Hey All-
Everything has been going well around here. It’s been really hot actually (for Alaska), which I think is keeping the fish away from the beach. We had a good plug of them the other day and thought it was the beginning of a big push of fish, but then it slowed down again. The winds today made the hot weather bearable and brought in quite a few fish during the flood of the afternoon tide but slow down considerably for the ebb. We are at about 120,000 pounds after the end of the afternoon tide, so we are doing well. We still have about two weeks left of fishing even if it’s just scratch fishing we will make it to our goal. We are hoping to beat last year’s total of 230,000 pounds, but we’ll see.
Have you checked out our Flickr Photostream recently?
Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/naknek_seafood/
-Sarah & the crew
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Yet another FIRE…
(This was written on July 6th)
In the neighborhood; this time the only thing that was lost was an outhouse and a lot of tundra. This happened yesterday at about 5pm. We think our neighbor, two cabins away, threw a cigarette in their outhouse which started the fire. Our neighbor was able to put the fire out on the outhouse but it had already spread to the tundra and due to the winds, was heading toward the west and our cabins. Thankfully the fire department showed up (again) and did everything they could to put it out and they were successful. The fire spread about one and a half miles before it was extinguished.
When I first saw the fire I drove down the beach to the fire chief who was at the bottom of the cliff to ask if we needed to evacuate. He said we should collect up our belongings and to know where they were in case we needed to leave right away but for now our cabins were safe. He also said there would be a helicopter coming any minute to dump water on the fire. He said if that didn’t take care of it they were going to send in a bomber to put retardant on it and if that didn’t work there last resort was to send in some smoke jumpers. I was glad to hear that they had a plan and drove back to camp to let the crew know. Within a few minutes (just enough time to grab the camera and run just beyond the edge of camp) the chopper had arrived with its bucket hanging below and began scooping water from a nearby lake (300 feet away) and dumping it on the fire. This seemed to do very little to the growing flames. The bucket he was using could probably only hold 200-300 gallons, we needed more firefighting power. After about half an hour a couple of firemen came out and told us to go back to our camp and that they were sending in the bomber. They explained that if we were in the way when the bomber dropped the retardant and if any part of it hit us we would be flattened like a pancake and killed instantly. We agreed and went back to camp to watch, hopping that they didn’t miss and destroy our remaining cabins. Within a few minutes the helicopter flew away and a couple of planes came by; one of them was a scout plane and the other was the bomber the fire chief had talked about. The bomber did three passes dropping fire retardant over the course of an hour and a half which made a pretty good impact on the flames. We watched all of the action from near the bunkhouse and a couple of the crew climbed up on the roof. After that we all needed some sleep so we went to our bunks to get some rest. Over the course of the next three hours we heard that there were about 8 smoke jumpers who came in and started paddling the ground with some sort of paddle/fan shaped tool. This morning we heard that they had successfully put the fire out and later in the evening we walked out to the burn site and took some pictures to show just how close it had come to our cabins. Thankfully there wasn’t too much damage and no one got hurt. We have been saved again by the local firefighters and we thank them for watching out for us. We are going to have to bake them some cakes and cookies.
-Sarah & the crew
In the neighborhood; this time the only thing that was lost was an outhouse and a lot of tundra. This happened yesterday at about 5pm. We think our neighbor, two cabins away, threw a cigarette in their outhouse which started the fire. Our neighbor was able to put the fire out on the outhouse but it had already spread to the tundra and due to the winds, was heading toward the west and our cabins. Thankfully the fire department showed up (again) and did everything they could to put it out and they were successful. The fire spread about one and a half miles before it was extinguished.
