Another Alaska Question.....What do do with the fish?

[Bob__B]

I am in the very early stages of planning an extended Alaska trip and will probably do a lot of fishing. Probably even do a charter trip to catch some halibut, etc.
I could visualize WAY more fish than I can store in the camper freezer.
Was wondering if having it processed and shipped back to someone might be an option.
Maybe consider having some salmon smoked.
Maybe consider canning some fish.

Anybody have experience with this?

[thetroutman4]

I want to vacation with Pigman1!

[Big_Katuna]

You don't really need a pressure cooker to can. A big pot works fine. You can buy a big canning pot at Wally World.

[pigman1]

We use a big Mirro. same one we used to use for canning garden vegetables in quarts.

[Bob__B]

What kind of pressure cooker is that....I only have a small one that wouldn't work for doing a lot of canning..

[pigman1]

Bob B wrote:
Wow, sounds like you really have it down pat.

How do you keep that freezer powered up? Are there any possession limits to worry about driving it back?

Think I'm going to have to learn to can salmon.....does one kind can better than the other?

We run a 110v line from the RV for when we travel. Works fine as we've seen 90 degrees in Ohio coming home. In Alaska, we drop the freezer outside. We carry 2 ramps and a 1 ton come-along to winch it back into the truck when it's full.

Canning is easy. We use Pinks as they are not as good frozen as the others. We fillet and skin. Pack the fish tight in the jar with 1/4 tsp. salt and 10 drops of liquid smoke. !00 minutes in the pressure canner and you're done. We smoke when we get home. The smoker takes up too much room and time. After we smoke we vacuum pack and freeze again. We find all vacuum packed fish will last at least 2 years without a problem.

Possession is an interesting issue. Basically, Alaska says you have a fish in possession when it's dead and still looks like a fish. Frozen or not, makes no difference. Once you fillet it, it's no longer a fish in your possession, so you can have as many as you want as long as you don't sell them. Getting fish through Canada can be another issue. Although many folks don't use it, we fill out a U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE DECLARATION FOR IMPORTATION OR EXPORTATION OF FISH OR WILDLIFE. A search on line for USFWS Form 3-177 will get you a form to fill out. On the way OUT of Alaska stop at US customs and they will sign and stamp the form and make extra copies for you. When you hand your passports to Canadian customs you include a copy of the form and you're home free. Get the form first as they want some particular info as far as number of packages and number of fish of each species and scientific names. Takes about 15 minutes in customs and we've never been questioned in Canada or going back into fhe US.

Have a ball. We've been up in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, and hope to make it next year again.

[Bob__B]

Big Katuna wrote:
I know my FIL had salmon canned at a processing place and traded some of the catch and paid $ too.

That would be kind of sweet....trade some of the fish for the processing and shipping.

[Bob__B]

tonymull wrote:
A. Most hooked salmon will live to spawn... I have seenpretty badly injured fish on the spawning redds with treble hook spoons, net wounds, seal bites, bear gashes, missing fins, eyes, chunks of flesh...and they were still spawning. So don't worry much about that. I catch many many more than I eat so I use hooks with barbs crushed down just to make release a bit easier...besides you will eventually hook yourself 😉

Best way is to take a pressure cooker and can your fish in jars and then ship UPS to someone who won't eat it all before you get back. Use some bubble wrap. You can smoke it yourself up there too and then can it. A Little Chief is not expensive nor very bulky. Or.. freeze hard a whole RV freezer full, pack in a fish box and ship UPS overnight...$25 or so. Don't can Halibut, take my word for it. Gotta freeze them and ship. With sockeye fillets $12/lb at the store and Halibut at $22+/lb. you can afford to pay some shipping, don't you think?? I have never had a problem bringing fish back from BC to WA... If you need to get your fish frozen, ask around, you can usually find somewhere that will freeze and store for a few days or a buck or two per fish. IMHO Pinks are only good eaten the day you catch them. Last time up, last week, I just vaccum packed and froze fillets hard, packed them in my luggage insulated with some bubble wrap and flew from Anchorage to Seattle with 25 lbs of sockeye fillets (about a dozen fish). They were still rock hard.

I have never smoked fish....how long can you keep it after smoking and how do you store it?

[Big_Katuna]

I know my FIL had salmon canned at a processing place and traded some of the catch and paid $ too.

