Catch and Cook at Glacier Bay’s Bear Track Inn by Martin Li

Being eaten by a bear wasn’t in the script. I was supposed to be the hunter gatherer on this trip! I had come to Bear Track Inn in Alaska’s Glacier Bay to 'Catch and Cook' the region’s bountiful seafood. But here I was half a mile from the lodge and I have just spooked a black bear. In the distance I see a second bear sneak into a dense bush close to the path I was following home. All I have for company is a young, excitable retriever much more interested in chasing birds than sniffing out let alone frightening off bears. The meagre bright side seems to be that the Bear Track Inn has been thoughtfully and accurately named.

I try to recall all the bear advice I had read since my arrival in Alaska and remember not to corner or surprise (too late in the case of the first bear!) the animal or separate it from any cubs. I take a wide diversion around the path and, happily, the second bear bounds off into the dark forest before I get near. Lucy, the retriever, seems happily oblivious to everything that’s happened and continues to chase after low circling birds.

Bear Track Inn nestles in the outskirts of the tiny rural community of Gustavus, at the mouth of Glacier Bay. It’s about a twenty minute drive from the nearest port, Bartlett Cove. Gustavus only has 400 inhabitants and feels even smaller as the settlement is fairly scattered amongst the surrounding forest.

After my unscheduled bear adventure, we’re on dockside at Bartlett Cove early next morning to meet our fish captain 'JJ' and his deckhand Charlie. Their boat is an impressive 38 ft catamaran with plenty of deckspace, a generous cabin and a vast array of fishing rods. JJ is a good-humoured chain-smoker with an excellent knowledge of local waters. Ironically for someone who catches the volume of fish he does, he doesn’t like eating seafood.

My fishing companions are Branson, Kathleen and Ralph, one of the chefs from the Inn. JJ is expecting some rollers in the open sea and is slightly concerned we might feel unwell. He needn’t have worried. As the catamaran’s twin water jets power us into Icy Strait the sea remains totally calm. As we reach our first fishing point in South Passage off Lemesurier Island, the surface becomes even calmer and the sun shines. Here we are deep sea fishing off the coast of Alaska: our boat is barely rocking and we’re stripped down to t-shirts!

JJ and Charlie drop anchor and set up the stubby halibut rods baited with herring. We drink coffee and enjoy the pristine scenery. We don’t have to wait long before the rod tips begin quivering into life. JJ and Charlie set the hooks and pass us the rods to play the fish. As a newcomer to boat fishing, one of the most exciting aspects for me is catching the first glimpse of each fish as it emerges through the clear water towards the boat.

Halibut after halibut is brought to the boat. We release anything under 10 lb and keep some larger fish. Halibut over 200-300 lbs are common in these waters but these giants are female breeders which don’t have the best flesh for eating and which the captains prefer to release. Branson expertly reels in one close to 100 lb. Charlie had gaffed the smaller fish but JJ has to harpoon this one before he can safely bring it onto the boat. Thrashing large halibut have been known to cause serious injury and even death and this one is so large it barely fits into the cool box.

During quieter moments JJ and Charlie correct me on my terminology. I keep referring to us 'fishing' which to them suggests the possibility of not catching anything. They prefer to describe what they do as 'catching'. Point taken as yet another halibut is brought flapping to the side of the boat.

If this is deep sea 'catching' then I’m very eager for more. JJ fires up the boat’s engines and we motor towards the open sea. We pass picturesque Elfin Cove to port and on our starboard side we can clearly see the snow-capped peaks of the Fairweather Range.

We reach the open water of the Pacific and turn towards Cross Sound. I’m still amazed by the calmness of the sea although it does now at least have some rollers. JJ records his best fishing spots on his location finder with bright yellow spots. We drift with the current over one of his favourite yellow spots. Our target: King Salmon, the most highly prized of Alaskan salmon. JJ and Charlie once again set up the rods, this time longer and lighter, with heavily weighted herring bait.

The baited rods are bent in their ready positions and we are waiting for them to straighten suddenly when a fish bites. This doesn’t take long and we’re soon called into action again. We lose the first fish, painfully close to the boat, but my rod is the next to taste action. By contrast to the halibut we caught earlier, King Salmon are generally lighter but much more feisty fish. My reel whirs excitedly as the fish strips line in a burst for freedom. I slowly pump the rod and reel back line. We gasp as the flashing side of the fish first comes into view during a run behind the boat.