When I first saw the fire I drove down the beach to the fire chief who was at the bottom of the cliff to ask if we needed to evacuate. He said we should collect up our belongings and to know where they were in case we needed to leave right away but for now our cabins were safe. He also said there would be a helicopter coming any minute to dump water on the fire. He said if that didn’t take care of it they were going to send in a bomber to put retardant on it and if that didn’t work there last resort was to send in some smoke jumpers. I was glad to hear that they had a plan and drove back to camp to let the crew know. Within a few minutes (just enough time to grab the camera and run just beyond the edge of camp) the chopper had arrived with its bucket hanging below and began scooping water from a nearby lake (300 feet away) and dumping it on the fire. This seemed to do very little to the growing flames. The bucket he was using could probably only hold 200-300 gallons, we needed more firefighting power. After about half an hour a couple of firemen came out and told us to go back to our camp and that they were sending in the bomber. They explained that if we were in the way when the bomber dropped the retardant and if any part of it hit us we would be flattened like a pancake and killed instantly. We agreed and went back to camp to watch, hopping that they didn’t miss and destroy our remaining cabins. Within a few minutes the helicopter flew away and a couple of planes came by; one of them was a scout plane and the other was the bomber the fire chief had talked about. The bomber did three passes dropping fire retardant over the course of an hour and a half which made a pretty good impact on the flames. We watched all of the action from near the bunkhouse and a couple of the crew climbed up on the roof. After that we all needed some sleep so we went to our bunks to get some rest. Over the course of the next three hours we heard that there were about 8 smoke jumpers who came in and started paddling the ground with some sort of paddle/fan shaped tool. This morning we heard that they had successfully put the fire out and later in the evening we walked out to the burn site and took some pictures to show just how close it had come to our cabins. Thankfully there wasn’t too much damage and no one got hurt. We have been saved again by the local firefighters and we thank them for watching out for us. We are going to have to bake them some cakes and cookies.
-Sarah & the crew
Sunday, July 5, 2009
We have reached 100,000 pounds!
It took awhile but we are finally there. There is a lot more fishing to be done but we are glad to reach one of our goals. Our next goal is 150,000 pounds which I don't think will be too hard sense the fishing has picked up and it's the beginning of July. I will have an update soon.
-Sarah & the crew
-Sarah & the crew
Happy 4th of July (a day late)
Howdy Everyone-
Things are picking up around here but not without some problems. The Ambi-Fisher lost its steering the other day due to the steering column breaking. We got the boat to the dock and had it taken out of the water for a quick fix, it was back in the water 2 tides later, and running great. The fishing has defiantly picked up around here. We started off the season with 3,000-5,000 pound tides and went down to about 400 pound tides; we are now at about 8,000 pound tides and growing. The last tide was a night tide (in the dark mostly) and we ended up with about 6,000 pounds, which is pretty good for a night tide. The fish are going to hit Naknek any day now and we are waiting for them.
We spent the 4th out in the bay fishing, and sleeping in the cabins. I walked over to our neighbor’s house where they had a bonfire and a fireworks show. I chatted with them about the season and talked to some of their green crew about how much work is in store for them in the next couple of weeks. I just got back to the cabins a few minutes ago and am about to head off to bed (its 5 am on the 5th). Have a good night.
-Sarah & the crew
Things are picking up around here but not without some problems. The Ambi-Fisher lost its steering the other day due to the steering column breaking. We got the boat to the dock and had it taken out of the water for a quick fix, it was back in the water 2 tides later, and running great. The fishing has defiantly picked up around here. We started off the season with 3,000-5,000 pound tides and went down to about 400 pound tides; we are now at about 8,000 pound tides and growing. The last tide was a night tide (in the dark mostly) and we ended up with about 6,000 pounds, which is pretty good for a night tide. The fish are going to hit Naknek any day now and we are waiting for them.
We spent the 4th out in the bay fishing, and sleeping in the cabins. I walked over to our neighbor’s house where they had a bonfire and a fireworks show. I chatted with them about the season and talked to some of their green crew about how much work is in store for them in the next couple of weeks. I just got back to the cabins a few minutes ago and am about to head off to bed (its 5 am on the 5th). Have a good night.
-Sarah & the crew
Friday, July 3, 2009
What day is it again? Yawn...
This was written on July 1st.
Hello All-
I thought I would sit down and write a bit to tell you what’s been going on around here. The fish have been coming into Naknek fairly slowly lately but for some reason the processors have decided to put us on limit anyway. This means we are only allowed to deliver a certain amount of fish per tide to them. In this case it was two thousand pounds per permit (we have 4) per tide. This can be very hard to work with because we don’t know how much we are going to harvest in a tide. We found out yesterday it was because Egegik (another fishing area in Bristol Bay) is getting hit hard with Salmon and the processors can’t keep up. Those fish will be heading our way soon, and we are ready for them.
David’s Aunt Jane and Cousin Hannah (Harry’s wife and other daughter) flew in from Anchorage on the 27th. They are here to cook and run errands in town for the crew for the season. It will be really nice to have them here.
