2025 Salmon Season, Week Three

Hello from the coho fishing grounds, friends! It’s day sixteen of coho salmon fishing — and other than one weather day on anchor, and one day zooming to port for a quick top off on diesel, we’ve been out here at it. These days and weeks of July can feel just plain LONG! They’re often our lengthiest fishing days of the year — alarms are set for 3:45 a.m., and the anchor doesn’t drop until near 10 p.m. most nights. Though weather hasn’t been sparkly or sunny this month, it hasn’t been poor enough to justify many weather days either — meaning Caleb and crew out out there “in it”, all day, every day, day after day.

 

Trolling is an interesting fishery that way. In Alaska, the timing of each fishing method is managed differently. In many fisheries, fishing will operate on “openers”. Something like: open for 24 hours, closed for 48; open for 72 hours, closed for 24. But with coho salmon trolling: we’re cut loose on July 1st, and not allowed to rest again until mid-September. It’s a mental and physical marathon! Staying psychologically engaged is just as difficult as the manual labor, really. On longer days, the guys have been doing a good job of listening to an audiobook instead of music, to give their brains something to munch on (besides how cold and sore and tired they are).  

 

I’m real proud of how tough everyone has hung this month. August and September will bring shorter days, more days on anchor, and generally more time for rest. But July is for seizing the long days, and powering through.  

 

Production wise: the coho fishing has been hot and cold this month. Immediately after offloading our king salmon on July 7th, we turned and burned real quick to get back out on the water. And it paid off! We were met with four days of ultra productive coho fishing. Then, the mid-July lull came around. Last week was spent mostly in “search mode”. We ran up the coast, we cruised down the coast, we dropped hooks here and there and never really found a batch of fish worth staying in one place for.

 

Ultimately, we ended up back at our original fishing spot! And thankfully, fishing has perked back up again. It’ll ebb and flow, as it does. The most important part is just keeping hooks in the water.

 

Before I forget: a little love for the smallest crew member on board. Our two year old son Monti has been doing SO great this season. This kid’s got SEA LEGS, too! Literally — watching him navigate the boat, compensate for the swell, and not let the roll keep him down has been so impressive. And any signs of sea sickness are all but gone — he’s just happy to be a part of things: good weather, bad weather, and everything in between.

 

Monti’s been on board full time since May, with very, very few land days in between. We’ll hop off the boat for a few weeks in August, both for his (but mostly his Mama’s!) sanity, and then return or the rest of salmon season, and sablefish fishing this fall. 🙂

 

In the meantime, we’re thankful for every coho that comes over the rail! AND for your pre-orders, too. They really truly keep the boat afloat over here — pre-order funds are directly used (often the same week!) for filling the diesel tank, paying crew, buying hooks, grocery-ing up, all the things we need to do to catch those fish in the first place. Your support make our world go around!