in Alaska.  This week we read the rest of the story.
Returning to Ohio after traveling home from my summer in Alaska, and spending all my money doing it,   I worked three jobs all winter and wondered how I was ever going to make and save enough money to make my way back to Alaska.  My cousin, who I staying with in Anchorage,  had moved back to Ohio and without a place to stay, my dream didn’t seem possible.  But, as fate would have it, after three short months of Ohio, cousin had had his fill and wanted to move back to Alaska.  This time to a small fishing town in southeast called Petersburg.  He offered to pay my way if I helped him with the drive cross country.  Come spring, I was again heading north, but this time in a Toyota minivan.  It took about a week to drive to Bellingham, Washington where were caught the ferry. Another four days later and we arrived in Petersburg, Alaska.

Arriving in the middle of the night  the town was dark, quiet and seemed little eerie.  We pulled the van off the ferry and I remember asking “what is that awful smell?”  The whole town reeked of the most fowl, appalling, disgusting odor I ever encountered.  My cousin simply replied "Fish!"  Funny we don't recognize those foreshadowing moments when they are upon us. 

We drove out the road to cousin's new job as chef at the Beachcomber Hotel, Restaurant, and Bar.  The Beachcomber was older than dirt and started off as a cannery cookhouse then converted to a bar, restaurant, hotel.  It sits on pilings, though ever so slightly slanted from years of wear,  on the scenic Wrangell Narrows a few miles south of town.    There was a dock so you could just pull right up on you boat and come in, have a cocktail, and watch the sunset on the back deck.  It was also a place where you could sit and watch the commercial fishing boats come and go.  They would head out down the Narrows and vanish out of sight only to return a few days later, loaded with fish.  I remember being so intrigued by them.

And since nepotism is alive and well in Alaska, I was the new house keeper/ van driver/ bar back/ waitress.  My room was in the attic, which the person who lived there before me to thoughtfully painted mauve and teal.  In order to keep that room, I was kind of a work slave with my four job titles.   It seems to me I worked every day and night.  Summer came and went, just like the boats.  By the time fall rolled around, I had found a boat sitting gig in the South Harbor.  A guy was going to be gone about six weeks and wanted someone to stay aboard his leaky 1945 retired Coast Guard Cruiser.  Me, not knowing any better, said yes and spent the whole time trying to keep the rain from coming in from above and the ocean coming in from below.  At the end of the six weeks, the guy returned.  I later found out he had been in jail.  Anyway, by then I had befriended some of the fishermen in the harbor.  Ron, the skipper on the other side of the slip from me needed a deckhand for the fall halibut derby. 

Before halibut went to IFQ’s (individual fishing quota) which is a set poundage you are allotted to fish, it was a derby.  Meaning you had a set time, such as 24 or 48 hours, to go out and catch as much halibut as your boat would hold.  That fall’s derby was for 24 hours.

Again, not knowing any better, I jumped at the chance.  I was so captivated by these fishing boats, I just had to find out for myself where they disappeared off to.  Next thing I knew, I was chopping bait 15-17 hours a day and eating nothing but cold cheese sandwiches, the only thing the skipper packed to eat.  We (as in I) baited gear for 5 straight days.  I grew up on a farm and was accustomed to hard work but had no idea that it was possible to work as hard or as long of hours as we did.  My hands were so sore from gripping the knife to fillet fish and piercing that fresh, hard salmon skin with a hook and I had no idea the worst was yet to come.

Four days into the trip, Adam the other deckhand flew out to the boat.  He was a young guy, about 25, but had been fishing for years.  Made quite a rookie mistake though his very first day aboard.  We were running and I was, as usual, at my baiting station.  Ron, the skipper came up to me and asked me if I’d seen Adam.  “No” I replied, and not thinking anything of it, kept baiting.  Once Ron frantically started looking around for him and calling his name did it dawn that no one is every really out of ear shot, or sight for that matter, on a 4 foot boat.  Nope.  Adam was not aboard.  We whipped the boat around and searched the water with our binoculars.  Luckily, not too far in the distance, we spotted a little teeny tiny head sticking out of the water.  It waved at us.  Running full bore back to Adam, we scooped him up and brought him back aboard.  He was all macho about it stating that he needed a cold refreshing bath anyhow.  I mean, it was a relatively nice day out, but truth is, this is September in Alaska, folks.  Ain’t nothing warm about it, he must have been freezing! He changed into something dry and went back to work.  What had happened is he went up to the roof to grab some buoys and accidently stepped over board.  All I know is if it had been me, who had fallen overboard in that cold water, watching the boat getting smaller as its driving off, without me, into the horizon, I would have insisted that a helicopter or Coast Guard or something come out and take me home!  No way would I have gone back to baiting.  But, Adam toughed it out.

Not too much longer did I have my own chance to tough it out.  The next day the weather had picked up as we rounded Cape Decision and headed into Chatham Straight.   I was on the front deck baiting but as the weather got worse and it started raining buckets, I moved to the bait shed on the stern, behind the cabin.  It was almost all enclosed and stunk of diesel exhaust and the ripe smell of five day old chum salmon and squid.  Disgusting.

Before I took the job skipper asked me if I got seasick.  Well, I never got sick when I was in sailing club and we even sailed from Florida to the Bahamas, once.  So, I answered “No”.  “Good” was his reply “because if you do, I’ll feel no mercy for you.”  

Now, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with seasickness so I’ll tell you some of its triggers.  Rough weather is definitely a factor, like the weather that we just turned into.  Bad smells is another, like, for example, the combination of five day old chum salmon and squid mixed with diesel exhaust.  Being stuck in a bait shed and not being able to see the horizon doesn’t help much either.  Needless to say, I can no longer answer “No” when someone asks me if I have ever gotten seasick.  I was at the rail, barking at the sharks.  And for those of you lucky folks who have never been seasick, without going into too much detail, I’ll just say it’s worse than the worse flu and hangover you’ve ever had all rolled into one, times ten…….thousand.  I wouldn’t even wish it on my worst enemy. 

Knowing that I’d receive no mercy, I kept working.  Or, tried to keep working.  My knees were so weak I could hardly stand up.  I went from baiting one hook every 30 seconds to baiting one hook every five minutes.  But, I stayed out on deck.  A few hours later, after my toenails had even been launched overboard, we pulled into a cove where it was flat calm.  Skipper called me into dinner, cold cheese sandwiches.  I said I’d pass, that I wasn’t feeling so choice.  He insisted.  I crawled into my spot at the galley table and instantly fell asleep.  Not sure how long I was out, but when the skipper woke me, I felt right as rain.

That next day, at noon, right on the dot, we set out gear.  We set gear for about six hours then took a nap.  Or, in my case, attempted to take a nap.  I was so pumped and nervous for what was about to happen, I really couldn’t sleep.  At 10:00 pm we woke up, had cheese sandwiches (I’m not exaggerating, that is all we had.  And not yummy toasted cheese sandwiches, but cold cheese sandwiches with nothing but mustard) we started picking up our gear.  And we picked straight through the night until the derby closed the following day at noon.  Then Adam and I  cleaned halibut and scrubbed down the boat on our way to town.  I made $700 bucks in the seven days I was out.  And was jazzed about that until I found out Adam, who was only along three or four days, made roughly $4000.  Ah well, so goes it.  I now had experience on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska……….and was hooked.

Jen baiting tubs, 1993

Jen and Adam cleaning halibut

The catch aboard the f/v Spirit