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Quick report from the F/V Northland:
-Dropped the permit card in Egegik, AK. Fishing whenever possible, one to two times a day. Catching a few hundred to few thousand fish a period. The Port Moller test boat further south has recently tripled its numbers of catches - so hopefully a bunch of salmon will arrive in the river in 5 days or so! Over 150K salmon have already made it up river in Egegik, working towards the 1.4 million escapement goal. Working hard, having fun!
Excited to put the 'ol F/V Northland back in the water. Excited to catch the first beautiful, fresh, sockeye salmon for 2016. Excited to see so many returning customers placing their orders and licking their lips in anticipation for the upcoming harvest.
Kyle and our 2016 (rockstar of course!) crew of Jamie and Jake are putting the final touches on the boat hoping to launch into the river in the next couple days. Fresh paint on the decks, repairs to the fiberglass that was smashed around too hard last year, new buoys for the upcoming smashing around, hanging new nets . . . the list goes on.
So far the 2016 sockeye salmon return to Bristol Bay, AK is just starting. There is a test boat that fishes the southern line of the fishing district and so far they are reporting an index of about 20. (When the fish are REALLY coming in strong later in the season this number rises as high as 200!!). New in Bristol Bay this year is that you have to drop your permit card on your first fishing day. In the past there was a 'Free Week' before you had to commit to a fishing district. What's important about this is there is a 48 hour closure if you decide you want to change from one are to another. 48 hours doesn't sound like a big deal, but in the commercial fishing world missing out on a HOT 48 hour fishing period can really decrease your season's catch.
On the home front, Emily reports that staying at home with a 3.5 and 1.5 year old is probably an equal challenge to commercial fishing! Last year was probably a greater challenge than fishing and it's expected that next year will be easier than fishing. Kyle is still eager for Small Scales Seafood salmon season to be a family fishing venture so he can pass on his fishing bug to his kiddos and not have to be away for so long. We hope to get some good, calm skiff fishing for Alaskan Rockfish and Pacific Cod with Maggie and Ben aboard later in the summer!
Thanks for reading.
After years of requests we've finally made the move from our old blog and old fashioned, handwritten checks mailed via the U.S. Postal Service to a new e-commerce website and the all-convenient, "modern" credit card. We hope our new site is user friendly and continues to tell the story of our small scale family fishing operation. We're open to suggestions and ideas.
You'll see some other changes this year:
In addition to our overnight delivery option, we will again offer Salmon Share pickups in Seattle (and possibly the Methow by request.)
We hope you are all doing well and that you continue to buy and enjoy our Small Scales Seafood Shares again in 2016!
Happy Spring,
Emily, Kyle, Maggie and Ben
We have Salmon Shares available now! Contact us to reserve your Scrumptious Sockeye Salmon. 
It's snowing and cold and snowing here in the Methow Valley!
It's a New Year! We hope your year is a joyful one.
Kyle hauls in halibut long line gear by hand. (This skiff was our first salmon drift boat years ago!)
Rough seas make for hard work and lovely fish.
This year's halibut ready to offload.Fishing has its glamorous moments- glorious sunsets, large schools of salmon hitting your net at once, months of post-fishing down time in a good year, large halibut coming over the rail, doing something you love . . .
It also has the non-glamorous moments:
