Every fishing season starts before we ever leave the dock.
There’s always work to do on the boat: maintenance, repairs, checking gear, getting everything ready for another summer in Bristol Bay. This year was no different. We replaced most of the hydraulic hoses above deck before we launched. I say most because, as we found out later, we probably should have replaced all of them.
You never know exactly what a season is going to throw at you.
Starting in the Ugashik
Most seasons, the Nushagak is where we spend a lot of our time. It typically has some of the bigger sockeye runs in the bay, and I fish there with a group of fishermen who have been doing this for a long time. We know the area well.
But this year was different.
I knew we probably weren’t going to start in the Nushagak since the biologists wanted more kings to pass the in-river sonar counting station before opening the sockeye salmon fishery. Given the lower king salmon returns in recent years, fishery managers are focusing more on king salmon conservation.
Rather than making a direct run for the Nushagak, our season kicked off in the Ugashik district along the lower eastern stretch of Bristol Bay. There, we managed to fit in the final two days of early-season fishing before daily management kicked in.
Right before heading out, a hydraulic hose blew on us. Fortunately, we swapped it out quickly, allowing enough time to test everything before operations picked up in the Nushagak. Since transferring imposes a mandatory 48-hour fishing pause, we took advantage of smooth seas to motor across Bristol Bay. It’s a 90-nautical-mile journey from Ugashik, so clear weather makes all the difference.
Managing for King Salmon
A smaller king salmon run was predicted for the Nushagak than in previous seasons, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game changed its management strategy. That also changed how we fished.
Escapement is important. We need enough salmon to make it upriver and reproduce if we want these runs to be here for the next generation. That means the commercial fleet sometimes has to stand down to allow more time for fish to make it up the river.
This year, that meant the sockeye fleet lost the first big push of sockeye in the Nushagak while we waited for enough kings to migrate upstream.
That’s part of fishing in Bristol Bay. We work closely with the biologists, we watch the numbers, and we adjust when the fish tell us we need to.
There’s a bigger conversation that needs to happen around king salmon management, too. Commercial gillnetters, subsistence, and sport fishermen are taking a lot of the heat for king salmon escapement. At the same time, king salmon are also being caught as bycatch in the Bering Sea trawl fishery.
For some perspective, we caught four king salmon on the F/V Ava Jane for our entire season in Bristol Bay.
Four fish.
That’s something I think people should understand when we talk about where these fish are being caught and what we can do to protect them.
Knowing When to Move
Once we started fishing the Nushagak district, the fishing was steady, but it wasn’t the kind of season we’ve seen there in the past.
We fished hard for almost a week. I kept talking with the biologists and watching the escapement numbers. Once we were past the halfway point for the sockeye escapement, I knew we were probably past the peak
That’s when you have to make a decision.
We could stay and keep working, or we could move the boat and find the fish somewhere else.
We decided to move back to the Ugashik where the run still hadn’t peaked.
We ended up fishing there for the next two weeks.
Two Weeks in the Ugashik
The Ugashik is the most scenic of the river districts we fish.
You’ve got snow-capped mountains, wide-open wilderness, and the chance to see wildlife. It’s a beautiful place to spend time, even when you’re working hard.
We’ve fished the Ugashik plenty of times over the years, but we’ve never spent that much time there straight through.
It turned out to be a good move.
We did have one more mechanical issue—our alternator belt failed—but I had a replacement onboard, and we were able to get it fixed pretty quickly.
That’s fishing. Things break. Hoses blow. Belts go. You fix them and get back to work.
That’s why you carry spare parts.
The Best Part of the Season
One of the most stressful parts of my season had nothing to do with fishing.
It was waiting for my daughter, Ava Jane, to make the 50-hour trip from Pennsylvania to Ugashik. Two car rides, three plane flights, and a tender boat ride, and we finally got her on board.
She was excited to finally be old enough to actually work on the boat. She wants to come back next summer and work as a full-time deckhand, and this year she got more of a taste of it.
She spent some of the last few fishing days with us, picking fish and doing the work alongside the rest of the crew.
By then, things had slowed down. Fewer fish were coming through, the weather was calmer, and the pace wasn’t anything like the beginning of the season.
After we finished fishing, Ava, the crew, and I went beachcombing.
That ended up being one of my favorite days of the whole summer.
After weeks of watching fish, weather, tides, boats, and numbers, it was nice to just get off the boat and enjoy where we were.
That’s one of the things I love about Bristol Bay. It’s hard work, no doubt about it. But every once in a while, you get a day where you can look around and remember just how wild this place really is.
And then you get back to work.
Captain Steve, FV Ava Jane
