No fish, but many tales

Before taking our cruise of the Inside Passage of Alaska, my husband announced he wanted to go salmon fishing. He researched salmon fishing. He dreamed of catching a 50-pound salmon. He insisted I go along and observe the wildlife.
The guide at Skagway told my husband and the other fishermen they could dip their poles up and down or just let the lines hang. He pointed out the life jackets, then turned his boat toward his favorite fishing holes, checked the fish finder and chatted on the radio with other fishing guides about the day’s fishing. He heard only dismal reports … no one had had even a nibble.
While we waited on the fish, the guide said that when he moved to Alaska 17 years ago he knew a lot about fishing. Since then he found that fish finders fail to find fish, favorite fishing holes dry up and yesterday’s favorite bait is snubbed today.
“There’s only one thing I know for certain about fishing: to catch fish you have to have a line in the water,” he concluded.
If the fish would not bite, he would give us a wild life tour, “See that white spot above the pine trees? That’s an eagle.”
I grabbed binoculars and saw my first bald-headed eagle in a nest.
“When eagles spot a salmon near the surface of the water, they dive down, grab it out of the water and take it ashore to eat. Sometimes they overestimate the size of the salmon and get their talons into an extra large fish,” the guide said. “When I first started fishing, I saw an eagle sort of swimming with its wings and thought it was hurt. I went over to help it out. As I came close, it flew away. I looked down and saw a bleeding fish and realized, ‘shoot, I just made that eagle lose its meal.’”
With that lesson learned, when he saw an eagle skimming across the water during a wild life tour, he explained the situation to his guests, “Let’s follow it and see what it does.”
For the next half hour, they cruised quietly behind the eagle, watching it skim over the water with its wings until it hauled the salmon to shore to eat.
He directed our attention to a mountain goat on a cliff. “The eagles like to grab a kid for a meal, but the biggest enemy to mountain goats is gravity. Most mountain goats die because they lose their balance and fall down the mountain.”
Still no fish. The guide talked about the importance of the cruise ships to the livelihood of port villages such as Skagway with its 800 residents, or the 14,000 in Ketchikan.
Early in May, the town celebrates the arrival of the first cruise ship carrying 2,000-plus tourists who disembark looking for adventure, food and entertainment. At the height of the cruise season, up to four cruise ships may come to port each day. The ships stay for hours so guests can ride the WP&YR train into the mountains.
Skagway, Ketchikan and Juneau have tour guides offering transportation to the glaciers, bus rides to watch Indians perform traditional dances, lumberjack shows with races and demonstrations of skills needed in the forest, panning for gold, fishing, visiting historical sites from the gold rush days or wildlife tours.
Still no fish. He began talking about the high school that graduated five students last year. During the long layovers, the ship’s international crew members use the high school’s soccer field. In return, the cruise lines maintain a top notch soccer field for the school.
With such a small school, it’s easy to see why the annual school prom involves all the high school students. The cruise ship lines sponsor the prom, inviting the students to an evening of on-board opulence.
The community welcomes the cruise ships and the accompanying tourist dollars. The guide regaled us with tourist stories such as asking a guide to make the moose, bear or eagles “move so we can get a better picture.” He told of seeing tourists leave their vehicle to pose for a picture with a wild bear roaming the area. Knowing the unpredictability of wild animals, he stayed in his truck.
College students and retirees come to Skagway to fill the need for summer workers. They earn $15 an hour, but housing is so limited that many live in a tent at a simple campsite that costs them $600 a month. After a hotly contested vote three years ago, summer workers can now maintain contact with their families via their cell phones.
“I was one that voted against it,” the fishing guide admitted as he pulled out his cell phone.
At the close of September, the last cruise ship leaves and the folks of Skagway close their shops and hold a big party before winter descends.
The guide said he was caught out on the water during one winter storm. He found shelter with an old miner living in a cabin near the water. The guide heard all of the old miner’s stories every day for the five days of the storm.
The fishing trip ended. The men reeled in their empty lines and gathered up their coats. They caught no fish that morning, but we definitely caught a glimpse of life in a port on the cruise schedule.


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