Puget Sound Fall Season Update

The first couple weeks of the season have a been a success, with the farmers markets very busy and fishing getting enough to the fresh markets with some for fresh smoking and freezing also.

Jonah and Ben getting ready for the evening light change in Puget Sound.

Pete sets the net on F/V Njord.

Pete picks the first fish of the night in Puget Sound.

Fresh Keta ready to be cleaned and chilled to 30 degrees in the Njord refrigerated seawater hold.

Dylan cleaning fish and sorting Keta salmon roe on the Njord.

We have another opening this Wednesday, with fresh for the weekend markets. We may get an extension for a week or two, or this may be the end of the fall season for this year.

When fresh season ends, you can still find us at our three year round markets: West Seattle, University District and Ballard. We’ve recently had some great posts by our customers at the University District Farmers Market, Mixed Greens Blog and Sustainable Eats.

In addition to the farmers markets, you can also buy directly this weekend from F/V Njord, 10am-5pm Saturday/Sunday at the West Wall at Fishermen’s Terminal. If you haven’t visited us at the terminal before, take a left when you enter, and we are at the first stretch of water that you will see on the right-hand side.

Puget Sound fall fishing starts this Sunday!

Mid-October has come around rather quick, and the boats are gearing up to go out Sunday to participate in the fall fishing season in Puget Sound. Our first opening is Sunday from 5pm to 9am in Area 10, which is the body of water right around Seattle. It’s a relatively quick season in relation to the summer, and usually lasts about a month.

During the fall season, we harvest Keta, or Chum salmon. While some people have a negative stigma towards this species of salmon, we make believers out of people every year who are willing to try something new. 99% of the stigma is word-of-mouth from people who have caught these fish in the rivers, after their flesh has lost its resiliency and color. When the fish are still bright they truly are a different animal. In fact, many of our regulars who have sworn they only eat Sockeye and King now buy our frozen Keta as a result of trying these fish fresh in the fall!

The first fresh salmon of the fall will be available for the last Columbia City market next Wednesday from 3-7PM, and we should have fish for the weekend markets through the end of October and into the first couple weeks in November. Pete is planning on mainly fishing the area 10 openings, which are twice a week, while Jonah may run up to Possession Sound and fish 4-5 days per week, depending on how the fishing is going. I’ll keep you updated as we start fishing.

Glacier National Park

Since we are in between the summer and fall fishing seasons right now, we took the chance to get away for a week to do a 5 day, 55 mile backpack in Glacier National Park. It’s nice to escape the cell phone and computer when we can.

We took all kinds of smoked salmon, jerky, and fillets for the trip.

A tail piece of smoked king.

I tend to take a bunch of tail pieces with me whenever I go backpacking. The tails are boneless, and are easier to break up in the package, which helps everything from getting too greasy.

the same piece of fish chunked up in the package.

And then dump the whole thing into pasta..

Gourmet backpacker food: pasta, sauteed onions, goat cheese and smoked salmon!

We only saw a handful of people over the course of 5 days, and were inundated with the beautiful views.

The beautiful view from Swiftcurrent pass.

We have the Puget Sound Keta season starting in the next week or two, so be on the lookout for an update on that soon.