Sick of Salmon

Dipnetting season is open only for a few weeks and Cannon made it down Monday to try his hand at slaying some fish. They opened commercial fishing on Monday so we didn't know if he'd get anything. After 14 hours in cold ocean waters, he pulled about 30 big, beautiful salmon (and some flounder) and brought 'em home. Dipnetting isn't for the faint of heart--it's ocean fishing in frigid waters with hundreds of folks fishing along side you. It requires using a net attached to a metal frame that is generally 5 feet in diameter and about 10 feet long. You drag the giant net along the bottom of the ocean and wait for the fish to swim in, watching and using the currents to help you catch the fish. With each catch, you gut and de-head the fish on the beach and then go back out. It requires hauling in ice to keep the fish cold and hauling everything out by hand at the end of the day--no small feat if you've had a good day. Some people make it a family fishing trip and spend days, but most folks do suicide runs where they drive down at 4a.m. in the morning and drive back at midnight. Some sleep in their cars (like Cannon did) and others are lucky to find a place to pitch a tent on the beach. Everybody that wants to, finds a way to make their way down, and get as much salmon as possible to stock up for winter. We're only given a window of about 3 weeks to do it. I look forward to doing it next year. It's considered good clean fun up here but it sounds like a lot of work! I'm really impressed that my hubby did the whole trip by himself. What a pro!!

Once Cannon made it home this is what we did:

*Did a dance of joy that he got home safe
*Gave him a hero's welcome as we're guessing he pulled about 30 fish! He did awesome...so awesome that he stopped counting.
*Panicked because we weren't sure how to process that much fish and keep it fresh.
*Argued about whether to buy more ice, whether to buy a vacuum sealer... (I had called around looking to borrow a pressure cooker but everybody else is fishing and processing right now too!)
*Shrugged our shoulders and started filleting. I quickly got intimidated by the filleting so Cannon did that.
*Rinsed fish, cut into steaks and bagged. Sounds quick and simple but it was not simple and it was not quick.
*Argued about how to seal the bags properly. Tried different techniques.
*Realized the bags were too big to seal properly.
*Finally cracked smiles and started laughing about our "greenhorn" inadequacies.
*I ran to the store to get more ice and smaller bags.
*Filleting, chopping, bagging and sealing for 4 more hours. (Sealing consists of adding a little water to each bag of salmon and then sucking all the air out by mouth and spitting the excess water that comes with it. Ick. Yuuuck. Gross!)
*Loaded the freezer with the sealed salmon.
*Did about 130 bags of salmon by the afternoon and were finally done.
*Hoped that our processing was successful. We'll find out in a few months if the salmon is still good.

It was stressful not to be more prepared but we're still novices and we really didn't know what to expect. I was so worried about losing the meat to spoilage after Cannon had worked so hard to harvest it. Next year Cannon will be taking coolers instead of plastic bins and I'll be waiting at the home front with a vacuum sealer, smoker and pressure cooker and several bags of ice.

We were so sick of salmon by the end of the day but today I cooked up a delicious salmon chowder and we are enjoying it very much!

If anybody wants to come up next year and help we'd be willing to pay you in salmon! ; )