Yeah the kings are great here, but everybody downriver from us always tell us that our fish are not any good but even the chum salmon for the first 2 weeks of July are good for human consumption

Here is a burbot trap we use down river on the lower Yukon.



That King in your picture swam past my house and I dont recognize it now.

Here is what they look like when they are fresh from the ocean.

Those fish, are they your groceries only or do you sell or trade some?

All are caught for food. Most of it is given to elders or people who can’t fish. Since they are caught for subsistence we don’t sell any. Thanks for asking

Kinda dark alright! The salmon that is. When we are allowed to fish I catch salmon near Ruby. Like those oily ones for strips. Does your family make strips? Sounds like we won't be fishing this summer either!

Yeah we make strips then smoke them. The strips that sped the shortest time in the smoke cache get jarred. Some stay in until they are dry enough to bag up. We also make a fillet style smoke cut we call half-dry. Do you do any jarring?

great post guys , thanks

Thanks for great photos and info. But the very best part of your posts is still your intriguing "handle!" Now THAT is impressive and creative!!!!!

Pete

Thanks for the encouragement it’s much appreciated.

Back when we were able to fish for kings we would smoke them in strips for a few days and then jar them. After we jarred them we would pack them in 55 gallon barrels for use over the winter on the trapline, I suspect those days are over.

Sure love those burbot!! At least we still have plenty of those!!

Oh man just a couple out of the pile of jars would hit the spot right now. I wish fish and game would accept that it’s not subsistence fisherman affecting our salmon runs. I have a commercial fisherman buddy from down by Cordova that told me 14 years ago that there is no way small time subsistence has any effect when widespread commercial fishing remove fish from where they grow. 14 years later and crazy regulations(on us not the commercial fishing industry) and the salmon numbers are bottoming out. They say there are no fish but everybody I know that has fished has caught a good number of “by-catch”

We'll be targeting whitefish, sheefish, pike and grayling, it's not king salmon but it's still good eating and I want my kids to keep learning those ways. Most people just quit when they couldn't fish for kings anymore.

Yeah we have some nets that work on the smaller fish. Even when I was a kid we would go set for whitefish, sheefish, and pike. I wish more of our people would just go fish and be out on the river with their families. Yeah I’ve seen it too where it’s kings or nothing, it’s really sad. We usually put away a good number of grayling every fall as well.

That’s an awesome fish. I need to remember to order a new fish scale to weigh our catches.

I can sucker's here smoke and caned use to do smelt but they don't come up rivers anymore

Ah man that’s to bad. I know some waters are warming up and some fish can’t handle it. That’s what we’re being told about the Yukon river. I have never canned before just jarred. But I’ve heard as long as you eat what you can in a timely manner they both work fine

Wow,i rarely come on here anymore due to lack of time but what a GREAT post! Thanks so much for sharing!!!! I know nothing of this topic so all of you please keep posting PLEASE!!!!! EnigmaticGwichin welcome and MORE!!! Mahsi!

jarred is what we call canned here [ pressure canned]

Ah ok thank you sir. I guess I remember people around my village talk about actual canning cans back in the day.