Day 52 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska 7/03/14 - Learning More About Ninilchik's Commercial Fishing & the Alaska Dept.of Fish & Game's Weir

Late this morning Bob & I drove to the Ninilchik's post office to mail a package to our grandchildren and mail some postcards.  Then, we drove to the Ninilchik River to see if we could find a place to fish that is easily accessible on foot.  A lot of places you have to climb down & up steep banks.  We decided to try a certain spot tomorrow morning around 9:00.  Bob was told that the best time to fish salmon in the River was about an hour after high tide. With tomorrow being the Fourth of July, Bob is a little apprehensive about our getting to go salmon fishing because he thinks the Rivers will be packed with fisherman.  So, we will go check out our fishing spot and if it doesn't have a lot of fishermen, then we will go nearby and purchase our "out-of-state fishing license" and salmon stamps.  Hopefully, we will get to fish tomorrow, but if not, in the near future.  I took a few pictures of the river and area where we hope to fish.

part of the trail leading to the river

had a rocky base

Bob standing by a dilapidated walking bridge that

was on the trail.

on the trail was some wood steps with rebar

rods sticking out several inches..

(that would make a fall uneventful)

the streams run fairly fast

We went to the Ninilchik General Store to get some fishing supplies & bait.  This store sells groceries, fishing, hiking, camping supplies, Alaskan gifts, etc.  The groceries are very expensive and a lot of the items don't have a price on them .... not a store I like to go to.

Bob & I returned to the campground.  Early this evening, the four of us went to Roscos, a restaurant in Ninilchik, that we were told had good food.  After eating dinner, we went for a ride.

We decided to go see what was going on at the fishing harbor since high tide would be sometime after 8:00 tonight.  The boat harbor had only one boat in it and it appeared to be broke down.  Last night when we first got there, the harbor was full of boats parked side by side in many rows,  but later one by one were leaving the harbor and going out into Cooks Inlet.  We talked to someone that worked at the harbor, and he said that the boats went out to Cook Inlet around high tide last night, and basically found a place to set anchor to spend the night.  Sometime this morning they were allowed to begin fishing for salmon for a specified number of hours.  After the allotted time, they had to quit fishing.  They are allowed to fish twice a week; I believe he said Monday's and Thursday's.  He said that the boat's average approx 2500 lbs. of salmon on a good day.
As we were parked looking out in to the Cook Inlet, we noticed a commercial fishing boat was going into the harbor and was parking at  a boat ramp that has a tall boom & hoist on a deck above it.  This is where commercial fishing boats get ice &/or supplies lowered to their boat.  It is also one of the places where they take their day's catch to weigh, sort and sell to the fish processing plants.

harbor when we first got there yesterday evening

before the fishing boats started going out

 harbor tonight when we first got there..and actually

there was only one broken down boat in the harbor

one of the first commercial fishing boats to return to

 the harbor with their catch for the day

We got out of the truck and were able to get real close to where they hoisted the large bag containing the day's catch out of the boat and dropped the bag into a large, but short, bin where they dump the bag of fish into.  There was a scale on the hoist that weighed the bag of fish while it was in the air.  The workers at the large bin of fish sorted the fish out into three huge insulated containers.  It appeared that they sorted them by size but not really sure about that.  If there was any ice that was in the bag of fish that was brought in, they would weigh the ice so that they could get a more accurate total weight of the fish.  Another fishing boat came in, and we watched them hoist up, weigh and sort out their fish too.  It was neat getting to experience watching all of this so close.

The person we talked to about the process told us that some of the commercial fishing boats have a tender (boat that has a boom & hoist) come out to the waters where they are fishing.  The tender brings them supplies and/or picks up that boat's catch so far.  That way, they don't have to spend their precious time coming to the harbor to take their catch.

A tender is alongside a commercial fishing 

boat to pickup their catch.

