May trip to Sitka – Derby Fishing

If you like to eat or catch fish, Sitka is definitely a place to visit. The Sitka king salmon derby takes place over 5 days and 2 weekends in the spring (end of May this year) and many boats and fishermen prepare their gear weeks in advance for the first morning’s launch. Some boats make a 2-3 day camping trip of each weekend while others launch and return each day.
I joined Thomas, another dentist and Ole, and avid sport fisherman from Juneau for the first weekend of the Derby. We left for the dock early in the morning to catch the early tide leaving between 4:30 and 6 am each of Sat, Sun, and Mon. The long days on the water were rewarded with fresh grilled king for dinner – there’s nothing like it, especially grilled on a cedar plank!
After three days of time on the water with one skunk day, leaving after sunrise between 4:30 and 6am, Thomas and Ole managed to land 43.3 and 39.9 lb king salmon – good for 4th and 5th place overall in the derby.

Thomas and his 43.3 lb king salmon

Ole with 39.9 lb king

The biggest king I caught

One of many sea otters hanging out

Hiking for a view

During my visit in March, a fellow dentist and hygienist and myself hiked one of the mountains adjacent to town. With the long days of sunlight, we could easily have left after work on a weekday, but we settled for a weekend picnic lunch trip.

During the ~2 hr. hike up to the top, I remember thinking of a Kathmandu friend’s comment of Alaska: “the air is so clean here, I’m having trouble breathing.” Verstovia Mtn. is ~2500-3000 feet high, a mere molehill compared to the Himalayan range, but the trail through the rainforest of old-growth evergreens was none the less steep. The views from the top were still spectacular.

Kristi and me at Verstovia summit

Looking east - the mountains behind Sitka

Welcome to Sitka!

When the plane touched down in Sitka back in mid-March of this year, locals on board cheered with the successful landing. They explained the flight was unusually bumpy, and the runway is rather short. Unfamiliar with the standard Sitka, AK flight, the turbulence seemed par for the course on a small Nepali plane descending to a high altitude runway. I picked up my bags and called a taxi.
It was a slow day, and my cab driver just moved back to Sitka, so he gave me a tour around town and practiced his previously rehearsed tour guide speech. Snow and slush remained on the roads from a heavy snowstorm the previous week.

The little fishing town of 8500 seemed anything but little with herring season just beginning. Dozens of fishing vessels were rushing out towards the volcano for the first rounds of combat fishing / seine fishing for herring. The yearly spawning of the herring turns the sea waters near shore a caribbean blue that I cold see when descending on the plane. The weather was the usual – fickle with snow, hail, freezing rain, sunshine all in a matter of hours, then melting and repeating the following day.

Looking down at Sitka from Verstovia Mtn.

Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital - my place of work