You may have read HERE that Patagonia is releasing Patagonia Provisions, a "naturally perfect food." It has arrived and is available online and in these stores:
New York Soho
Chicago Lincoln Park
Boston
Seattle
Portland
Ventura
Atlanta
For $12.50 you get salmon that is "healthy, delicious, and sustainably harvested from the clean, cold waters of Northern British Columbia."
For hundreds of years the ability to use and continue to use has been the motive behind conservation. Hunters, anglers (who until recently killed what they caught), farmers, ranchers, even loggers concerned themselves with their resources, their interests, their livelihoods. Today it's rare to see an environmental organization, such as the Sierra Club, ally with Ducks Unlimited, or Colorado Cattleman's Association, but now and then it does happen. (TU is more of a "green group" when it comes to use.) Green groups , NRDC, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, have their ideological anchor fast in the rocks of righteousness - I mean no harm, however, time and again it would behoove those groups to partner with Pheasants Unlimited to help save the Greater Sage Grouse from being listed as Endangered, or to back the RESTORE Act and give millions of dollars to rehabilitating gulf estuaries and coastlines (despite 35% going to 5 shitty Governors who hate clean water). It's great that they throw their weight behind national causes such as Keystone XL, Pebble Mine, National Monuments, student activism, but teamwork, even in compromise, lightens the load.
These middle-ground platforms are not unheard of in conservation; they've been around for decades. Conservation was a republican ideal, Theodore Roosevelt, designator of the Grand Canyon, hunted around the world, Ducks Unlimited actually likes ducks, and now Patagonia has established another middle-ground, use-based platform this time for salmon production. As they've done with clothing, they hope to take a big enough share of the market, by selling to smart and caring consumers, to pressure other manufacturers to adopt some of their ideals and practices. This is conservation based in use.
Sockeye fever is simple. People want to fill the freezer, and with a limit of 3 fish per day it can happen quickly. It means 3 am mornings, standing thigh deep in glacial melt swinging ounces of led and a snagging hook with an 8wt for hours on end.
Regulations say you can't use a bare hook but it wouldn't matter for catching them
A good wide gap and short shank make for great hooking and holding power
Pound for pound sockeye (red) salmon are the hardest fighting fish out there. The first run salmon average about 8 lbs and we use 25 lb mono to construct a 9' leader. With the drag cranked these guys still peel line.
I put this one through my finger
The pliers come in handy for removing hooks (from fingers)
and the scissors I use to bleed the salmon before knocking them
The second run of reds started in just the last 2 or 3 days. By now there are over 700,000 salmon in the Kenai River and working their way to its headwaters. The Kenai River automated fish count reports can be heard at (907) 262-9097. The fish in this run average 14 pounds or so and put everything into the fight.
This is sockeye fishing at it's worst. Combat, shoulder to shoulder,
what ever you call it I prefer trout
These salmon run the gauntlet as they battle upstream to their spawning grounds
There are places where the crowds dissipate and fish still hold. They way to access these little places is by hiking a little or using a drift boat to get to gravel bars along the Kenai. There are a dozen ways to prepare salmon, from the grill, smoker, canner, hung dried, cold smoked, etc. They are all delicious.
The pay-off is a smoker full of fresh salmon.
The second run of King Salmon is in hard as well. About 1,000 to 1,500 kings enter the Kenai every day now.
For $12.50 you get salmon that is "healthy, delicious, and sustainably harvested from the clean, cold waters of Northern British Columbia."
