First Silver

Frank has had a bad case of Salmon fever lately. Saturday we went out with our friend Chris on the Icy Lady, trolled most of the morning, saw a ton of bait, but no fish. On the way in we decided to try one last time near Point Sophia, and Frank caught a 29 inch (don't let him tell you pounds!) king. But that didn't cure his fever, so him and Jerry went out Sunday in the same area and Jerry caught the first Silver salmon of the season. They were pretty surprised, it seems so early for Silvers, we haven't even caught a Chum yet.
Frank is sitting at the kitchen table now playing with his "hoochies", so I don't think he's calmed down yet. We just need some clients who want to salmon fish instead of fishing for halibut for a few days and that would help.

Low tide last week brought in a few eagles on the beach in front of town.

A Skate, yew!

Time is starting to fly by, each week we are more busy then the last, but that's a good thing!
Jerry and Frank spent some time on the water catching halibut last weekend. They ended up catching this huge skate too.
Skates are so weird looking, a lot like a ray, but when you turn them over they have a flat face and what looks like little feet down by their tails. Maybe the rays have this too, I've never looked on the underside of one. The skin is rough like sand paper, very abrasive so they hurt your hands to hang onto them. But this rag worked really well for them. Years ago the native people used to use the skin of the skates for sand paper, makes sense to me. We haven't ate any yet, but maybe one of these days we'll try it, I've heard they taste a lot like scallops.

A New Grandbaby!

Riley Elaine Byrd, 8 lbs. 1 oz. 19 inches was born Saturday, June 7, around 2am.
Franks youngest son Josh and his wife Audra's first child, all are doing well and should be going home today. We sure are looking forward to this fall when we can get down to Washington and see our grand children!

What's for supper?

We've had some really minus tides this past week, -4.?, so Frank couldn't stand it any longer and had to out clamming. He said he stopped at a half bucket, it was still more then the 3 of us could eat! We stuffed ourselves last night! I don't think we've had fresh clams since we moved here from Juneau, I didn't realize how much I missed them. The leftovers will go in clam chowder. I know Uncle Chris really misses this part of Alaska!
One of our clients sent us this picture that he took of me and Frank, I thought it came out pretty good.

Peaceful Moments

Some days you don't even feel like you are on the ocean, it's so calm and peaceful. Makes me so thankful that I get to live in such a beautiful place. But not yesterday, yesterday we had clients on board (5 big guys and an 11 year old) makes for a full boat. We tried to fish out in Icy Strait, but the wind and current made it pretty impossible. Trying to fish with the rolls hitting the side of the boat is not fun. We ended up coming inside Port Frederick in hopes of finding some halibut. Luckily, we found some, nothing big, but the guys got to fish for about 1/2 hour before we had to take them back to pick up our next group. Frank stalled to give them more fishing time, and we were about 1/2 late picking up the next group, but everyone was great, we added the 1/2 hour onto the end of the 2nd trip and everyone was happy. This 1 limit halibut per person is a real pain though for people who would like to ship fish home.
Icy Strait on a calm day.

It's Floating!

Jerry has had his boat back in the water for a few days now. Seems he has fixed the problem and put in an auto bilge for back up. I'm sure he will be fighting corrosion for a while though, but at least the main motor and the kicker still run!
OH, we cooked up some of that bear meat, and if I wouldn't have known it was bear I would have guessed beef. Very good!