Let the Adventure Begin!

As soon as our work week was over, we decided it was time to let loose, Napaaqtugmiut Style. We went a little ways up-river with John and Lori (two other teachers) to fish. It was unbelievable. The fish were surfacing like dolphins and you could see them swimming past in a continuous school. It was almost like they were teasing us. About an hour after we began fishing, we heard a gun shot. They had tried to get a bear that was coming close to the village, but just ended up scaring it off. They have had quite a problem with bears lately--there are so many and they are beginning to come closer into the village.

Lori pulled in a fish a right away and had bites all night. I was next to pull one in before Brett hooked one. John was skunked all night, Lori and Brett ended up with their one, and I ended up with six. We cleaned the fish at the river and Brett taught both Lori and I how to filet a fish! It was such a beautiful evening--we were out in our T-shirts!

Lori with her fish.

Me with the first fish I caught.

Learning how to filet. . . I was so proud!

Then today, Saturday, Velma (Kindergarden Teacher) and her husband Larry took us down river on their boat. We rode about 30 minutes downstream and set a net right away. We sat around and chatted for a while, until we could see the net floats bobbing from the fish. We pulled the net in and had about 10 fish. After we untangled them Brett and I were admiring the stack of fish and Larry said, "This ain't nothing yet." We cleaned those fish and hung them on the fish rack while we set another net across the river.

Setting the net: first on land.

Setting the net: then the river end.

Un-tangling the fish.

"This ain't nuthin' yet."

When we got back, we made a fire and grilled some of the fish that we caught for lunch. They also served potatoes, veggies, beluga whale, and fish heads. Brett ate the fish head and really liked it, so I guess we're going to try to make it for dinner one night. You just eat the meat off and the cartilage, then the eyes if you choose. Then, we went back to retrieve our other net. It was SO HEAVY pulling it in--for good reason, we caught 25 fish in the net. Many were quite large and they had themselves all tangled. They told us that Chum are the only ones that get tangled, because when they hit the net they try to turn around. The other salmon just try to keep swimming through.

At cleaning time, we decided to try our hand at fileting the fish. First, when the fish are on the rope, Velma cuts the throats, so they can bleed out and won't be so bloody when your trying to cut them up. Then, she scrapes the sand and slime off with her ulu. She uses the ulu to cut all the meat off, but leaves the tails on so she can hang it on the drying rack. We tried it her way and it was fun! We even learned how to cut all the bones out! I feel kind of empowered learning all this new stuff :)

On the way down, we saw a moose with a calf. Larry has a moose tag to use right now, but he has a blood clot in his eye, so he can't see well. He told Brett that Brett would have to shoot it if we got close enough, and that it was legal. By the time we turned around, the moose had gone into the willows, so we didn't get to test Brett's shot.

After these two crazy days of fishing, our freezer is officially FULL of fish.