After we left the harbor area, we went to another beach area on the Cook Inlet where boats can launch themselves for a price, or a big tractor (for a larger price) will launch & bring them back to land when they're done boating.  There is also a campground area right along the Inlet. There are also clamming beds in the area, however, they are not allowing clamming for some reason.  The old Ninilchik Village looks over the Cook Inlet and further up on the bluff, a lighthouse-type building and the historical Russian Orthodox Church can be seen.

a bunch of eagles seem to like this area 

launching area

Leaving this area, we headed on to see if there was any fish in the fish weir that is set up on the Ninilchik River fairly close to the campground we are staying at. When we got there, an employee of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game was there, recording different details of the salmon, clipping the fin on some for identification purposes & sorting salmon that had swam in to the area that traps the fish.  He had 30 salmon that he documented, etc. while we were there.  He sometimes checks the trap as often as every 20 minutes during peak time.  Some of the wild salmon, were put in a separate area after he documented it so that they could calm down. When he was finished he opened a gate and released those salmon to go on upstream.  They also pick out and separate a total of 12 male and 12 female wild salmon during this time they are using the weir, so in a few weeks they can use them to milk and harvest the eggs.  The reason he separates the wild salmon from the hatchery salmon is because they don't want them to interbreed because of diseases hatchery salmon might have.  He talked to us and answered questions about the process while he was doing his job. He was very informative.  Like Jesse stated earlier tonight, "I didn't think we would learn so much on our trip to Alaska."

 fish release gate 

That was about all the knowledge we could take in for one day, so we went back to the campground and called it a day.

Have a good day & a Happy 4th of July!!

Din 034.00 Cab/

jl  

 

Day 51 of Our RV Journey to Canada and Alaska 7/02/14 - Bob & Jesse Go on a Charter Fishing Trip for Halibut

Jesse and I had another coupon for 2 for 1 halibut charter so we took advantage of this today. We left the campground about 5:10 a.m. and headed to Ninilchik Charters about 3 miles down the road. After checking in, we loaded into a passenger van pulling our boat and gear to the boat launch area.

After  launching the boat, we traveled about 1 hour to a new location that our guide, Julian, hadn't fished for a couple weeks. It started pretty slow, as we had 6 people on board fishing but due to smaller boat we only fished 4 people at any given time.  I sat out at first, letting a husband and wife and their 2 sons fish, after someone got tired or caught a fish, I don't remember, I got up and caught a fish in about the first 5 minutes and then sat back down.

After a bit, we got in a rhythm and rotated pretty good.  It worked out well with 4 people fishing as you usually were ready for a break after reeling in a fish.  I released a few fish and kept trying for my bigger fish. You can only save 1 fish over 29", so it was catch and release until almost the last 30 minutes, when I caught a nice fish. (largest one in photo). Definitely the fishing was a little slower than our trip last Sunday, but the fish were definitely larger.  Jesse and I caught the 2 largest Halibut today so we ended up with 36 pounds of clean fillets from a total of 4 fish today vs 18 pounds last week for 4  fish. In the picture of me holding up the fillet, you can see what my big fish was about, as you yield 4 equally size fillets per fish.

We saw a sea otter today in the middle of Cook Inlet, as well as plenty of those pesky sea gulls.
Beautiful day on the water; fishing in shirt sleeves on fairly calm water.  Again, another great day of  fishing.

We, then, returned to camp and sliced up the fillets and vacuum sealed them and put them away for another day. We did keep enough out for supper.  Jesse grilled Halibut and Ginger made up some Poor Man's Lobster, which was delicious.  She also fixed twice-baked potatoes & steamed mixed vegys.

After supper, we all jumped in Jesse's truck and drove down the road to a fish weir on the Ninilchik River where they capture, sort and count the salmon swimming upstream.

We rode around looking for places to access the river on foot where we can fish for salmon in the next few days.   I am the only one that has hip waders in our group; Jesse, Ginger & Janet have knee-high rubber boots and don't really want to go purchase hip boots so we need to find a place where they can fish from the bank or shallow water.

