We are finished. The season is over! We hit the million pound mark. The boat is back in Seattle and retired until next summer. Everyone is safe. A total of 57.8 million pounds of salmon was caught this season in Southeast Alaska. Record setting. We ate like kings all year. I hit my budget as planned. Nice it’s time to head back to New York City, and start another chapter. Thanks to everyone who checked out my blog this year. Was tough to keep it going. Spent most days on the boat towards the end of the season, with no cell service, or internet.
Puget Sound Fishing
We fished a total of four days over a week and a half in the Puget Sound. Caught over 100,000 pounds off Point Roberts, on the Canada border. Had our biggest set of the year at about 25,000 pounds. Fish and Game said it was a record run down here as well. Works for me.
Heading South
One more opener. Then headed to the lower 48. Looking like we might hit the million pound mark for the season. We will be fishing the Puget Sound for a week or two. Last week 70 knot wind gusts, 12 foot seas, both engines down. We spent about 12 days on the boat, nice to put my feet on some land. Can’t wait to get back to New York City in the next couple weeks. Time to pick up where I left of. Number 24 or better.
Over Half Way
We have been fishing for over a month solid. We’ve had our good days and our not so good days. Not able to get to town as much this year. Fish and Game has been running a schedule of 4 days on with 1 day off. That one day is spent looking for more fish for the following day. Vicious cycle of no sleep, constant fishing, and never being able to touch land. I’m not complaining, i’m just saying. We have been to so many cool towns this year. We visited the hot springs in Baranoff. Which is probably the most beautiful place in the world. Also Hoonah, Sitka, Tenakee Springs, Ketchikan, and soon Craig.
First Season
This is my second season fishing Alaska. These are some of the shots of food from my Greenhorn Season. Killin’ It. Last year we caught over 600,000 pounds of fish. Mainly in Sitka, Ketchikan and Anita Bay. Put yourself on a boat for three months, and you will learn more about yourself than you thought possible. We ate like kings.
**** F/V
Spend most of our days fishing out here. Which means we start at 5 a.m. and fish usually to 8 p.m. I start the morning with a big pot of coffee, and oatmeal with dried fruits and nuts. Skipper loves his oatmeal. By nine I have a full breakfast ready. Eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, etc. and more coffee. By noon or one we eat lunch. Sandwiches, wraps, pasta’s. Really anything I want. This is when my crew is really hungry though. At this point in the day we have usually made eight to ten sets. Which means lots of exercise and calories burnt. Somewhere inbetween lunch and dinner we will have a snack. Then around eight, or the end of the fishing day we will eat dinner. My favorite point in the day. Usually lots of effort, and a rewarding end to the day. When you literally chinois the sea you end up with a lot of bi-catch. Sometimes your lucky enough to catch crabs, flounder, halibut, birds, sharks, whales, porpus, etc. We were lucky enough yesterday to catch a good amount of really small crabs, and a 40 pound halibut. Money saver. Here are some shots of the week fishing and cooking…
30 Hours North
We headed north to Tenakee Springs, Alaska, about thirty hours north of Ketchikan, where we spent the first few weeks fishing. We are fishing the coastline of Chichagof Island. We have moved from fishing Chum salmon primarily to now fishing Pink salmon. Half the size and half the price. But it is easy to catch double the amount. Prices for salmon are record breaking this year, it seems like most fisherman make their money on the Pink run. Especially when it is 6 times the 10 year average. All this fishing means lots of cooking. Been having a blast really. Fajita Bars and Liquid Gels.
6 a.m. BBQ
Finally got a day of calm weather. We were tired and in need of some fun. I said lets barbecue for breakfast. Coffee instead of beers. Breakfast Sausage, chicken breasts, hash browns, toast. We had fun.
Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. We were going to shoot off expired flares, but couldn’t find them.
Mother Nature.
50 knot winds, 10 foot swells, for five days. No breaks. If you were going to get sea sick, you would have lasted five minutes. Couldn’t even boil water. It would slide back and forth until there was none left. Refrigerator flying open because someone forgot to lock it. Eggs everywhere. I flew from one side of the boat to the other at one point. Four guys standing around the galley diving around to save things from hitting the floor. I mean you could barely stand up. If you even thought of getting sea sick it would be over. You would work yourself into the most miserable five days possible. This WAS the hardest week of my life. We start fishing at 5 a.m. Oatmeal is finished, and up to the Captain hot. Change into my rain gear for what was the worst weather conditions I had ever seen, land or water. The gusts of wind were so strong that if I jumped I would have literally been blown away. The waves crashing over the boat, and a steep chop that sent you back and forth for hours. All of your focus really goes into not falling overboard. But where there is bad weather there is a lot of fish. So you have to suck it up, work your tail off, catch the fish, don’t complain and wait for the benefits. I feel proud being finished with this. I have never had to work so hard just to stand up, and here I am trying to cook the best food possible. I think I did it right.
Chef Team Endurance
60 people. Three docks. I went to a place called Southeast Exposure, used their kitchen for about five hours. My skippers sister works here. I of course volunteered myself to take over the food. Best decision ever. We were the second stop. Just killed it. I had a sockeye cooking station set up with a jalapeno pineapple glaze. Pulled pork shoulder with caramelized onions, chicken wings, hot buttered rum, etc. etc. Never seen people so stoked on food like this. My crew showed up for game time and helped me plate all the hors d’oeuvres. They took direction well. We were legends by the end.
catchingalaska 