Rev. 07/28/01
Alaska & beyond - continued 7/28 - 7/30
Valdez again
Driving
over to "Winnebago" Point this morning, I saw a bald eagle sitting on a stump
in the water. Raced up to the first place I could turn around -- ran
back again -- parked the RT -- grabbed the camera and jumped out -- snuck
up to an opening in the bushes along the road -- he flew away. Boy,
trying to be a wildlife photographer is rough work.
Caught a salmon and tried taking a picture of it in the water.
Pink salmon don't hit real hard, and they don't jump a lot. They do put up a very hard "bulldog" fight underwater. And they're fun to catch.
I'm going to have to give them a try with my lighter rod, and see if I can land one. I'll try a small red flatfish, same thing I use for trout and grayling. If they'll take it, it'll open up a totally new way of fishing, and should be lots of fun on such light tackle.
Later,
went back to "Winnebago" Point again. I was having pretty good luck
catching pinks. Suddenly everything stopped -- no fish biting,
no fish jumping, no one was having any luck. Then, swimming down the
shore line, close in to the bank, came a large sea lion. He would dive,
then surface further down, look around, take a breath, and silently slip
under the surface, diving again. He was in his native element, and
was eating them faster than any of us could catch them. After he left,
the fish started biting again.
I'm staying at Sea Otter RV Camp, right on the harbor mouth.
There is a lot of boat traffic going in and out of the harbor. The
whole fleet of salmon boats go in and out. But the bigger ones are
the "mother" ships. Their role is to position themselves near where
the salmon boats will be fishing.
The salmon boats use a purse seine. Each one tows a smaller boat. When they find a school of fish, the idea is to surround it with their long net. The smaller boat takes one end of the net, going in one direction, while the salmon boat goes in the other. They form a circle with, hopefully, the school of fish inside -- they close the circle and then pull "purse" closed at the bottom. The next step is to reel the net in. This is when the find out if they have fish or just water in the net.
Rather then have to sail back to harbor to unload their catch,
they go to a "mother" ship. These have the facilities to transfer the
salmon boat's catch, using a sort of vacuum to suck all the fish into a hugh
basket, weigh it, and give the smaller boat credit -- so they can go on they
way to catch more fish. The big ship also has the facilities to ice
the fish down so they can stay out longer.
Quite an operation.
When the salmon first enter the bay, they are bright and shinny. Normally, when salmon spawn, they migrate up a river. As they do, the pink salmon change to a darker gray color and the males develop a hooked jaw and humped back. Here, in Valdez, the pinks come from a hatchery, right at tide water. So the change take place right here in the salt water.
The first fish I caught, over at "Winnebago" Point, were
bright, right after they came into the bay. Today, I saw people catching
fish right along the shore, about half way between the point and the hatchery.
So I tried fishing there. I caught several and they were both
mature fish
.Then went on over to the point again. And what I again caught there were bright fish -- interesting.
The owner of the Sea Otter RV Camp likes rabbits -- so he bought some and turned them loose. Everyone feeds them. I asked what do they do in the winter, and was told they go under the buildings and people still feed them. They are real tame.
Bob & Carol Graham's Home Page