It was a pretty good week for the planet. Earth Day happened on 4/22 while Arbor Day was on 4/26. I helped the planet this week by getting rid of dying birch trees, and completely dead spruce trees ravaged by bark beetles. I wasn’t alone in my work. I had a couple of helpers. Eli helped me with trees that had …
Spring Time Chores Have Begun
Finally, enough snow has melted to allow access to the cabins. I never know from year to year if any animals, or humans, got into anything. To my relief, everything was how I left it last fall. The only winter casualty was a large birch tree fell in the front yard. Considering how many wind events happened this winter, …
Help Wanted
Are you looking for a summer job fishing in Alaska? It’s not Jane and I looking for help, but others are. I made a trip to Homer this past week to have Kachemak Gear Shed put an eye splice on four sections of dock rope. As I walked into their building, I saw on a bulletin board an old school help wanted note. If …
Super Secret Lure
Did I get your attention? I thought so. A jig is not exactly a super secret lure. They’re used by anglers around the world to catch all sorts of fish. So why are these jigs super secret? It’s simple. Every single one of them was custom tied by me. They are all one-of-a-kind creations. When I decided to make my own …
Fish App
I often wonder if salmon think about me as much as I think of them.I wonder no more. There’s an app for that. The Fish App, brought to you by the fine people at Garmin Electronics, was developed to increase the average anglers catch rate by an astonishing 61%. The creator of the app, Lirpa Sloof, said the idea came from listening …
On The Lighter Side
The last few weeks I’ve been discussing fish politics and depressing king salmon run forecasts. It’s time for a little humor. There are a lot of clever people on the internet and I thought I’d share a few things that made me laugh this week. Enjoy your week. …
2024 Kenai King Salmon Forecast
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) has released a series of Emergency Orders for the 2024 Upper Cook Inlet king salmon fishery. The news is not good. Fishing in all freshwaters of Upper Cook Inlet for wild king salmon will be closed. The only places an angler can retain a king salmon are the Kasilof and …
Board of Fisheries Recap
The 2024 Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting is over. For the most part, status quo was the theme. The one huge exception was discussed last week. I still can’t believe lowering the late run, Kenai king salmon escapement goal was a good decision (it passed on a 4-3 vote). If you’re curious about the votes on the other …
Sausage Making, Board of Fisheries Update
As of today, the 2024 Alaska Board of Fisheries Upper Cook Inlet meeting is nearly over. The biggest takeaway so far is the adoption of RC183. This action plan addresses the stock of concern designation of the Kenai king salmon run. Ironically, the plan reduces the lower end of the optimum escapement goal (OEG) from 15,000 to …
Super Bowl of Fish
The Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting regarding Upper Cook Inlet fish management has begun. I’ve been engrossed listening to the proceedings, which is my excuse for such a short blogpost. Too many acronyms being thrown around…OEG, SEG, BEG, MSY…it can be confusing. If you’d like to watch fish democracy in action and learn …