Our final day of fishing found us looking to try something a little different in the morning, rather than go again to the Situk River we decided to start out by heading over to Kardy Lake to further explore that area. We got into a couple of silver salmon but found large groups of pinks, so we kept ourselves entertained with those. I ended up catching a Sole (not exactly sure the species, check out the picture of it below), and caught a large crab that I could see crawling around in the rocks near my feet. It was amazing to see the area spring to life a bit as the tide came in.
So that's it... 7 days of adventure in America's last great frontier. It was amazing and I'm already planning my return within the next couple years. In total, we came home with 785 pounds of salmon and split it between the 12 guys that went, I negotiated a larger portion and have 150 pounds in my freezer. Since I've been home we've shared with many friends and neighbors and tried a couple of simple salmon dinners. For a Sunday dinner I cooked a couple fillets in the cast iron skillet with some olive oil and just some salt & pepper, it was simple and easy and delicious.
I also made what my kids have ended up calling "salmon bacon"... I started by slicing several salmon fillets into thin strips and then put them into a dry brine of 4 cups brown sugar and 1 cup salt for overnight. Then in the morning I took the strips and put them on the smoker for a couple hours. Following the smoker I put them in the dehydrator for several hours until the strips were dry. Needless to say... they didn't last long as the kids were constantly asking for another piece of "salmon bacon".
As we prepare and cook all this salmon I'll be sure to post our favorite recipes. Thanks for following along on this great adventure!