Although the fish is fairly close JJ and Charlie know the battle is far from over. No sooner has JJ warned of this than the fish dives under the boat again to a high-pitched screech of the reel and screams of delight from us. The salmon is now further away than when we hooked it. As I gradually play the fish back towards the boat JJ and Charlie warn to expect a further burst when it sees the boat. This time the salmon leaps clear of the water. I scramble across the back of the catamaran past my three companions who have stopped fishing to give me more space. I’m very relieved when Charlie finally raises the landing net with the sparkling salmon bulging inside.

With lengthy daylight hours, we’re able to fish until late afternoon. Finally, JJ turns the boat around and we speed towards home. We continue to marvel at the breathtaking scenery of the Inside Passage and spot wildlife but there’s no rest for Charlie. He opens the cool box and starts to fillet our catch. Incredibly, despite the rocking of the speeding catamaran and the slipperiness of the box lid on which he is working, he somehow manages to carve off huge fillet after huge fillet with great precision.

We return to the Inn tired but elated. We rush to the kitchen where Ralph enthusiastically shows us the basics of storing and cooking fish, then grills us a delicious supper of marinated salmon.

The next morning we collect some crab and shrimp pots before we leave Bartlett Cove. With some effort Charlie drags up the long lengths of rope attached to the pots. We can’t help laughing when the shrimp pots break surface. The first contains a single shrimp. The second is empty although an unlucky Dungeness Crab has snagged itself onto the outside. Fortunately we do much better with the two crab pots. Each is a snapping gaggle of legs and claws from which Charlie carefully extracts a large number of Dungeness crabs. He tosses back females and smaller crabs and keeps a dozen or so for eating.

It is again early and again we rely heavily on JJ’s coffee and the beauty of the surroundings to spark us into life. Once more the sea is totally calm - ideal for spotting the blows of surfacing humpback whales that are common in these waters. With conditions as calm as they are we not only see the blows but can also hear them. On occasions we can even hear the haunting calls of the whales themselves.

Whales aren’t the only wildlife we encounter on these fishing trips. Playful porpoises surface close to our boat and cute sea otters enjoy a shellfish snack lazing on their backs. Seals and sea lions swim past barely noticing our presence. We spot a number of rare puffins and laugh at seagulls which have gorged themselves so much on fish they struggle to take off from the water.

Although JJ doesn’t like seafood, Charlie is an aficionado. At lunch he boils up some of the crabs in saltwater and serves them to us with a garlic butter sauce. Vintage champagne couldn’t have added to the pleasures of that lunch. And all the while there is the fishing and the whales. 'Tail, tail!' cries JJ as he points towards another surfacing whale about to give us the characteristic flip of its tail. We scramble between fishing rods, cameras and delicious crab claws, reluctant to sacrifice any of the three.

If someone had suggested that on my first day’s deep sea fishing I would catch a 30 lb halibut and a 20 lb salmon and throw back several other fish I would previously have considered quite large catches, I would have laughed. I was indeed laughing after my Glacier Bay fishing adventures, but it was totally out of exhilaration. I’ll be back... bears or no bears.

Top Fishing Tips

1 Fish during tidal changes, which activate a feeding mechanism in fish. Certain species react best to specific tides. Eg, King Salmon seem to feed most strongly at high tide changes.

2 Search out areas with bottom structures. Areas with varied bottom topography attract feed and fish better than flat-bottomed areas. Halibut, for example, are often found on bottom mounds.

3 Follow feeding sea birds. These indicate shoals of bait fish which in turn attract larger fish.

4 Fish near tide rips. A tide rip is a smooth area of water bordered sharply by choppy water and occurs where the tide is moving against the natural current. This chops up food which attracts feeding fish.

5 Kill and bleed a fish to be kept as soon as possible. Prolonged stress can cause fish to produce chemicals that will harm the flavour. A blow to the head will cause a quick death. Cut the gills to bleed within 10-15 minutes otherwise blood will stay in the flesh.

Top Storage and Cooking Tips

1 Always store fish on ice to keep the texture firm and minimise health hazards. If going to freeze fish, freeze as soon as possible. Freeze in a bag of water to create a protective ice block for maximum shelf life.

2 Store fish fillets skin to skin and flesh to flesh. The skin continues to slime and can spoil flesh it comes into contact with.

3 When pan frying fish with the skin on, score the skin with a knife to prevent it from curling.

4 Cook all crustacea from live or within two hours of death. Once dead, crustacea start releasing toxins into their flesh.

5 Immerse cooked crab immediately into iced water. This contracts the meat away from the shell and makes it easier to eat.