(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)
Although there is no black bear hunting season in Alaska (they are considered a pest species), my husband and his friends tend to hunt them around Memorial Day. The idea is that the bears have shed 1/3 of their body weight in hibernation, so they are lean and hungry. People who ask, "Aren't they greasy and gamey?" may be thinking of fall bear, since during the summer, bears prefer to eat fish, which imparts a flavor, and are consuming 20,000 calories a day to fatten themselves up for warmth and calories during hibernation.
I enjoy target shooting, but have never hunted myself, just baited a bear stand. So the following description is a wife's version of a husband's hunting experience.
The neighbors who own a seasonal hunting/fishing cabin fly in a group of Anchoragians for a long weekend of hunting. During the week before the hunting weekend, Bryan and the hosts bait several hunting stations. The rule is that these locations have to be at least one mile from any habitation (which isn't hard to do in Alaska) and, since bears tend to be solitary and roam over large areas, the stations are about a mile from each other, too.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Fishing
(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)
Most people who visit Alaska, whether by cruise or car or plane, will save some time for fishing and many will have their catches flash frozen and shipped back home for a future barbeque with a tale and a tail or two.
Fishing looms large in Alaskan history, whether commercial, subsistence, or pleasure, and it is a big issue today, too. An entire section in the Anchorage Daily News (and other papers) is devoted to it. Seattle business interests are often derided in the news for rapacious use of the state's natural resources. Every sporting goods store posts pictures and comments about recent catches by shoppers. Anchorage businessmen pull on waders and take a lunch break at Ship's Creek downtown when the salmon run. Even I, of all people, subscribe to the fish and game automatic emails about updated fishing regulations for my part of Alaska, and have written both those administrators and the Alaska Daily News fishing editor with comments and questions (and they promptly wrote back.)
Every Alaskan has lots of outdoor, seasonal "grown up toys" and the summer ones relate to fishing. I've seen garages larger than houses. In 2010 or 11, more than 100,000 (adult) fishing licenses were issued to Alaskans (out of a total population, kids included, of 700,000). Friends spend time and a lot of money on boats, shrimp pots, rods and reels and lures for every fish in the sea. The real afficianados build separate kitchens for canning, smoking, wrapping, freezing, storing, packaging, and labeling the fish they catch. Families preserve locations of fish wheels and fish camps for generations. Many city-dwellers engage in what is called "combat fishing" on road accessible rivers on the first day of fishing season. Every household has its own special recipes for the most delicious piscatory concoctions I have ever eaten.
Most people who visit Alaska, whether by cruise or car or plane, will save some time for fishing and many will have their catches flash frozen and shipped back home for a future barbeque with a tale and a tail or two.
Fishing looms large in Alaskan history, whether commercial, subsistence, or pleasure, and it is a big issue today, too. An entire section in the Anchorage Daily News (and other papers) is devoted to it. Seattle business interests are often derided in the news for rapacious use of the state's natural resources. Every sporting goods store posts pictures and comments about recent catches by shoppers. Anchorage businessmen pull on waders and take a lunch break at Ship's Creek downtown when the salmon run. Even I, of all people, subscribe to the fish and game automatic emails about updated fishing regulations for my part of Alaska, and have written both those administrators and the Alaska Daily News fishing editor with comments and questions (and they promptly wrote back.)
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| A rockfish caught in Prince William Sound | <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> |
Every Alaskan has lots of outdoor, seasonal "grown up toys" and the summer ones relate to fishing. I've seen garages larger than houses. In 2010 or 11, more than 100,000 (adult) fishing licenses were issued to Alaskans (out of a total population, kids included, of 700,000). Friends spend time and a lot of money on boats, shrimp pots, rods and reels and lures for every fish in the sea. The real afficianados build separate kitchens for canning, smoking, wrapping, freezing, storing, packaging, and labeling the fish they catch. Families preserve locations of fish wheels and fish camps for generations. Many city-dwellers engage in what is called "combat fishing" on road accessible rivers on the first day of fishing season. Every household has its own special recipes for the most delicious piscatory concoctions I have ever eaten.
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