March 2024
Issue 75
Springing Into Action
Spring is here. Are you ready to get out and fish?
Before heading out on your next fishing adventure, be sure you have your 2024 sport fishing license and king stamp. Visit our online store if you need to purchase one. Or download the ADF&G mobile app and you can store your licenses, tags and permits in your mobile device.
If you or someone you know is looking for an exciting employment opportunity, ADF&G is hiring. You’ll find articles with information and resources below.
We’ll see you on the water.
Summer Job Opportunities with ADF&G in Southeast Alaska
By Southeast Alaska Staff
Do you want to work outside this summer? Are you an avid sport angler? Are you passionate about Alaska’s fisheries resources? If so, you may be interested in a summer job working with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).
Each year ADF&G Division of Sport Fish hires more than one hundred seasonal fish and wildlife technicians across the state for a large variety of projects. You may find yourself working on a salmon weir in a remote location, snorkeling down a stream to count steelhead or working indoors to process samples and analyze data. In any capacity you’ll be contributing to Alaska’s fisheries management.
How do you find these jobs? The best way to find employment opportunities is by searching online at Workplace Alaska. On this website you will find a variety of jobs that the State of Alaska is actively recruiting for, but you can filter these positions by department to find jobs offered by ADF&G. Be sure to check back often as many positions are only posted for 10 days before the application period closes. If you’d like to learn more about a position before applying, feel free to contact the hiring manager listed in the recruitment. If you are interested in working in a specific area, stop by or contact your local ADF&G office to learn more about specific opportunities that might be upcoming on Workplace Alaska.
In Southeast Alaska one of the largest employment opportunities for seasonal work is working as a sampler for the Southeast Alaska marine creel program. On this project, technicians interview sport anglers and sample their catch as they return to harbors and boat launches. While out on the dock talking to anglers, technicians collect biological samples and information from the harvest such as lengths, sex, scales, genetic samples, and otoliths. The information collected is used to estimate the effort and harvest of sport caught species and provide valuable information to guide the management of Southeast Alaska sport fisheries.
Learn more about this job opportunity by hearing firsthand from some creel samplers in these videos:
- Creel Sampler - Margie Sherman
- Creel Sampler - Alex Parrish
- Creel Sampler - Emily Leggitt
- Creel Sampler - Isaak Nyameke
- Creel Sampler - Liam Brion
An understanding of the Southeast Alaska sport fishery is helpful, however, experience is not required and training will be provided. If you enjoy working outside, engaging with the public and are interested in Alaska's fishery resources we look forward to your application. This is a great opportunity to gain experience and begin an exciting career with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This summer positions are available in Juneau, Gustavus, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Craig, and Ketchikan.
Additional Employment Opportunities with ADF&G
Our people make all the difference in the management and continued sustainability of Alaska's fish and wildlife resources. ADF&G employees are a part of a large and diverse family of professionals who are respected around the world. ADF&G's status as an excellent fisheries and wildlife management agency is ensured year after year, because of our staff.
Job opportunities include:
- Permanent: A position in the classified service that is not time-limited.
- Non permanent: An employee in a temporary work assignment of less than 120 days or a work assignment established for a specific program, project or assignment.
- Seasonal: A permanent position established to meet recurring seasonal needs of less than 12 months duration during any calendar year. Please note that seasonal opportunities are frequent and essential in our summer business operations. In fact, our workforce doubles in the summer, so opportunities are readily available.
- Internships.
For more information on job opportunities with ADF&G, please visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game link in Workplace Alaska.
Highlighting A Successful Week of Ice Fishing with Anchorage Students
By Taylor Cubbage, Fisheries Biologist
February 6th through the 9th of 2024 felt like my own version of the movie “Groundhog Day”. Each morning had remarkable routine – exactly at 8 am I drove onto the ice of Jewel Lake with a work truck full of augers, folding tables, jig sticks, and traffic cones. In the unfolding twilight, my coworkers and I scattered onto the lake like a hive of bees in search of spring. Busily redrilling 500 holes in the ice and laying out neat rows of fishing rods armed with bright neon jigs, we prepared for the assembly of Anchorage school kids who would soon arrive to practice the age-old art of jigging for fish below the ice. While setup and teardown felt like clockwork, each student’s experience learning to ice fish was as unique as the spots on a Chinook salmon’s tail. The annual Alaska Department of Fish and Game ice fishing event has been going on for over 25 years, and 2024 was one to remember!