[tonymull]

A. Most hooked salmon will live to spawn... I have seenpretty badly injured fish on the spawning redds with treble hook spoons, net wounds, seal bites, bear gashes, missing fins, eyes, chunks of flesh...and they were still spawning. So don't worry much about that. I catch many many more than I eat so I use hooks with barbs crushed down just to make release a bit easier...besides you will eventually hook yourself 😉

Best way is to take a pressure cooker and can your fish in jars and then ship UPS to someone who won't eat it all before you get back. Use some bubble wrap. You can smoke it yourself up there too and then can it. A Little Chief is not expensive nor very bulky. Or.. freeze hard a whole RV freezer full, pack in a fish box and ship UPS overnight...$25 or so. Don't can Halibut, take my word for it. Gotta freeze them and ship. With sockeye fillets $12/lb at the store and Halibut at $22+/lb. you can afford to pay some shipping, don't you think?? I have never had a problem bringing fish back from BC to WA... If you need to get your fish frozen, ask around, you can usually find somewhere that will freeze and store for a few days or a buck or two per fish. IMHO Pinks are only good eaten the day you catch them. Last time up, last week, I just vaccum packed and froze fillets hard, packed them in my luggage insulated with some bubble wrap and flew from Anchorage to Seattle with 25 lbs of sockeye fillets (about a dozen fish). They were still rock hard.

[martyn8677]

Your charter employees will clean your fish for you and there is always companies right at the Marina that will process: vacuum pack and ship it to you on dry ice, to arrive on your door step the date you tell them to. Giving you plenty of time to get back. It is not inexpensive to do this, but the price per lb is far less than you would pay at your local supermarket for Alaskan Halibut or Salmon. I am still eating on a freezer full from summer of 2012.

[Bob__B]

Super_Dave wrote:
You will pay quite a bit to have it processed, frozen and shipped. I went a few years ago and the processing was paid by the lodge I stayed at. Fed-Exing it home was about $3/lbs. We had 200 lbs of fish between my wife and I so it was a pretty penny just in shipping. However, if you stayed a few days at spots with a processing plant, I'd recommend doing it. Every day they take your fish and vac seal it and put it in a locker with your name on it. When you get ready to leave, you can establish a ship date. For example, if you knew you were going to be home in a week, they would ship on the specified date and you'd be home to receive it and handle it properly.

Yeah, I looked at the web page for one of those processing plants and it looked like it was going to be a pretty expensive proposition by the time you get the fish processed, frozen and shipped.

[Bob__B]

pigman1 wrote:
Don't know what kind of an RV you're taking and this makes a huge difference. We go up every second year. We start fishing King salmon in the rivers on early runs, then down to Valdez for shrimp and later Pink salmon. We can the Pinks in 1/2 pt jars on site and quit when we have 12 cases (144 jars). Then off to Nanilchik for 2 or 3 halibut charters in Cook inlet. Whenever the Sockeye hit the streams around Copper Center we're there for a week or 10 days and then back to Valdez around 10-15 Aug for the Silver (Coho) run. We started shipping 70 lb boxes home 2nd day Fedex, but that's expensive when you add freezing, the boxes and shipping and you need someone home to accept it. We smoke what we need when we get home.

We now take a 17 cu ft chest freezer in the back of our pickup. We fill it completely and it takes 2 years to eat it, but FABULOUS. We vacuum pack within 2 hours of hitting the dock and freeze within 3. FRESH FRESH FRESH. We run a 14' Sea Eagle inflatable with a 20HP Yamaha. We also have a trailer (properly licensed for road use) in the basement of the RV. Are we anal about fishing? Yeah, probably, but we love it. Heaven before we die. No waiting.

Wow, sounds like you really have it down pat.

How do you keep that freezer powered up? Are there any possession limits to worry about driving it back?

Think I'm going to have to learn to can salmon.....does one kind can better than the other?

[Bob__B]

Dick_B wrote:
How about taking photos and releasing what you can't eat?

I've heard that 75-80% of caught salmon don't make it when released. Better to eat something that just turn it loose to die.

[pigman1]

Don't know what kind of an RV you're taking and this makes a huge difference. We go up every second year. We start fishing King salmon in the rivers on early runs, then down to Valdez for shrimp and later Pink salmon. We can the Pinks in 1/2 pt jars on site and quit when we have 12 cases (144 jars). Then off to Nanilchik for 2 or 3 halibut charters in Cook inlet. Whenever the Sockeye hit the streams around Copper Center we're there for a week or 10 days and then back to Valdez around 10-15 Aug for the Silver (Coho) run. We started shipping 70 lb boxes home 2nd day Fedex, but that's expensive when you add freezing, the boxes and shipping and you need someone home to accept it. We smoke what we need when we get home.

We now take a 17 cu ft chest freezer in the back of our pickup. We fill it completely and it takes 2 years to eat it, but FABULOUS. We vacuum pack within 2 hours of hitting the dock and freeze within 3. FRESH FRESH FRESH. We run a 14' Sea Eagle inflatable with a 20HP Yamaha. We also have a trailer (properly licensed for road use) in the basement of the RV. Are we anal about fishing? Yeah, probably, but we love it. Heaven before we die. No waiting.

[Dick_B]

How about taking photos and releasing what you can't eat?