Big Catch Alaska: Sheefish, Caribou, good company!!!

Down the Noatak river to the town of Kotzebue!!! So as I promised i would give an update about Shanna and I's trip to Kotzebue. So this all started by me and Shanna meeting up on the plane as i rode in on flight 152 and she hopped on in Nome. So we got there Friday and got a nice tour of Kotz and everyone knows that you can't go to Kotz without experiencing Empress so we ate dinner was it ever delicious!!!! So we didn't go out fishing till Saturday, it was a nice morning and got to open my eyes to the delicious smell of Bacon and sourdough pancakes!! Mmmm Shanna is getting the whole pancake thing down!!! So we all hopped on our snowmachines and made our trek out to the sound of Kotzebue and boy was it cold!!! We fished off of lockheart point and had to make some holes and

My cuz Chad and I making holes, as you could see our cool dude snowmachines in the back!!

right when we put our hooks in Bam!! Immediately we caught fish!!! But um wrong kind of fish as we got bullhead, tomcods and smelts. I couldn't believe that the smelts were biting that big of hooks. So no luck there so we wandered around looking for people to get a fishing report. Since if there are people in one spot then that probably means that there are fish there. So we tried Pipe spit which had no luck close to the spit. Luckily Ellen and I forgot his name stopped by and tried fishing a little farther out. As we were sitting there we could see that they had caught one so we decided to move out there.

Me and Chad trying our luck at these holes :)

Only one problem, Chad's backup snowmachine wouldn't start :( so Chad volunteered to stay and try and start it while Shanna and I went out an tried our luck out there. Not long after making some holes, we decided it was time to change our lures and Shanna took the best one a silver/orange Krocidile....and who bought it? yes me but i let her use it because that's what you do when you love someone. So Shanna brings her new lure and decides to try another hole, while the guy next to me has already pulled up 4 i start to get disappointed :) and just when i am thinking there are no fish in the sea. Shanna PULLS one up!! She starts yelling and saying I got one I got one!!! I run over there and she pulls it up and its a nice size sheefish and she is ever so elated. I sit there smiling happy as a parent would be but I'm really not her parent but still overjoyed she got one.

Shanna and her first sheefish!!

So since Shanna caught one all our moods were up and Chad showed up and we decided get down to business and next thing you know we are catching sheefish like Michael Jordan wins titles!! Were catching them like native people like pop....were catching them like cops catch robbers :) OK you get the point but we stayed out there for the rest of the day and caught 18 or so sheefish which was definitely one of the funnest times i had fishing. This was my first time sheefishing since i was a little kid and it definitely brings back memory's. (pause) (holding back tears) . So the real work was just about to begin. We had to cut up all the fish so some we made in to steaks and the others we filleted. I tried my cool hand luke on it and i grasped the steaks no problem but had a few problems with the filleting them. So the rest of the night we spent packaging them. Let me tell you its a lot of work!!!

Me with my first sheefish in a billion years!

Shanna posing with some her catch :)

Chad fishing in style!!!

Ellen from Noatak transplanted to Kotz and works for Bering air as she is just pulling her fish out of the hole. As you could see its definitely an action shot as i had alot of fun taking pictures and watching peoples faces as they got excited that they got the familiar tug on there line. When your sitting there your jigging and the next thing you know you get a big tug and you start pulling the line up. Its one of the funnest things to do!!! I can't wait till next year!!

Alright so that was Sheefish day, the next day was Easter so we got off to a late start. But it was totally worth it. Chad and I woke up to look for our Easter egg bowls that Shanna hid for us and boy they sure were yummy alright. We had church and sat behind the peacocks and Kanae's kids :) but after church they had a delicious brunch that was oh so filling. So afterwards we went up the mighty Noatak river to try our hand at caribou.....BTW during sheefish day i tried to catch some caribou but had no luck as i missed. So hoping for better caribou fortunes we went out on the flats. So we went out and the wind was rocking and the weather well below -10 we spotted the caribou, and unlike the day before it was much harder for them run in the deep snow. So our ever so famous hunter Chad and us caught up to them and selected a nice young bull and caught it. When we got closer we noticed that it had a caribou tracking collar so that was interesting. During the fall time ADF&G captures caribou and put tracking collars on them. So the real work was about to begin as it was windy and cold. When your cutting in the winter time its always nice to put your hand in the skin or the blood to warm your hands up. So it was Shanna's first time hunting caribou and to skin and i have to say she did a Fabulous job!!! It took us little under an hour to cut up. By this time our hands were frozen and we made the long trek back. As we got back we started right away to cut up the caribou in to steaks, roasts, and soup. Lots of work again. We also brought back the heart, liver and tongue!!! Hmmm the heart is one of the best parts of caribou and it was Shanna's first time trying them out. Not sure if she liked them as me and Chad....my lips were so happy to have heart, i am sure Chads was just as well. I would like to thank Chad Sheldon for our expedition and putting up with us. Mainly me, and i am glad that Shanna got to experience all the fishing and hunting up north style. Until next time, which will probably be tomorrow as i have some cool pictures of my trip to kivils.