Featured SalmonState Column

A Tale of Two Salmon
Mary Catharine Martin Mary Catharine Martin

A Tale of Two Salmon

Bristol Bay’s sockeye run began breaking records in 2018. The same year, Chignik, which is on the other side of the Alaska Peninsula, failed to meet its minimum escapements for the first time in recent memory. Now, Chignik’s residents and fishermen are working to address and bring attention to these unprecedented declines, and to save their way of life.

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The Salmon State — An early fall trip to Hasselborg Lake
Mary Catharine Martin Mary Catharine Martin

The Salmon State — An early fall trip to Hasselborg Lake

Four years ago this August, my partner Bjorn and I flew into Admiralty Island’s Hasselborg Lake. We fought through thick blueberry bushes and swarms of flies, angled our way up a steep, trail-less slope, and emerged into the alpine of a nearby mountain. A bear roared at us and crashed away.

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‘The Salmon Way’: Author shares Alaska’s salmon stories and ways of life
Mary Catharine Martin Mary Catharine Martin

‘The Salmon Way’: Author shares Alaska’s salmon stories and ways of life

From the fish camps of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, to the gillnets of Bristol Bay, to the bear and angler-packed banks of Juneau’s Sweetheart Creek, salmon connect people to the land, the water, the seasons, and each other. Those connections create a culture that inspired author Amy Gulick’s most recent book, “The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind,” released May 1, 2019.

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Casting for fish, and guides, in Bristol Bay
Mary Catharine Martin Mary Catharine Martin

Casting for fish, and guides, in Bristol Bay

Triston Chaney, a 19-year-old college student raised in Dillingham, knew before this year that he loved fly fishing. What he didn’t know is that he’d love helping other people catch fish, too.

With the help of the Bristol Bay Fly Fishing & Guide Academy, he’ll soon start a job doing just that.

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Hunting for fish in Alaska’s steelhead bearing rivers and streams
Mary Catharine Martin Mary Catharine Martin

Hunting for fish in Alaska’s steelhead bearing rivers and streams

For most people, steelhead — sea-run rainbow trout — are “the fish of 10,000 casts.” To catch them, you stand waist-deep in a spring-melt river, growing numb with cold as you cast… and cast… and cast.

Trout Unlimited sportfish outreach coordinator and Bear Creek Outfitter fishing guide Mark Heironymus says it doesn’t have to be that way. A better word than “fishing” for steelhead, he said, is “hunting.” You might go hours between casts, but once you line everything up right, you get your fish.

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