My uncle Chuck called and said “Would you like to go to Alaska salmon fishing?” He had asked me to go one other time but I couldn’t work two weeks into my schedule at that time. This was definitely on my bucket list, so I said, “Yes I want to go.” They had one guy drop out, so needed me to round out the 6. They all had their plane tickets leaving August 13 and returning August 24.
Uncle gave me his flight numbers but those flights were full since they got them 10 months ago. Delta had flights about the same time and we got to Anchorage same time. They rented a 6 passenger van which was waiting at the airport and we loaded up and headed to Fort Elmendorf-Richardson.
My uncle Chuck is a retired army Brigadier General and Val is a retired army Colonel so they had access to housing on the base. We stayed there first night and next day went to the commissary and PX buying food and alcohol for the 7 days of fishing. A 30-pack of beer was $18.99 vs. $23.99 in Texas. Also got our 7 day non-resident fishing license for $55. Next morning up at 0600 and headed to Valdez, 300 miles away. This was my first trip to Alaska but could not believe how beautiful it was. Snow capped mountains in all directions and glaciers everywhere with blue ice. My uncle Chuck has been to Alaska 45 out of the last 46 years and says the glaciers have changed very little during that time. I guess Al Gore is full of it on his global warming.August 15 was the opening day of caribou season and about 100 miles north of Anchorage we started seeing hunters with 4-wheelers everywhere camping and hunting. A cow moose crossed the road with a calf running behind and another cow moose stood in the trees as we passed.
We passed beautiful lakes with cabins and float planes tied up in front; a lot of these people don’t own cars, only planes. The Mount Wrangell volcano, elevation 14,163, is along the way, last eruption was in 2002. About half way to Valdez we started seeing the Alaska pipeline running along side of the road. This oil pipeline starts in northern Alaska and ends 800 miles later in Valdez. It has 11 pump stations along the way to get the oil over mountains and rivers. They have 18 holding tanks at Valdez, of which 14 are used and store 7 million barrels of oil. They also have a refinery that produces diesel, jet fuel and heating oil, the huge oil tankers use a lot of the diesel fuel. The refinery was built in 1993 and is the newest in the US. A lot of people think oil from this pipeline is sold to Japan and Korea but this is not true, it is marketed to the US exclusively, even if the shipping costs is 50 cents a barrel to Asian countries versus $5 a barrel to US.
Richardson highway winds through beautiful Thompson Pass on the way to Valdez and we stopped at the Worthington glacier, where you can walk up and touch it. Gorgeous waterfalls cascade from the Keystone canyon walls as you enter the gateway to Valdez.
We checked in to the RV Park around 3 p.m., these trailers are military; someone in the group has to show a military ID card. Les said “Now the real work starts.” I didn’t understand what he was talking about until we went to a storage building and loaded up about 500 pounds of stuff. Since Uncle Chuck had been their 45 times he had everything you could think of for fishing, he could give Bass Pro Shops competition. Chuck, Marvin and I were in one trailer and Les, Val and David were in the other. David is Marvin’s son and Val and Les are cousins. We had rib eye steaks on charcoal the first night. Colonel Val was the master chef and Les always fixed our breakfast. Marvin and I’s job was making sandwiches to eat on the boat.
We spent the rest of the evening preparing fishing tackle. We went to bed early around 9 p.m. but it was still light outside at 10:30 p.m. I was awake at 5 a.m. and it was getting light already, days are long in August.
After breakfast we loaded about half of the 500 pounds of stuff and headed to the Valdez harbor, our rental boat was 25 foot aluminum with a 150 hp Honda engine. It had a small cabin up front which we filled with fishing tackle. Colonel Val was the captain as he was a pilot of planes and helicopters. He maybe 87 but he drives the van and boat like a 20-year-old.
It took about an hour to get out to the fishing grounds in Prince Williams Sound, the guys had a name for every bay we fished, goldmine, Jacks, sawmill, etc. We were trolling, using a deep six diving sinker that took the lures down 30 to 50 feet depending on the small diver or large diver, line length and boat speed.
It had a ball bale that popped loose when a fish hit and caused the salmon to come to the surface where all hell broke loose. Everybody would say “I let out 20 turns or 30 turns.” They were all using spinning reels which they clicked open and reversed the wind. I was the only one using a bait casting reel, I said, “How many feet is that?” nobody knew, they were going by past experience. So I played out 30 feet of line and clicked in gear, storing in the rod holder. Everyone had on a different lure but all put a chuck of cut herring on the treble hook, we also used cut strips of salmon bellies. I chose a pink, white and blue spotted spoon out of a least a hundred lures that Uncle had. We had out 6 rods, even one for Val who was driving the boat, it was a little crowded but everybody was at a different depth which helped.
After about 30 minutes, someone yelled “Fish on” very loud as Val didn’t bring his hearing aids and has to know to put the boat in idle while we fight the fish. Everyone on that side of the boat reeled in to get out of the way, after an exciting fight; Les netted an 8 pound silver salmon for Marvin. As we trolled Val would say 200 feet deep fish at 50 feet. Uncle Chuck would get up and let more line out. Such a beautiful fish, these are also called Coho salmon, in the ocean phase, they have silver sides and dark blue backs. In the fresh water spawning phase, they have bright red sides and blue green heads with spots on the back. They average 28 inches and 7 to 11 pounds, the Alaskan record is 26 lbs 11 oz and the world record is 33 pounds.
