Abundance
2012-07-19 19:09:25
:| Huh, I can't seem to get the article to work on my phone. I am going to assume that by Forrester Island, they mean Cape Addington to Cape Muzon. If so, then I was ther, as well as almost the entirety of the professional Alaska troll fleet. I managed to get my personal best summer king day, with well over a hundred kings averaging twenty pounds apiece on opening day, by myself with crippleing hydrolic issues that forced me to go to town that evening and sit out the next few days getting it straightend out. Even missing out on the rest of the season, I have no reason to complain. I worry a bit about the hive mind the fleet seems to be getting. There was a good bite on west PoW last year, so all of the fleet came there this year. We all got lucky that there were kings there again, and I am sure that it will be even more crowded next year. What will happen when the whole fleet comes to west PoW and the fish turn out to be at Cross Sound? And now about two hundred boats are here in Neets Bay fishing chums, most of them in the one mile by one mile Bug Island to Chin Point area. I think winter fishing in Sitka Sound is following similar lines. Obviously I am no different, having joined up with both fleets fishing for last years fish, and I actually approve of the apparently greatly improved communication and willingness to try new things, but it worries me. Some people are betting the farm on this chum fishing thing, and I am not sure that its working out for them this. year. I suapect everything will work out fine, but I remain concerned. We need to have more options if the fleet is going to convert to chum fishermen. I tried Anita Bay, and it was a bust. Maybe somebody has other suggestions.
Kelper
2012-07-19 23:34:04
That is an awesome piece of history.
lone eagle
2012-07-20 00:11:21
"You buy your own boat and fish down there" said the skipper to the deckhand who was bugging him to fish there, a few years ago
Once and Future
2012-07-20 01:15:26
Hey Garrett: By not being able to open the posting, you missed the point. It was kind of a joke, as the article was from 1912.
Abundance
2012-07-22 03:08:25
Heh heh, I guess I was a little to quick on the trigger here. Thanks for letting me in on the joke. I am sorry if I sounded somewhat frantic also. I was trying to express too many ideas in a five minute window where I had cell range. Now I really want to read that article! It sounds fascinating. By the way, Neets Bay is taking care of itself. A hundred boats have already left to kill cohos, and I am going to follow them out myself. This is just the wrong year to be a first time chummer. I will definitely give it another shot though. You dont have to clean them, they are as big as king salmon, the wind never really blows, and the tallest wave I encountered was six inches. Mighty hard to beat. I cant bring myself to fish the ocean again right now. I hope that you are all smacking them.
Abundance
2012-07-29 06:25:39
I just read the article on my laptop at home. what an awesome read! Thank you so much for posting this. I remember in the book "As the Sailor Loves the Sea", by Ballard Hadman, that the Forrester grounds were no longer producing by the twenties. My great, great grandfather was one of those trollers fishing out of there at that time. He had a small gasoline boat. I am rather shocked by the stringent regulations put on the by the federal authorities. Fifteen kings a day, and in a hot bite too. I remember that my great grandfather, who had grown up in that old handtroll fleet, was shocked by aggressiveness of the relatively modern troll fleet. Back in those olden days, people fished for the morning bite, and where back on the beach long before noon. Only the most hardcore went out and tried the evening bite. And of course, no fishing on Sundays. I wonder if they even kept cohos, and what they would have been paid for them. Forester Island is one wild, dangerous place. There is a lot of good stories about the people who used to live out there in Francis Caldwells "The Deadly Triangle".
Coho Guy
2012-08-07 04:12:07
Apologies to anyone who opened this thread hoping for fresh, actionable information. Mark Stopha sent me that link awhile back and I thought it would be fun to post it on the forum on the centennial, under the guise of current information.
Gharret – thanks for the references. Those look like some great reading. It sounds like you have a long family history in the fishery.
