A Day in Bristol Bay

Boat mornings are not too different from a morning in central Pennsylvania or Jackson Hole. There’s the slow rise of the sun, the hot coffee, greetings from nearby friends or family. But, on the boat in the middle of Bristol Bay, there’s something else...a little something else that makes the summer feel special.  On Bristol Bay mornings, there’s engine room checks, tide-table readings, radio listening then there’s the coffee and oatmeal. Very quickly afterwards, the stillness of morning is replaced by hydraulic motors, lapping tides, chatting crew, radio talk and the swishy sound of salmon landing in the boat’s refrigerated seawater bins. Somewhere between that quiet time and the action of a fishing set, there comes an indescribable moment. It’s not far from that feeling of waking up disoriented, in a place you don’t recognize. In that moment, the understanding that you are one of the lucky few who gets to call this work, or July, or livelihood appears. It’s the space in the day when you realize you are witness to the astonishing phenomenon of one of the world’s last wild food sources, one that is becoming more and more unique.  This is why when we spend so much of our year talking about the just six or seven weeks that we spend on the water. There’s just something about it, and we welcome you to be apart of it by enjoying the gift of salmon that this work provides.  Reserve your share of 2019 salmon today: prideofbristolbay.com.