Herring

With spring comes spawning herring, and today finally felt like spring. After work, Scott, Kevin and I went in search of herring, and we found some. Scott used his professional castnetting skills to round up several hundred herring right off Wrangell Island, a few miles from town.


The load of herring that he brought up right after this video was taken was the last one we needed. The castnet for that haul alone had hundreds of herring, and afterward, we had two buckets full.


While castnetting for herring, Scott also managed to gather some spawn-on-kelp, also known as eggs-on-kelp or roe-on-kelp. We each had a few bites of this salty, crunchy seafood. In Japanese culture (as I learned while doing a radio report on the fishery), spawn-on-kelp is a delicacy eaten during the New Year. The Alaska Natives around Wrangell often eat branches that are covered with herring eggs.


After all the hard work was done, we enjoyed our first official trolling of the season. We trolled mainly to have a reason to stay out on the water longer. Catching herring had been the main goal.


We salted all the herring, put them into Ziplocks, and stored them in the freezer. They’ll be used as bait for the rest of the spring and throughout the summer. It’s with one of these herring that I’ll catch my derby winning fish.