We are now just 24 hours away from the re-opening of the Anchor River to fishing for the remainder of the year. Looking forward to getting in some Dolly Varden fishing, but the focus is on the jackpot fishery in August when the Silver Salmon return to the river. Being a firm believer in the eight P's, preparations are underway so when the time does arrive, the focus will be on the fishing aspect of the sport.
For the past two days we have been harvesting our smoke house wood by simply pruning the thousands of alder bushes that we have on the property. My two little helpers are really enthused with this project, especially after luring them into thinking that they were actually going to get paid. For the last two evenings, we have been sitting on the stoop of the workshop, whittlin the bark from the branches and cutting them into smoke house size pieces. They are getting pretty handy as well as safety conscious when handling the knives, each of them having their favorite knife dependent on the color of the handle or shape of the blade. It matters not that they do not have a edge on them.
My good friend, Meryl just delivered me ten skeins of fresh King Salmon eggs taken out of the Halibut Cove fishery. In processing them, I discovered that my smokehouse also makes the ideal drying room for salmon eggs, a dual purpose building much like the "Duck House". I packaged the eggs up today, I now have ten containers of high quality salmon eggs for the opening of the Silver Salmon season. Although, they will be kept in a secret location to protect them from predators, I will gladly share them with other members of the clan. However, since the daily bag limit is only two Silver Salmon per day and the quality that these eggs are, each member will be allowed three baits per day, one for each fish and one as a back up just in case you drop one in the river or want to share one with a friend.
The wood for the smoke house is chopped, the eggs are cured, plenty of salt on hand for the secret smoking brine, several cases of fruit jars for canning, propane tanks are filled, 15 pounds of Borax and two jars of Pro Cure for egg curing, so I am now set to commence some quality fishing time.