Fisher Girl DeLise

Coho Salmon The summer King season closed on the 15 th so Pacific Son came back to Juneau to provision and Marirose and I again changed places. She went off for a new adventure aboard her grandparents’ 48’ trawler in the San Juan/Georgia Islands and we headed back out for 3 weeks of Coho fishing off shore. Besides food and water for crew and fuel for the boat, we need to have plenty of ice to keep our catch cold. That means we had to go to the Alaska Glacier Seafoods ice house (who we sell most of our fish too) and fill up our totes and hold area with a ton and a half Icing the boat of crushed ice. Then we made the 2 day trip back out to the fishing grounds. From Juneau we head out thru Icy Straits, past Glacier Bay and into Cross Sound. Now that we are targeting Coho we are setting lures every fathom and a half instead of 2 fathoms as we did for Kings. We are also using mostly spoons whereas we fished a lot of hoochies when we were King fishing. We are setti...

Samuel Glacier from "camp" Last weekend I went up the Haines Highway into Canada and backpacked into the Tatshenshini-Alsek wilderness with a group of friends. A World Heritage Site that encompasses over 3,000 sq. miles and part of the Tatshenshini-Alsek river system, this wilderness is known for its pristine beauty and wildlife. It was a fabulous hike through the tundra – full of wildflowers and views of glaciers. Friday afternoon we crossed the border and camped at the Chuck Creek trailhead, about 30 miles into British Columbia. The mosquitoes were pretty determined so several of us sat around the fire in our very fashionable head nets (HaHa).   It kept them off faces but arms and legs suffered a few bites. Lupine in the tundra Saturday we hiked in 6 miles along a glacier run-off creek. We were up in the alpine and tundra with flowers everywhere! One couple said they identified 60 different wildflowers! The dogs we had with us flushed several White Tailed P...

4th of July Parade Doug’s daughter Marirose is crewing for him for the Coho opener so she and I traded places for the first 3 weeks of July. This means shore leave for me! I am spending most of my time in Haines, AK, where Marirose and her brother live as well as their mom and many other good friends. It’s a small town, population of less than 2000. My first week here has been gloriously sunny and packed with   4 th of July fun. Mud Volleyball There was a parade, which was small town fun with lots of kids in the parade and all the rest of the towns kids grabbing for the handfuls of candy thrown from every vehicle and float. Next everyone moved to the town park where the games began – tug of war, dunk tank, mud volleyball, and more. There was also a race on the Chilkoot river – where participants had to create their own floatation device (most were made of Styrofoam) and try to control it down the river to the finish line without losing any teammates to th...

Fisher Girl running the gear from the pit. Our boat is small but quite comfortable for the 2 of us. The aft deck is the larger portion of the boat at 18’, as it should be since we are in it to fish!   From the back of the boat forward, first is the troll pit, where we stand as we run the gear. I like that there is a pit here as it comes up to my waist and gives me security as I lean outside the boat to pull gear or land a fish! Next is the landing deck, where the fish go as we clear them off the hook and where they are cleaned.   Then is the fish hold area. We have ice below in the hold where we pack the fish but we also have 2 large (blue in picture below) totes on deck that we use to “slush” fish in iced water. Our tender (the boat we deliver our fish too) prefers we slush our Coho salmon as it is a quicker off load then pulling the “hard packed” fish up from the hold (raised grey area just behind the blue tote). In fact, Doug ordered some slush bags tha...

Boat appears (white spot) as fog lifts The state finally opened up troll fishing for 5 days a week two weeks ago so we have been doing a lot more fishing and having a lot less time with any cell service or internet connection. The number of fish caught is still relatively low but I continue to love the outdoor work and beauty of Alaska. Everyday is a new adventure – whether it’s breaching whales, state troopers boarding our boat or dense fog. Radar. Each mark is a boat we can't see! The West Channel was open for fishing just 1 day a week and this area is a bit further out to sea so everyone wanted to see if that is where the Kings are. So, last Monday, we joined 50 other boats in the same area in thick fog looking for fish! Chart. Red mark is us trying to stay in 20+Fathoms Piloting thru dense fog (maybe a ¼ mile visibility) is quite intense! There are no road markings to keep everyone in their own “lanes” as you have in a car so it is truly driving blind. ou...

Pacific Son is a Troller Last Saturday we anchored in Leesoffskaia Bay, which is just outside of the Deep Inlet fishery. The Deep Inlet area is open to all different kinds of salmon fishing gear on a rotating basis, which means each kind of commercial salmon fishery gets its day to fish there. On our way into the bay there were Gill Netters fishing and on our way out on Sunday it was Purse Seiners so I got to see both of these fisheries with their gear in the water. Here’s my layman’s definition of the different kinds of commercial salmon fisheries. Troll Caught Salmon is the only “line caught” commercial salmon. We use a line and a hook while other commercial fishing is done with a net. We have a large pole off both sides of the boat that enable us to have multiple fishing lines in the water at the same time (the lines are attached to different parts of the poles that keep the lines separated in the water to avoid tangling them). We are allowed to fish 2 lines on each side...

Goddard Hot Springs Trolling week of June 3 rd Inside the upper bathhouse at Goddard Hot Springs We spent the weekend at Goddard Hot Springs south of Sitka while waiting for Monday’s opener. When Russia owned Alaska in the 1800’s there was a resort here and back in the 30’s it was a hotel and school for the local kids that lived on fox farms on the numerous islands surrounding the area. Nothing remains here of those earlier homesteads except for a chimney and a partial wall surrounded by muskeg. In 1938 the territory of Alaska bought the property and it is now a treasure freely shared with all. The Forest Service built 2 quant bathhouses here with simple stainless tubs in them, piped from the natural hot springs. They are open huts with a big window overlooking the cove on one side and a large doorway opening on the other.  Upper Bathhouse in the clearing from PacSon It is such a treat to soak in the naturally heated water in an outdoor setting with a beautiful vie...