Alaska Shrimpin..

[AlaskanGuy]

Hi guys..

Went out to pull the last 4 of my shrimp pots today, as deer season starts this wednsday, and prolly wont get another chance to go out for a while... had a decent day.. wasnt pouring but pretty cloudy and rainy. temps around 65f. whales everywhere. i got to tell you, I just love being out on the water in mid summer in SE Alaska. The waters are just teeming with fish. Humpback whales are just about in every direction you look feeding on the massive schools of candle fish, herring, and baby salmon. the sea otters are raising thier pups, the seals are snoozing on the rocks, eagles screaming above argueing amoungst themselves.... it is really a sight to see.. the wales are very hard to get pictures of, cuz you just never know where they are gunna surface. one massive bull humpback breached about 60 yards away and sent a massive wake at our boat.. just an incredible day to be alive in Alaska.. you will have to remind me that I said that come dark winter when its dark and cold..

and of course there is the shrimp...

my friend Bob when I offered him a bite


me hamming it up with the shrimp


pretty good sized ones..


And some of our catch.


i think we got about a 5 gallon bucket filled to the top of just the tails when all told at the end of the day...

have a great day folks.. I did..  now where is that recliner??

AG

[mike116]

Thanks for takin us fishing today AG.   

[ShotgunDave]

 

As Mike said, thanks for taking us along. Dream life for sure.

[AlaskanGuy]

well, I would tell you dave, its not all sunshine and roses... it is one heck of a lot of work. most come up to the bush thinking it a dream, and then reality sets in..

alaskan summers are a hectic mess. spring bears,. salmon, then more salmon, shrimp, then mushrooms, deer and a few more salmon, then berries, more salmon and then stop everything, cuz its duck and goose season, and the last of the salmon, then colapse into the hibernation of winter to heal up...  come spring, it starts up all over again.

opps, forgot to mention harvest veggies from the garden.. somewhere in all that its gotta be done too... it is seasonally insanely hectic, or boring.. not much in between.. but there are moments of pure joy.. and  intense heartbreak. such is life anywhere.

today was a joy.. i will let you know about tomorrow...

[Pustic]

Are you on any of those Alaskan realty TV shows yet? If not, why not?   

[ShotgunDave]

No one's life is all sunshine and roses. And looking in from the outside, it sometimes looks that way. There's always a trade-off.

None the less, you live in a most beautiful place. I'd love to live like that. Even with the dark times.

[Miguel Loco]

Lookin' delicious. Spent some time up there, I know what you mean about the summer hustle.....and the winter. It's all good as long as you're happy.

[AlaskanGuy]

lol at Pustic.... i am not, but I know the folks from Port Protection as they are our neighbors to the north. good folks over there... but the alaskan bush people are wierdo's ..

[Necessaryevil]

WOW.........................That looks like some delicious eating you got there. I have to buy shrimp like that in Spain. They call them Langostinos and they are not cheap. All that incredible food on your doorstep. I am feeling pretty envious here.

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Great photos there AlaskanGuy!

I love shrimp too.

[Pustic]

lol at Pustic.... i am not, but I know the folks from Port Protection as they are our neighbors to the north. good folks over there... but the alaskan bush people are wierdo's ..

I like the show Port Protection, they seem to be down to earth people, and yeah, the bush people are a strange lot.  I would like to meet the Kilchers. 

[Len]

Thanks AG, for the review and the pics.
I've seen those whales up close, in the North Atlantic, 6 hrs off the Norwegian coast. Know what you mean. Awesome!

[ssb73q]

Hi AG, how are those shrimp different than the shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico? Do you also trap King and Snow Crabs?

I want to move there. What are the housing prices like?

Regards,
Richard

[AlaskanGuy]

hi there richard... no snow crab in my area... and the King crab are mostly on the other side of the island from here..  i dont fish them cuz the gear is very large and very heavy.. too much for a small boat like mine.. so Dungie's are all I target..  I cant say much about what sorts of shrimp they have down there...

i would say Housing is Build to suite... build your own castle.. buy the land and start building is what most folks do.. not much extra housing at all...

[sourdough]

Hi guys..

Went out to pull the last 4 of my shrimp pots today, and of course there is the shrimp... pretty good sized ones..

I think we got about a 5 gallon bucket filled to the top of just the tails when all told at the end of the day...

have a great day folks.. I did..  now where is that recliner??

AG

Mark, that is quite a nice harvest of spot shrimp! Since I relocated to SW WA 12 years ago I have had to rely upon Vietnamese farmed shrimp, which is OK, but not anywhere near what you have. If I want spot shrimp I have to go through an outfit named Troller Point Fisheries that comes twice per year to Port Orchard and Tacoma, and the prices they want are just outrageous.

I could not get your vids of sockeye salmon fishing to load on my machine, but I congratulate you on your catch. Our best catches of sockeye were when we dipnetted them at the mouth of the Kenai River on the incoming tide in the 90's using a subsistence permit, 25 fish per head of household plus 10 per member of the household, which was 65 fish, but we never caught more than 30. Lots of work gutting and fileting, and we had quite a few coolers full of filets to put in the freezer at home, primarily for smoking in strips, which was at the time was called squaw candy.

We used to make the 5-hour drive from Anchorage to Homer and camp on the spit. I had an old aluminum saucer sled into which I punched many large holes and covered it with plastic screening and wire-tied a well-punctured can of cat food in the center of it. We used to secure it to the end of the commercial dock there (before the powers-that-be put the kibosh to that) and let it sit for a few hours. When we retrieved it we pulled it up as fast as possible to avoid very little shrimp scurrying off of it. We normally got a dinner of small shrimp for a few folks that night.

Those were good days and you are still living it! Kudos!

Regards,

Jim