Alaska Fishing: Winter Days at the Lodge

Misty Winter Morning
in Saltery Cove

This Christmas season the weather has been just the opposite of last year. We have had little or no snow, and balmy temperatures during the day (all the way up in the mid-40's some days) and clear, crisp nights down into the 20’s. The last few days of December were gorgeous and I couldn't help capturing some images to share with you.

Our floating dock, and that of our next-door neighbor’s, are ecosystem unto themselves. They shelter schools of baitfish, mussels, flowing seaweed, worms, hundreds of small shrimp, crabs, sea cucumbers, several varieties of starfish and many other forms of marine life at the lower end of the food chain.

This living banquet attracts all kinds of critters and today they all showed up, well all except our resident mink population, much to my disappointment. But those guys will probably show up soon for their daily foraging so I'll likely catch them with the camera then. For sure we will hear them at night, squealing and screeching like a bunch of alley cats.

The fish ducks, or sea ducks as they are more commonly called are everywhere, and they come in many shapes and sizes, mostly Mergansers and Goldeneyes and Scoters with a few Buffleheads and the odd Harlequin thrown in.

They paddle around with their heads underwater in search of their prey, and as if on signal, they disappear all at once in a splash and pop up a few seconds later, usually with a small fish wiggling in their mouths.

Where are they? There's fish down there somewhere.

And the seals are also drawn by the action. We have a couple of regulars that hang out around the dock, and at high tide, come within a few feet of the deck on our home.

"The Wierd One" cruising upside down under our deck

The water is so clear we can easily see them chasing the baitfish underwater, zooming and turning and twisting with incredible grace and fluidity.

We have one that we call “The Weird One” that cruises around upside down with just his tummy and his nose and chin above water. In this position he is able to breathe while he scans what is below and ahead of him in the water

One right side up (top) and "The Wierd One" upside down

And of course there is Hank. Hank Heron, that is. Yes, the play on words and reference to the famous ball player is deliberate. It just fits somehow, kinda flows together naturally.

Hank is amazing for his patience. He will stand absolutely motionless for hours on end at the water’s edge or on a log or at the end of the dock. He becomes part of the landscape so you are not even aware that he is there. And as you approach him he will let out a mighty squawk in protest and launch his huge frame into the air scaring the wits out of you!

Hank on our neighbor's dock line.
He will stand there motionless by the hour.

Today he was working the beach. Evidently the baitfish were along the shoreline. I couldn’t see them but Hank could. He would stand in a few inches of water, in his statue-like pose.

Standby......ready....

You could tell when the school of fish were coming within killing range because he would cock his head ever so slightly, and very slowly lower his head, taking aim, then – Bam! He would strike, and invariably come up with a small fish in his sharp beak. He was deadly!

Bam!

Gotcha!

The otters didn’t show up the first day I started shooting pictures. It snowed a bit on December 30th, not much but enough to entice the otter critters to come out and play on the floatplane dock the next day. We watched them coming from all the way across the Cove, in their unmistakable, porpoise-like diving swim, they made a bee-line for the floatplane dock and hauled themselves up on it.

Then the fun started. There was a family of nine altogether, Mom and Pop and seven teenagers, rolling in the snow, running and sliding, and finally all ending up in an “otter ball” piling on top of one another and rolling around in a furry heap of heads and arms and legs and tails in the snow. They were having a blast! Every so often one or two would peel off and dive under the dock, coming up with mussels and other goodies that they sometimes shared with the rest. This went on for a half hour or more. I wished I had a telephoto lens.

So what did we need to top off this perfect scene as the day ended? Why a full moon of course.

What an incredible place we live in, even in winter.