2018 Silverbright Championships
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| Steve Sr. taking care of business |
“You ready to get your ass kicked again?” She asked. Jamie is not known for her subtleties.
“What do you mean?”, I said. She was over at our place picking up some salmon. We have a setnet operation at the mouth of the Susitna River and we bring all of our fish home and sell them right out of our driveway to locals.
“Battle of the Silverbrights!” She said. Suddenly I understood. Last year I challenged her to a smoked salmon competition. Smoked chum to be specific. I lost. Who knew that she would bust out the ghost peppers to kick-it-up a notch.
Chum salmon are known by many other names; Dogs, Arctic Keta, Calico and my favorite Silverbright. They are huge fish and have lots of oily fat on their belly which, as it turns out is great for smoking.
The majority of our customers are Alaskans who appreciate the resource but are increasingly unexcited about the prospect of driving to the Peninsula to try their hand with hundreds of other anglers or dipnetters. Their other option is waiting for the fish to make it North to local streams where they are sometimes battle hardened and starting to turn blush. For a lot of our customers it's a matter of dollars and cents. They realize that for what it cost to take time off from work, pay for gas and supplies for a weekend of fishing on the Kenai, they are far better off pulling in to our driveway to buy a few beauties from us in prime condition-right out of the ocean.
“Okay, it’s on!” I felt myself becoming excited. The sudden need for redemption overcame me as foolishly exclaimed, “You’re going down this year!”
The next fishing period we only caught six of them and a few of them were already spoken for. I saved the last one and fileted it proper. I put hers on ice in a small cooler out front. The next morning after coffee, I checked the cooler and the big slab of fish was gone. Game on! A smile came over me because I knew that the stage was now set for the 2018 Silverbright Championships.
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This year's offering. I could tell you the recipe but then I would have to kill you....sorry. |