With the highest recent participation recorded (over 2,800 students and 500 teachers and chaperones), planning for the ice fishing event began months in advance. The ADF&G William Jack Hernandez Sportfish Hatchery raised over 5,500 catchable Chinook Salmon to be stocked into Jewel Lake. Sportfish staff and I checked lake conditions such as ice thickness, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen to ensure the lake could support the stocked fish. Five hundred jig sticks were untangled and re-rigged, an ice road on Jewel Lake was plowed, and a dozen ADF&G staff members drilled 500 holes through the 20 inches of ice on Jewel Lake. Only after the lake looked like Swiss cheese did we consider preparations complete.
As students arrived, we gave them a crash course in ice safety, local fishing regulations, fish identification, and of course to set the hook and shout “FISH ON!” when they felt a nibble on their jig sticks. Many students who attended the ice fishing event are participating in Salmon in the Classroom, an ADF&G sponsored program where classes raise Coho Salmon eggs and learn about the salmon life cycle. My greatest surprise was how determined the students were, with many bringing their own secret bait and some even fashioning their own jig sticks! Their preparation paid off because the fishing was phenomenal. Many students caught their first ever fish, several walked away with a bag limit of 5 landlocked salmon, and a lucky few landed giant broodstock rainbow trout or an elusive Alaska Blackfish. We received incredible help from Dustin Slinker with the Bait Shack, Anchor Lutheran Church, and volunteers from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management in addition to ADF&G staff who made the four days of ice fishing a true success.
The joy continued Saturday February 10th with the 36th annual Jewel Lake Jamboree, an event hosted by the Bait Shack where families can try their hand at ice fishing for free with jig sticks and bait. The holes we drilled on Jewel Lake certainly decreased in diameter by then, but that didn’t stop more kids from shouting with delight as they caught fish after fish from the lake. As I walked amongst the Jamboree attendees offering fishing tips and scooping ice out of fishing holes, my favorite moments were recognizing students I helped at the school event who brought their families for another round of ice fishing.
If you missed the action on Jewel Lake this year, there is still time to try your hand at ice fishing as our days get sunnier and the fish become hungrier. Stop by an ADF&G office near you to learn about our Rod Loaner Program, where folks can borrow ice fishing rods, ice scoops, buckets, and manual ice augers. We can arm you with a fishing license, local regulation booklet, and tips on where, when and what lures to use to entice a stocked or wild fish out of the ice. For more information, please contact the Anchorage Sport Fish Information Center at (907) 267-2218.
Interior Anglers: Time to Think About Removing Those Ice Houses
Interior anglers who still have ice houses out should start thinking about removing them. According to Northern Alaska sport fishing regulations, any ice houses registered in the Tanana River Drainage and Upper Copper/Upper Susitna River Drainages must be removed from all water bodies by Tuesday, April 30.
With warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours, ice will begin to deteriorate on lakes and ponds over the next few weeks. Don’t wait until the last minute to move your ice house, especially since temperatures should now be warm enough and the sun bright enough that anglers should be more worried about sunburn than frostbite and hypothermia. At least let’s hope so.
A Look at Some Common Fishing Knots
Common fishing knots used by anglers include the Improved Clinch knot, the Palomar knot, the Double-Uni knot and the Surgeon’s knot. The Improved Clinch knot and the Palomar knot are used to tie line to a hook, swivel, lure or fly. And the Double-Uni and the Surgeon’s knot are used to connect two different types of fishing line.
Improved Clinch knot
The Improved Clinch knot is a very common fishing knot. This knot is easy to tie and is most often used to connect fishing line to a hook, swivel, lure or fly. This knot is best used when working with monofilament or fluorocarbon lines.
Palomar knot
The Palomar knot is an easy knot to tie and can be used when working with braided line, monofilament or fluorocarbon lines.
Double Uni knot
The Double Uni knot is used when connecting two different pieces of fishing lines with equal or unequal diameters. This knot can be used to connect various types of fishing lines including braided line, monofilament or fluorocarbon lines.
Surgeon’s knot
The Surgeon’s knot is a strong knot that is easy to tie. This knot is used when connecting two different types of fishing line with equal or unequal diameters.
-Watch the video on how to tie these knots-
Egg Loop knot
The Egg Loop knot is a knot used to secure bait to the shank of the hook, rather than having to pierce the bait with the point of the hook. The Egg Loop knot is used extensively by many salmon anglers who use cured salmon roe as bait. This knot takes some time to master, but is an extremely effective knot to use when making your own leaders.
