Ocean-bright and full of fight, Barbra’s 12-pound Coho today is the first and only salmon we’ve put on the bank this year… so far.
In each our previous six years in Alaska, our fish for the coming months were long ago caught, cleaned, freezer-packed or smoked and canned and put away.
Not this year.
Like a lot of salmon runs around Alaska, here on the Chignik River its been a mere trickle of fish compared to other years. In fact, for a few weeks in July fishing was closed altogether. Still, we were confident upon returning from our bike trek in Hokkaido that we’d be able to get the couple of dozen or so fish we need.
That was nearly a month ago. Admittedly, it’s not like we’ve been hitting the water every day. But the few times we’ve been out, it’s been discouraging. When lots of salmon are around, so are bears, eagles and seals, and we can generally see lots of jumpers – salmon fresh from the sea and full of energy spontaneously leaping for whatever reasons salmon spontaneously leap. But it’s been eerily quiet; the usual eagle roosts have been empty.
Even in this down year, hundreds of thousands of Sockeyes ascended the river, and there will undoubtedly be thousands of Coho as well. It felt great to finally get one. Pasta with fresh salmon is on the menu tonight.
CutterLight 
I’m so jealous of what you two have going on up there. Jann and I are in the process of getting a travel van/mini-motor home and hope to come by for a visit while we tour the rest of the country.
You’ll love the van/mini-motor home, John. And yes! – C’mon by!
We’ll let you know when we get set up and start our journeys.
Contact me by email @ southjetty@hotmail.com anytime.
I’ve never caught such a big fish! Must be fun!
It is really fun! You should come up here and try it. We promise to feed you well. 😉
Fabulous! Salmon is my favourite fish. We have Australian salmon in our southernmost states of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. It is not as tasty as Atlantic salmon. Tasmania has a huge Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry. You are so fortunate to live where you are.
Yes, and we’re still, as October turns to November, seeing bears and eagles – sure indicators that salmon are still in the system.