Fisher Girl DeLise

At the end of our summer fishing season last year Doug and I returned to Haines, AK where we met back in 1994. Doug’s kids (Dawson and Marirose) live there along with many good friends. Now that we are both spending our summers fishing in Alaska, we decided it was time to truly move here and build a place of our own. The cabin with "bunk house" We found 3+ acres about a mile outside of town that is pretty flat and dry that we purchased last November. We need to clear a lot of brush and a few trees to build our new home, but first we need to deal with the neglected cabin, 4 out buildings, 10 abandoned Ford trucks and numerous other old, rusty “treasures” scattered thru-out the property. We arrived back in Haines in early April, ready to tackle as much of the clean up as we could before heading out to fish for spring King Salmon down near Sitka in May and June. Although we were tempted (and encouraged by some) to tear all the buildings down and start ove...

We saw so many whales this season! We also had a few encounters that were too close.      Humpbacks: In Sitka Sound at the end of August there were humpback whales galore (at least 10 in one spot we passed thru). One surfaced in front of us as we were running and Doug had to throw us into reverse to miss it! I looked up to see what was happening (at Doug’s “holy shit”) and saw its tail right in front of the bow (no water between us and him). The next day while fishing in the Sound they were all around us. One crossed maybe 40 feet in front of us from the port side and as soon as it went under one came up not 10 feet off our starboard and crossed in front going the other direction. That one dove just after clearing our path and you could see its tail had been clipped, probably by a propeller as it is getting way too close to boats. It had surfaced just in front of our gear – if it had tangled in our lines it could have pulled ...

Hot pool next to rushing river We decided to go inside to avoid some nasty wind and swells after watching Marirose compete in a cross country event in Sitka at the end of August. We motored thru Peril Strait and headed south down Baranof Island. We did a little fishing, but conditions were still pretty choppy so we decided to stop at Baranof Warm Springs for some R&R. Waterfall at the community of Baranof This is my favorite hot springs location (so far :). There is a massive waterfall at the head of Warm Springs Bay and a small community (20 ? cabins). They have piped the hot springs into public bath houses – smaller than those at Goddard and more private – which is really nice so they get a lot of use by tourists and fishermen. However, Doug and I like to walk up the hill to the natural pools above the waterfall. These are fabulous! There is a boardwalk most of the way up and even a small “dressing” area with a bench and a limb to put things on while you en...

The 2nd King opener was much kinder to us with the best weather of the summer so far and fish to be caught – too bad it only lasted 4 days! King Salmon We had been having windy and rough weather on the outer coast. Winds were 20 – 30 knots, seas of 8 to 10 feet. Fish and Game announced a 5 day closure but we couldn’t even fish the last 2 days due to the rough seas. We headed out one morning into the waves but after bashing into them for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, Doug turned us around and headed back into where we had anchored the night before. He knew his crew wasn’t going to be very helpful in that type of conditions (plus PacSon was taking a beating as well)! Luckily, there is a passage around Yakobi Island through Lisianski Strait and into Lisianski Inlet that is protected from the worst of it and we were able to take that route into Elfin Cove to pitch our fish. Coho (L) and King Salmon (R) In order to head into Juneau...

Sow with 2 cubs A sow with 2 tiny cubs came out onto the beach 50 yards away from where we were anchored and preceded to walk the beach around us for about 45 minutes. She casually lifted 100 lb rocks as if they were as light as potato chips to search for grubs. One cub “White Spot” followed closely behind while the 2 nd cub, “I’m OK on my own” followed around 30 feet behind. She was a beauty, light brown with black boots and black on her hump while they were black cubs (making them hard to see against the low tide line in the picture). Where the bear swam across in front of us “Grubs and greens for dinner kids.” When Mama Bear was thru with the grubs she went up to the grass for a little greens to add to her evening meal. White Spot followed her but I’m OK wandered around the beach on his own. She then literally pulled herself up the 15’ to 20’ cliff. I didn’t realize they were such good climbers – so much for trying to climb a tree to get away from a bear! Whit...

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...