A couple of days ago we had quite a wind storm which made it quite a bit harder to go through the nets and deliver. One of our boats had some trouble getting off of the beach after a delivery to the truck. The boat and the crew were beat up pretty badly by the surf and then the boat began to swamp (fill with water). We pulled the boat up on shore and bailed out the water to get it ready to be pushed back in the water for another try. After trying out the mechanical equipment the crew pushed the boat out into the water successfully. There are some good pictures of this going up on our Flickr Photostream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naknek_seafood/
During the night we ran into another sticky situation. The guys had finished up checking the nets during the night tide and were bringing in the remaining fish from the boats with our ranger (a tractor with tank treads) when they ran into some really thick, goopy mud on the flats. The ranger had about 400 pounds of fish in it and it was singing in the mud. The crew moved quickly to get a tote to put half of the fish in and some rope to pull the ranger out. We hooked up 200 feet of rope to the ranger and the truck and with a good pull freed the ranger from the hole it was sunk in. Some of the crew walked into the hole that remained and found that the mud came up to mid thigh. The fish were then delivered and the ranger was taken to get washed off.
Nothing else really exciting has been happening; just waiting for the Salmon to come. We have harvested about 60,000 lbs to date. We are doing better this year to date then last year, so it’s going well. The run hasn’t even come yet, we are going to get really busy soon!
-Sarah & the crew
Hello All-
I thought I would sit down and write a bit to tell you what’s been going on around here. The fish have been coming into Naknek fairly slowly lately but for some reason the processors have decided to put us on limit anyway. This means we are only allowed to deliver a certain amount of fish per tide to them. In this case it was two thousand pounds per permit (we have 4) per tide. This can be very hard to work with because we don’t know how much we are going to harvest in a tide. We found out yesterday it was because Egegik (another fishing area in Bristol Bay) is getting hit hard with Salmon and the processors can’t keep up. Those fish will be heading our way soon, and we are ready for them.
David’s Aunt Jane and Cousin Hannah (Harry’s wife and other daughter) flew in from Anchorage on the 27th. They are here to cook and run errands in town for the crew for the season. It will be really nice to have them here.
A couple of days ago we had quite a wind storm which made it quite a bit harder to go through the nets and deliver. One of our boats had some trouble getting off of the beach after a delivery to the truck. The boat and the crew were beat up pretty badly by the surf and then the boat began to swamp (fill with water). We pulled the boat up on shore and bailed out the water to get it ready to be pushed back in the water for another try. After trying out the mechanical equipment the crew pushed the boat out into the water successfully. There are some good pictures of this going up on our Flickr Photostream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naknek_seafood/
During the night we ran into another sticky situation. The guys had finished up checking the nets during the night tide and were bringing in the remaining fish from the boats with our ranger (a tractor with tank treads) when they ran into some really thick, goopy mud on the flats. The ranger had about 400 pounds of fish in it and it was singing in the mud. The crew moved quickly to get a tote to put half of the fish in and some rope to pull the ranger out. We hooked up 200 feet of rope to the ranger and the truck and with a good pull freed the ranger from the hole it was sunk in. Some of the crew walked into the hole that remained and found that the mud came up to mid thigh. The fish were then delivered and the ranger was taken to get washed off.
Nothing else really exciting has been happening; just waiting for the Salmon to come. We have harvested about 60,000 lbs to date. We are doing better this year to date then last year, so it’s going well. The run hasn’t even come yet, we are going to get really busy soon!
-Sarah & the crew
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sorry it's been awhile....
Happy Sunday Everyone-
We have been busy catching lots of Salmon up here. We have been allowed to fish almost every tide and we have been catching a lot more Salmon on the afternoon tides then on the morning ones. We have harvested about 30,000lbs currently. I will give you a more exact amount as time goes on. We have to add up our fish tickets and put them in a spreadsheet in the next couple of days. The new crew has been able to get a lot of practice in, and hopefully now they are ready for the run to hit. The big plug of Salmon should be here any day now. Some years they come early and some they arrive later in July. It always keeps us on our toes.
I’ll keep you up to date.
-Sarah & the crew
We have been busy catching lots of Salmon up here. We have been allowed to fish almost every tide and we have been catching a lot more Salmon on the afternoon tides then on the morning ones. We have harvested about 30,000lbs currently. I will give you a more exact amount as time goes on. We have to add up our fish tickets and put them in a spreadsheet in the next couple of days. The new crew has been able to get a lot of practice in, and hopefully now they are ready for the run to hit. The big plug of Salmon should be here any day now. Some years they come early and some they arrive later in July. It always keeps us on our toes.
I’ll keep you up to date.
-Sarah & the crew
Sunday, June 21, 2009
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