Pretty soon I got a “Fish on” and landed a pink salmon or Humpy about 3 pounds. Someone said, “Throw it back or we can use for bait”, I thought bull shit, I’m not throwing back my first fish caught in Alaska! They don’t like pinks because they don’t freeze well and thaw out mushy. I decided to fillet and eat fresh which turned out delicious on charcoal. We continued to troll, had sandwiches at midday and quit about 4 p.m. with 12 silvers and 2 pink. They said it was a bad day but I was excited that I got 2 silvers and the pink.
Valdez harbor has at least 7 large fish cleaning stations, which are all stainless steel and aluminum; the RV Park also had a cleaning station. We checked the leader board for the Valdez Silver Salmon Derby, 16.28 was leading. Les, David and I started filleting leaving the skin on; Marvin washed them off and put in a cooler. Uncle Chuck took Val back to the trailer to start cooking dinner. After we had a few beers, Marvin, David, Les and I took the fillets to the RV cleaning station and cut to fit into 1 quart vacuum bags. They put two fillets in each bag with skin side out and the beautiful red/orange meat inside. These bags were Zip Lock with a round hole in the corner to use a small 8 inch pump which vacuum seal tight. The RV Park had a large walk in freezer, with large trays for the bags.
This was the same routine for all 7 days we fished, everybody had a job. Uncle Chuck B/Gen 94 years young was the mastermind and paid all the bills, after which he totaled all and divided by 6. Colonel Val 87 years young drove the boat and was the chef. Les 63 years young, was the boat expert and mechanic as he had owned several boats and fished in the ocean a lot. David was 57, the youngest of the group and shared landing net duty with Les, he also markets a spice mix called “The Bones” which is great on salmon fillets. Marvin, 88 years young and a WW II vet is the tackle expert, he can tie up all kinds of downriggers and flashers; he usually caught the first fish each day. I, 73 years old, just tried to stay out of the way and help when I could. These guys had their own terms for things like they would yell to Val “It’s a goat rope”, this meant the lines were tangled up, which happened at least twice each day. These silvers are strong fighters and can switch sides of the boat in a few seconds and sometimes we had 2 or 3 on at the same time. We lost a lot of fish, sometimes right at the net.
Les said, “There is a white head”, I’m looking around trying to figure out what he is talking about? He says, “In the tree,” bald eagle. Oh yeah I knew that, lots of eagles in Valdez bays. Also saw a whale, seals, sea lions and sea otters. We had light rain and fog the first day and heavy rain, bad fog the second day. We had GPS but had to stop one morning, couldn’t see other boats or logs in the water. Last 5 days’ sun was out or just overcast. We all had rain pants and coat with hood. Temp was 40s in the morning and 55/60 in the afternoon, when the wind blew off the glaciers it was chilly. Valdez averages 27 feet of snow per year, yes I said feet, from October to March. Last year they had 40 feet and the trailers were completely covered up. Tourists come to ski in the winter and use helicopters to drop them off on top of the mountains. In 2012 an avalanche blocked the only road into Valdez for a week.
We fished seven days, our best day we caught 30 and the worse day five, 60 silver and 9 pinks total. Forty pounds of fillets each or 240 pounds total. Limit was 6 silvers per day each or 36 for our group; in 2013 they had a bumper run of silvers and got their limit each day.
Every day we were fishing, a huge ferry came into Valdez harbor and came back out again. I found out it is part of the Alaska Marine Highway System with a fleet of 11 ferries and carries up to 250 passengers and 35 vehicles, including RVs and motor homes. It runs at 36 knots or 41mph. Alaska is over 650,000 square miles and much of that has no road access, so it’s by air or sea. It starts in Bellingham, Washington and extends more than 3500 miles to Dutch Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska, with over 30 stops along the way; people from all over the world ride this ferry. Every evening while I was cleaning salmon, people would come up who couldn’t speak English, from Germany, Sweden, Spain, France etc. They were asking a lot questions which I couldn’t understand, so I would pick up some salmon eggs and start eating. You should have seen the look on their face, and then I would offer them some eggs. Most declined but one lady from Sweden wanted to take some with her. Salmon caviar is easy to make, just soak in heavy salt water for 30 minutes and separate through a strain and rinse off the excess salt, only problem you can’t freeze so have to eat on crackers fresh.
Every day we saw commercial salmon boats netting salmon; we had to dodge the nets, when they got a full load they went into Valdez to the Peter Pan cannery to sell their catch. We started trolling around them because they seemed to know where the fish were.
One evening after dinner, Les and David took me to see the Salmon Gulch Hatchery. When I got out of the truck and walked up to the stream, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Thousands of pink salmon were so thick they could hardly turn around. I reached down and picked one up. The state of Alaska had a fish weir across the stream to restrict fish movement upstream. It is installed during the summer spawning season only and removed once the migration is over. The pink salmon below the weir are one year old adults, returning from the Gulf of Alaska to complete their life cycle by spawning and dying. Just before dark a large black bear came out of the forest and started catching and eating fish. Les and David said sometimes you see 5 or 6 bears. Salmon Gulch Hatchery is licensed to incubate rear and release 230 million pink salmon and 2 million Coho each year.
We packed the quart frozen fillets into Coolers and put straps and duct tape around tight, Delta charges $25 for first checked bag 50 pounds or less. They were still frozen when I got home next day.
Well my first trip to Alaska was more than I could ever imagine and I’m sure I will be back again soon.
Pictured above is the author Russ Porter with some of the catch. Below are more photos from his fishing trip.
