It's $8 a pound for wild salmon in the local market. That's the 'sale' price for today, 50% off.

Not here.

A subsistence set net. These are used on local beaches by the residents to collect. The salmon in the net are all kings.

Joe, Cody, Garth and I headed up the Nushagak River to sport fish for a week. It certainly wasn't as in expensive as set netting and it may well have cost more than $8.00 per pound to get these but I think they had fun doing it.



The fish pictured above is maybe in the 35# range. I didn't have a scale.

All in all another good Nushagak king season.

Scott,

That was very unfair. I do understand having been there and done that how hard it is to not gloat just a little though.

Mark

Everybody here has their own eddy and sets net. Kings should be here pretty quick, but everybody's not expecting too much. Typically, we only get 4-5-6 kings on a good night which is just about right, otherwise it becomes too much like work. Family doesn't need more than a dozen fish in freezer unless you eat it 24/7 and that gets old pretty quick.

A few locals have fish wheels and they get 20-30 fish on a good night. Old log books from 1940's, they got 400-500 kings a night and were checking basket all day & night long. Those days are long gone.

I'd love five or six for my freezer.

You look like a homo from California...oh wait...you are from California, sorry, I just hate douchebag poseurs from California who pretend to be from Alaska but I am sure you are not one of them them.

Despite anonymous internet attacks being as innocuous as they are I guess I'm mildly curious where or how I posed as being a native Alaskan? As I live here, vote here and pay taxes here I think I can safely claim Alaskan residency.

Lemme guess, you're fishing season wasn't as good as mine? I'll post some more photos of the next trip if you like.

next month it's back to aniak for silvers. $8/# is going to be alot cheaper meat than they will cost, but not nearly as much fun

Yup, a trip to catch one's own is a lot more expensive. Somehow paying that price isn't so hard! I was supposed to be in Kake late next month but had to reschedule.

No wonder I can't catch a king. Good deal for you all, not everyone in AK is so lucky to have that kind of fishery.

quote:

Originally posted by A7Dave:
No wonder I can't catch a king. Good deal for you all, not everyone in AK is so lucky to have that kind of fishery.

Ofcourse its just dumb luck I live with that kind of fishing but you make a point I was sharing with the North Dakotans.

The visitors were suprised, maybe shocked at the retail prices posted and the amenities not available in DLG. The young man with us checked his cell phone over and over hoping for service on the Nushagak. Didn't happen.

After experiencing the fishing memorialized in the pictures posted above, (and please note the competition seen on the river,) I told them that was the reason I live here. Its quiet, the outdoor opportunities are second to none and darn it its just pretty.

Dave let me know if I can help you get pointed in the right direction for a king fishing trip on the Nushagak next June.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
I'd love five or six for my freezer.

+1

me too - unfortunally the way there is a bit too far for just the good food... butone day I come - promissed!

:-)

Klaus

Ya know years ago, I use to air ship salmon to friends in lower 48. It would cost me over 100 bucks to send 2 fish and then I had several friends who screwed up and didn't pick them up at airport and they went bad; pissed me right off. Friends never realized the time and money I went through getting fish back east and acted as though it wasn't a big deal, ha.


So then I started making strips and sending them. Pretty soon I was sending more strips than I was keeping for myself and bigger kings are getting fewer and further between nowadays.

So nowadays, I just tell friends they can buy old salmon at the store cheaper. If they want fresh wild salmon, they have to live along the river and set a net.

No offense, actually I mail strips & jerky to relatives that are Alaskans in Afghanistan, but not many others, too many other things to get done in short summer.

I myself only mail within Alaska (Uncle Teddys reduced mail rate). I did send some to ole Dick Wilmarth a few years back. Another friend hunts wolves with him and have to give that guy his due I'd say.

Ann - please keep buying Alaska salmon. My kid has been working in the summers to pay for college. Lower-48 demand helps keep the price high. I think the nuclear fiasco in Japan is also doing something to support prices this year. Chum went up something like 50% this year.

Fresh halibut last night, halibut sandwich for lunch at work today and fresh king salmon tonite. Summer life don't suck in AK.

Yeah! No cell service, shit weather, high prices etc,etc. BUT a 31 cubic foot freezer loaded to the doors with moose, caribou, several varieties of salmon, rainbow trout and char plus a yard full of fitted FREE firewood. With a little work the "bush" can be a very good place to live.

P.S. And halibut right off the boat. Nice!

Mark

and don't forget the nice big prawns right off the boat yum

I prefer king crab to prawns most days of the week. Just found out personal use is open away from town. "Only" two per person and in possesion this summer. I have a crab cooker at the cabin . . .

MM, I promise to buy what I can afford. I've had so many paycuts now my property taxes even dropped. Good to see kids still work summers to help pay their college costs, best wishes to him!

Ann, go up there and take them with your bow !!

Might just do that, but next year! I dropped another $8 to the seafood manager today for another thick slab of sockeye. I am such a sucker for punishment....

Oh and just to boost things for the Alaskans...

When you buy fish in the market you MUST AVOID anything farmed. These fish have been fed dye to make the meat red (the salmons, trouts and steelies). Also grain pellets, which are NOT a natural food. They do not have the same nutritional value of wild fish.

Scott- Those are some great fish! Are you fishing particular dates or tides? I have always wanted to get down there .....

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
Scott- Those are some great fish! Are you fishing particular dates or tides? I have always wanted to get down there .....

I recommend the last week of June. I don't pay much attention to tides since this last week as an example, the North Dakotans were coming and were expecting a week of fishing regardless weather, tides or my attitude. Usually commercial fishing is going strong in the bay for reds but there has already been some king escapement up river and I wouldn't say the commercial fishing is all enveloping.

There are al least two outfits that rent skiffs that can be used to sport fish out of, (self guided,) and ofcourse there are many guide outfits that specialize and are quite good at Nushagak king fishing. The Nushagak is a long river with many miles of quiet fishing. I camp and fish up the east channel about ten minutes above Portage Creek and rarely feel any competition. Obviously the pictures are of freshly caught salmon and the sport pressure evident in the photos should be illuminating.

Pen Air and Alaska Airlines have daily flights to DLG and there are several hotel/ B&B's that can accomodate if not cater to sport fishermen. There are game freezing and shipping businesses and as I said, plenty of on the river opportunities.

I like bringing friends out to fish for kings in June because the weather is usually at its best, the bugs not bad and the fishing is what it is. I'd love to pursue other venues like silvers in August or trout in October but that usually isn't as good a time for my business to take off and the sporting opportunities aren't as predictable or easy.

The first pulse of kings has finally hit the Canadian border of the Yukon, everybody's been picking up a few all week, but today was good day; eating fresh caught salmon tonight. They are shutting down season on 12th for a few days then reopening on the 17th. Tough, but I suppose it will be this way until by-catch is seriously addressed or maybe when the salmon are gone for good.

You are real lucky with the kings. we just spent 6 days fishing out of Petersburg alaska. Not one salmon. three small halibut. Rained every day all day by the buckets. there were a couple of days when no kings were caught by anyone.
Robbie

Now, I'm completely ignorant about outside the river, but wouldn't most salmon be in rivers & streams right about now?

quote:

Originally posted by Zhurh:
Now, I'm completely ignorant about outside the river, but wouldn't most salmon be in rivers & streams right about now?

Not a silver or a pink of course.

If its going to be red hot the fishing for silvers and pinks on the Nushagak would be red hot August 20th. This is an odd numbered year so no pinks this year and the folks seem to think the silvers won't have a strong run. That doesn't mean the fishing won't be good, but it may well not be every cast.