Fisher Girl DeLise

Salmon season closed on September 20th, so we decided to go long lining for personal catch halibut. Doug is pictured here with our catch. Our salmon season wrapped up nicely in that we actually saw the sun for several days outside of Cross Sound. The wind was cold, but this year was so grey and rainy that having sunshine was a welcome change. We stuck it out fishing the outside waters to make a season out of it (after our delayed start due to Covid). Again, we were comparatively lucky in that fishing is a socially distanced lifestyle so although impacted, we had a more “normal” summer than many in the US this year. We aren’t sure what winter holds for us this year. Our original plan was to drive thru Canada to the Lower 48, buy a sailboat and sail it to Mexico for some warm weather – but currently neither Canada nor Mexico want US citizens in their country due to our poor ability to control this pandemic. We’ll likely stay in Alaska unless things improve down there. Winter can be harsh...

We’ve had a variety of sea life surrounding our fishing boat this summer – and we’ve caught a few that we weren’t fishing for. The shark pictured was a relatively  small one – about 6 feet - but he was well hooked, so Doug had to pull him in to release him.   This was just a few days after we “caught” the biggest fish in the sea when a Humpack swam thru our gear and took out our outside starboard line. Doug saw the whale breach about 100 yards off and then he started swimming toward us. He kept coming so Doug revved the engine several times to ensure he heard us and knew we were here. He finally looked up at us when he was about 50 feet off our starboard bow – heading for a Tbone with us. He dove toward us and within seconds the gear on that side of the boat starting jumping. BIG FISH ON! Our gurdies are mounted on davets and they started to strain and jump like maybe he would pull them right off the boat, but then the line snapped. He surfaced and did an awkward full body rol...

    July King Salmon fishing season lasted just 6 days this year (July 1 – 6 th ). The first 3 days were pretty good but that was about it for the bite. We found a few of these beautiful fish, including the 25 pounder in the picture.   We fished the opener off Yakobi Island. This island is designated as a wilderness area and its remote beauty and wildlife never ceases to thrill me (we saw brown bear, otter, humpback whales and Orcas). We fished the Gulf of Alaska side of the island and then took a trip south looking for Coho Salmon (open for fishing July 1 – Aug 6).   We fished down Chichagof Island, then went thru Peril Straits to Chatham Strait and south to Kuiu Island. We decided to look further south for fish, crossed Sumner Strait and fished inside the islands near Craig, Ak.  It was really fun to see that area as I hadn’t been that far south before. We also found some nice, calm inside drags which I especially enjoyed as the beginning of the season the sea...

"New" Guest Cabin Doug and I returned to Haines, AK in early March, arriving just before the Covid lock down. We were happy to be home in our small rural Alaskan town for the beginning of the pandemic. The new stay at home recommendations worked out okay for us as our spring plan was to continue cleaning up our “rough” homestead prior to fishing season. Last year (those of you who saw the blog will recall) we took possession of the 3+ acres, cleaned up the neglected house and began consolidating and getting rid of the 10 abandoned Ford trucks and numerous other old, rusty “treasures” scattered thru-out the property. House, tree and bunk house (rt) before the move This spring we focused on 1 of the 4 inherited out buildings, turning it into our guest cabin/sun room. This was the old “bunk house” and we needed to move it in order to drop the huge spruce tree that was right next to the house. Doug created a skid/pulley system to move the building 40 feet away an...

Caribou in BC Road trip! We had a fabulous trip down the Alaska Canadian Highway (the ALCAN) in October. We traveled through 5 states and 2 Canadian provinces in one week’s time! After winterizing PacSon and putting her up “on the hard” in Skagway, we closed up the cabin in Haines and headed north to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It may seem counter intuitive to head north to get to the lower 48 (the rest of the US outside of Alaska and Hawaii) but that’s the only way to get there by vehicle (unless you put it on a ferry). Marirose's 18th Bday ski day! The Haines Highway takes you north into Canada, over the pass to Haines Junction and the ALCAN. The pass is were the Haines crowd gets their ski turns in and we let Marirose know it was a good day for the trip up. She and Dawson’s girlfriend, Sam, came up later that day. They had such a good time that they came back up for a full day of skiing on her 18 th birthday a few days later! From Whitehorse the r...

Doug and Dawson chatting at sea Doug’s son Dawson bought his own gill net fishing boat this summer, the Krista C. This is Dawson’s 5 th year as a commercial fisherman.  He has previously gill netted, worked on a purse seiner, been halibut, spot prawn, tiger shrimp, dungeness and tanner crab fishing -   but this is the first time he’s captained his own boat. He fishes the waters closer to Haines so we were fortunate enough to run into him in the Lynn Canal (twice) during a break in our season in August. It was super fun to see him out fishing, tie up to him while his net was “soaking” and chat for a few minutes. We are so proud of him and he seems happy figuring out his own fishing scene! Doug’s daughter, Marirose, has been crew every summer since he first fished Pacific Son in 2016. This summer is the first that she did not fish with him as she took a full time position in Haines for her last high school summer break, but she told us that she mis...

Local pod of Orcas We often see this pod of Orcas as we fish the Bay of Alaska outside Yakobi Island. The big bull is especially impressive as we can see his very large dorsal fin from quite a distance as they bear down on our fishing boat to enjoy the feast they think we have gathered for them. I am always thrilled and dismayed to see them in the distance. Thrilled by their grace and power thru the ocean but dismayed that they will chase away or eat any fish that are following the boat before we can harvest them for our livelihood. Otter checking us out Otters are a common occurrence on the outside coast. We often see them floating around in many anchorages. In Sitka Sound earlier in the season we saw a raft of them that was made up of several dozen. I enjoy watching them floating along on their backs, often cleaning their next meal or carrying their little ones on their stomachs. We have seen several brown bears (but not nearly as many as last year at th...