While the NY Times article is a bit sensationalized, the Forrester Island fishery was quite a phenomenon. Besides the article, the bit I’ve gleaned has come out of the old Bureau of Fisheries annual reports. Here are a few sections quoted, the first from the 1905 report describing official version of the beginning of the Alaska commercial troll fishery to the exact location and day (January 23, 1905 --- yes, winter fishery proponents will note it started in the winter). It appears that day was most likely the beginning of commercial saltwater trolling on the entire Pacific coast, as the first accounts I’ve seen from southern areas describe fishing in Juan de Fuca beginning in 1908 and off Cape Flattery, out of Neah Bay in 1911, and not until 1912 off the Columbia. A spring fishery for immature coho (bluebacks) in Georgia Strait likely had a few native commercial participants before 1910 but didn’t really take off until the teens as did the west coast of Vancouver Island, and records I am aware of from California start later. Initially, there was a great market shipping kings fresh from Ketchikan to Seattle since little other fresh salmon was available in winter and early spring:
The Commercial Fisheries of Alaska in 1905 by John N. Cobb, Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 603:
“The season of 1905 witnessed the inception of a new branch of the salmon fishery. About the middle of January king salmon were observed in the vicinity of Ketchikan, but it was not until January 23 that the first fish were brought to this place for sale. News of the heavy run of fish having spread very rapidly, there were soon a large number of whites and Indians out in canoes catching them. The fish were feeding on schools of young herring, and as they were close to the reef nets could not be employed, and trolling lines were brought into use. At first herring bait was employed, but it was soon discovered that a nickel trolling spoon would answer the purpose just as well. The vicinity of Point Comano and Point Stewart seemed to be favorite spots for the fish, but they were to be found almost everywhere within a radius of 50 miles of Ketchikan. Several firms in Ketchikan early saw the financial possibilities of the business and soon had out steamers and launches to collect the fish from the fishing boats and bring them to Ketchikan to be packed in ice and shipped to Puget Sound ports. The fish averaged 25 pounds in weight. One weighed 77 pounds and several 75 pounds each. About 25 per cent of the catch consisted of white-meat fish and 75 per cent of red-meat fish. For the former, the fishermen were paid 25 cents each and for the latter 50 cents each. During the run, which lasted until May 18, 271,644 pounds valued at $15,600, were shipped. A considerable quantity was cured by the Indians for their own use also.”
The fishery then leap-frogged amazingly quickly out to Forrester Island as a summer fishery in the next 3 or 4 years, while the product shifted to mild cure for export. For awhile, the Forrester Island fishery got about equivalent ink to the Bristol Bay fishery in the Bureau of Fisheries Reports. Back to 1912:
“Troll fishing for salmon. --- The troll fishing for salmon continues to develop. At various points in southeast Alaska this fishery is now successfully prosecuted for both king and coho salmon. The waters adjacent to Forrester Island are perhaps the most productive. During the past season this fishery attracted a large number of fishermen, who established a camp on the island and carried on the fishing from that point as a base.
Forrester Island, together with Wolf Rock and Lowrie Islands, was set aside as a bird-breeding reserve by Executive order of January 11, 1912, to be under the control of the Department of Agriculture. In 1912 a warden from [Bureau of Biological Survey] was detailed to look after the reservation. He arrived on the ground June 21 and found a considerable body of people located on the island for the purpose of prosecuting the fishery or of profiting from it indirectly. Assisted by the law-abiding element he rapidly brought conditions into shape, enforcing appropriate police regulation to maintain health, decency and good order and to insure equal opportunity and fair dealing for those engaged in the arduous and hazardous work of capturing the fish.
This fishing is carried on by two classes of boats – power boats and rowboats. The former are not favored, since it is thought they are more liable to injure the fish without holding them. Moreover, this is a fishery in which the individual of small means can find his opportunity. All it requires is an ordinary rowboat and troll line. It is essentially and investment of labor instead of capital. It has been recommended that no power boat be permitted to engage in this fishery.
The hours established for operation were from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. By the latter time all boats were required to report and if any were missing, search was made at once for them. This precaution saved several lives, in addition to giving all an equal chance in the profits.
