Less Thinking, More Doing

Well it is over. Our season is done.

Last week of fishing was rough.  24 hour openings are brutal. There was no sleep, only naps.  3 hour naps was the most one could get of continuous sleep.  The only consolation was not setting or pulling in the nets.  Every few hours, we would need to check if the nets switched right with the tide or pick fish off the net.  This season, Rollie, the boss decided to try something differnet in the Ugashik area.  It was a really rough start, lots of trial and error.  We had things break left and right. Our 3 am night picks became 5-6 hour endeavors because we would find our nets broken. We spent most of our time fixing things instead of fishing. This past week, we finally got everything together. Things were running smoothly. We were happy that we could actually start enjoying fishing rather than worry about what would break next.

With 24 hour openings means a lot of night fishing. At night, you are more likely to encounter bears.  Fortunately, we didn’t see any bears, just a lot of bear scat and tracks. So we know they are wandering around the village.  Although it would be terrifying to see a bear, I still want to see one, even a dead one. I had the opportunity to see a dead brown bear a couple weeks ago. I had heard that someone shot and killed one the previous night so I was on the hunt to find the body. Too bad, I didn’t get to see it. I just found the blood left there by the gunshot wound.  If you kill a bear, you need to remove the carcass relatively quickly so not to attract other animals. I know there are other bears around so it is a matter of time until I see one. Hopefully I’ll see the, at a distance or when I’m in a car.

Fishing is still open but the tenders have left so there is no one to sell the fish to.  We’re left to fish for salmon that I will bring back home. I am learning how to filet them so if you receive a vacuum pack filet of some fresh, wild, Alaskan red and king salmon that looks butchered, chances are good that I filleted that fish. Sorry.

Now it is time to enjoy the last week and a half that I am here.  I hope to see bears, moose, and more of Alaska.

Oh yeah, we caught roughly 50,000 pounds for the season. Slow season but I think we caught more per site than anyone else in the village so I can’t complain.