-Watch the video on how to tie this knot-
Canning Your Catch
The summer fishing season will be here before we know it. With that in mind, it might be time to prepare for the coming season by pressure canning some of the left-over salmon in your freezer. Fresh salmon can be used in this method as well.
Watch our “How to Can Salmon” video for a quick tutorial on the process.
Meet Our Staff – Sara Faris
We asked Sara Faris, who works as a Fish and Wildlife Technician with the Division of Sport Fish in Homer, to tell us a little about herself and her role at ADF&G.
What are the general duties of your position?
My primary duty is to assist the sport fish team in the Homer office with our various research projects. As the ‘clam tech’, I am the crew leader for our razor clam stock assessment project, and a large part of my job is helping coordinate all the different types of clam surveys we conduct. Using several different methods, we are able to monitor the abundance, age and size composition, and maturity of the East Cook Inlet razor clam population and similar metrics of the West Cook Inlet population.
Early in the season, I stay busy prepping for field work, getting all the equipment in working order, and making sure everyone is organized and ready to go when we show up at the office at 4:30 am to catch the tide for a clam survey.
After clam surveys wrap up, I help with our salmon broodstock and escapement monitoring projects. We have several weirs on the Anchor and Ninilchik rivers, so most of my time in the summer months is spent in a drysuit tending to one of those, but each day is different. Daily duties range from installing equipment in an icy river, to counting and sorting hundreds of salmon, to looking at clam tissue samples under a microscope.
What do you love most about your job?
So many things! One of the biggest drivers for me is getting to watch the science we’re doing in action. It’s exciting to see research I was involved in from start to finish help make decisions for the management of our resources, or to watch anglers of all ages enjoying fisheries that we’re working so hard to preserve. Another huge part of why I love my job is that oftentimes, at least to me and my coworkers that are really into ‘type 2 fun’, it doesn’t even feel like work. It is a privilege to work with great people who really enjoy and care about what they do, and when we get to do things like float down the Ninilchik River on a sunny day with our paddleboards and salmon survey gear, I feel incredibly grateful to get to have this career.
What are some of your favorite things to do in your spare time?
Most of the time when I’m not at work, I’m doing some sort of outdoor recreation. In the summer, I love to camp, hike, fish, bike, kayak, and whatever other adventures come my way. In the fall I take advantage of the harvest season and spend lots of time hunting, berry picking, and all the preserving that follows. In the wintertime, I mostly cross country ski, and enjoy trying out new ways to cook all of the fish and game meat in the freezer. More recently, I’ve been sort of forced to get really into home improvement.
What is your favorite fishing memory?
There’s so many, it’s hard to choose! I have tons of special memories from fishing trips. One of my favorites is a really perfect salmon trip in Kachemak Bay. My favorite time to go fishing on the ocean here is the shoulder season, while we have some decent weather but it’s not quite the thick of tourist season. This particular trip, we were trolling for Coho across the bay. I had gone out with my dad and a couple of friends, and we were lucky to have t-shirt weather, even though it was late August. The fishing was unbelievable-it seemed like every time we got a fish to the boat, we had another one on! Everyone got a chance to reel one in, and a couple got to catch their first Coho Salmon ever. To top it all off, we got to watch a pod of orcas that ended up coming pretty close to the boat. Seeing orcas isn’t uncommon in the area, but they don’t come into the bay super often, so it felt really special.
I also look back very fondly on my last Kenai River king, and the really fun, but sometimes very wet, trips in Prince William Sound for shrimp and rockfish.
What is a fun or unusual fact about you that people might not know?
Although I ended up in fisheries, I’ve worked in the mammal world too! I started out wanting to be an equine vet and switched gears once I got my first summer job with the department. I did some marine mammal science during my bachelor’s and worked as a naturalist on a whale watching boat in Maui for a season.
Also, I love salmon and think most freshwater fish are cool, but I absolutely hate lampreys.
Field to Plate - Recipe of the Month
Seared Alaska Halibut Pasta with Pistachio Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes
Enjoy this holiday-inspired recipe for Seared Alaska Halibut Pasta with Pistachio Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
Enjoy!
If you have any questions about the Reel Times newsletter, please contact Ryan Ragan at ryan.ragan@alaska.gov