Jesse drove us to the harbor at the bay of the Ninilchik River.  There were many salmon fishing boats side by side in several rows in the harbor that has water in it when the tide is high but when it is low tide it is just a mud bottom area.  It was an hour until high tide when we went, so there was water in this harbor area with the boats.  They were pulling out, one by one, and entering the Cook Inlet.   Some of the boats were getting ice (or it looked more like compacted snow), to be hoisted & put in their boat.  After the boats got in the Cook Inlet, it appeared that they were stopped, just floating and possibly waiting for a "Ready, Set, GO"!! At least, that is what we think they were doing....if it is anything like some of the TV shows on commercial fishing.  It was quite interesting .... we just need to run into an Old Timer that will tell us the process of commercial fishing here in Ninilchik.

Commercial Fishing and Charter Fishing seems to be the way of life and their bread & butter here in this area of Alaska.  Every road or street you drive on has Charter Fishing businesses &/or big fishing boats.  I can't imagine that there is a need for that many Charter Fishing businesses ... but there must be.

Another thing we have all noticed, that almost all homes have junk boats, trailers, junk, etc. scattered  in their front yards and most of the homes are partially finished or in disrepair.  There are some nice homes too, and a lot of cabins.

We are enjoying the area of Alaska....I would like to live here for one year and experience the Commercial Salmon Fishing, etc.

Have a good one!!

Misc 20.00 Csh



Written by Bob

Day 50 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska - 7/01/14 Bob Goes Salmon Fishing on a Guided Walk-In Fishing Trip

I went to town and bought my King salmon tag for today and then drove through the country side checking out the Ninilchik River that I would be fishing on later today.

I arrived at the parking lot at noon and met my guide, Gary, and his assistant, Jordan, from Silverfin Guide Service for a guided walk-in fishing trip.  After having a little safety meeting discussing the do's and don'ts of bear encounters with the 4 of us on this trip, we trekked over the hill and to the river.

The first hole we were going to fish had a couple guys fishing in it when we arrived so we trekked on up the river to the next hole.  Gary, then, went over the equipment and proper method of setting the hook.   He explained that we were targeting king salmons and that we could take up to 10 fish under 20", but if we kept 1 fish over 20" we had to stop fishing.  Also, a lot of the fish we would check had been out of salt water long enough that they would not be good eating, so he would tell us what was a quality fish.  You can not take a fish from the water unless you are going to count it in your possession limit. This is so that all the fish survive until they spawn.  I ended the day with 4 salmon in my possession under the 20 inch limit, 5 fish under 20 inches that were released due to being out of the ocean too long, and 3 fish over 20 inches were released being out of the ocean too long.  The salmon that have been out of the ocean too long (salt water) develop a red color and have lost the oil from their flesh; making the meat dry and not as tasty.  The salmon eventually die because salmon are salt water fish and can't live long in the river.

 The guide's assistant is getting ready to release one of the salmon I caught...see how red it is.

some keepers

another salmon I caught but released

 the guide starting to clean the fish

I can say this, they do fight, jumping out of the water 2-3 feet at times. The 3 large fish I released probably took 10-15 minutes of fighting to get them in. I wish I could have videoed these catches as it was incredible some of the jumps they made. I probably fought and lost at least as many fish as I landed.

Our time with the guide was over at 6:00 pm.  Overall, it was a great day. I wanted to learn as much as possible and felt I did do that, as well as had a great time fishing.

I returned to the campground and Ginger, Jesse & Janet was eager to hear about my day and see the salmon.

The guide cleaned the fish, but I cleaned them up more and cut them up and rinsed them when I got to the campground.  Ginger, Janet & Jesse packaged it & sealed it using the foodsaver.

There was a big cow moose in the parking lot where I met my fishing guide this morning.  Also, saw an eagle and lots of bear & moose tracks by the river.

Jesse and I have fishing arrangements made with a charter fishing boat tomorrow morning at 5:30...hope the fish are biting.

Have a good one!

Adm 160.00 Chk/

Misc. 10.00 Csh/ 5.00 Csh/

Written by Bob