Ten vessels were engaged in transporting the fish to the mild-curing stations. The price paid for king salmon was $1 each for red-meated and 30 cents for white. The highest record made by a single boat was something over 1,800 for the season; the highest yield for a single day’s work by one man was 161 fish. On an average the weather permits fishing to be carried on only about four days a week, and about 15 fish per day is an average catch.
Most of the fishing is done with spoons, but herring bait is sometimes used. The herring so used are mainly taken in the vicinity or in the neighborhood of Howkan with rakes. The salmon are taken in depths of from 3 to 20 fathoms.
Coho and king salmon are the only species so far taken by this method. This is perhaps due to the fact that these species feed on the herring inshore to a greater extent. The smaller species probably feed less on herring and more on smaller species, such as sand lances, and it is quite possible that they feed less in the inside waters. But since the king salmon were not taken in Alaska by hook and line until recent years, it may be that means will later be found to develop a similar fishery for the other species. An excellent field for investigation leading to such results remains open.”(I understand Salty may be a pioneer in the latter --- because in February, he had a room-full of biologists and economists, etc. in Centennial Hall standing and going through the motions of pulling and gaffing chums.)
The Forrester Island venture, along with most of the rapidly developing mild cure salmon trolling industry, fell on hard times in 1914 when it lost its one big market (Germany) with the beginning of WWI. The rowboats were apparently towed out to Forrester annually in big strings behind a packing company vessels from Ketchikan. A friend from Port Protection crossed paths early in his trolling career with an old guy who had worked on the support vessel. The market evaporated so abruptly at the beginning of the European War that the boat apparently never returned to pick up all the hand trollers, who ended up rowing over to POW and pulling their boats across a pass between two inlets to get back to Ketchikan. I had assumed that trolling at Forrester must have resumed to some extent after that, but it was no longer specifically mentioned in the old Bureau reports which continued to cover the spread and development of the overall troll fishery.
From the 1914 report, regarding Forrester Island:
“A total of 457 permits were issued covering fishing operations within the reservation. At one time more than 400 fishermen were engaged. Each fisherman was required to paint his permit number distinctly on his boat, and a limit was placed on the catch. This was made possible through arrangements with the buyers, who fixed the number that would be purchased on the following day, which number was posted on the bulletin board. The prices agreed upon were as follows: Red kings, 20 pounds and over, $1; red kings under 20 pounds, 30 cents; white kings, 20 cents; cohos, 5 cents. An agreement was made with the buyers to the effect that if rowboat operators could furnish enough fish, none would be purchased from the power trollers. Two checkers on the boats operated by the buyers were able to prevent practically all surreptitious disposal of fish by power-boat trollers. No permits were issued this season to power boats, and although a few power boats were present there was practically no trouble this year as compared with previous seasons. The best run of king salmon did not materialize until August. It was too late to be of particular benefit to the fishermen, as about this time the war in Europe put and end to operations. In June most of the natives left Forrester Island to work in near-by canneries.”
You can see why the power boats gave up on Forrester Island and moved to other grounds. By 1914, the report indicates that “the principal trolling grounds are the waters about Forrester Island, Cape Ommaney, Point Lemesurier, Point Caamano, Kashakes point, Craig, Wrangell, and Sunny Bay” plus “various other less important grounds”.
Leading up to the war, the majority of mild-cured kings were sent to Germany, where the filets were soaked slightly and then smoked and sliced. The market was fairly demanding in wanting sides that were at least 6 lbs. each, so smaller fish were discarded! Average weight in Southeast Alaska in 1914 was 22 lbs. and many buyers had a minimum weight limit of 20 lbs.
“Promptly upon commencement of the European war all mild-cure operations ceased, owing to the fact that the industry was financed chiefly by European capital and was dependent almost entirely upon Germany for a market. At the end of the year, practically all mild-cured salmon prepared this season remain unsold and with no immediate prospect of early disposition”.
Even back then, salmon markets were heavily international and they were talking about the need to expand the U.S. market. What’s new?