Black Lake

Today we headed up to Black lake. Here the boat is moored on the bank of the north side of the lake and we are looking south. This is as far up the system as we can go. It is flat tundra all around black lake. You can see the steep mountains of Chignik lake just on the other side. Black lake is interesting because it is ~30 square km, but the maximum depth is about 10 feet. Most of it is much shallower. In the summer it can reach 18 degrees C!


Looking north from the shore of Black lake there is nothing but flat tundra all the way to Bristol bay on the north side of the peninsula.


We took two boats up to Black lake, and the impeller on one motor died. We had to tow it all the way back. One hour to get up, three and a half to get back.


The delta of the Black river running into Chignik lake is the trickiest part of the whole system, and one spot was so shallow we had to walk the boats for quite a ways before finding a channel.

Bears

Ram vs. Bear. This little guy went all the way around the truck a couple of times, but didn't seem to break anything. Just curious, or hungry.

Last night we were fishing for Chinook in one of the better salmon holes and these bears came out of the brush. We were anchored in the middle of the river where it is pretty safe. They looked us over for a while and headed off again. It was neat to see them though. Unfortunately, we didn;t catch any kings. It's a little early yet I think.

Fish for dinner

I took this at about 1am last night. This is what we see of the village of Chignik lake, across the river. There aren't many roads, so everyone gets around by boat. There is a fairly large new high school there as well, but only 50 students or so. There is still a bit of snow on the peaks around, but it is disappearing rapidly.

Chignik lagoon is full of purse seiners right now. There are about 35 boats and they seem to catch 15,000-45,000 fish per day (total).

Finally, we caught some fresh sockeye and cooked it up for dinner. Just pan fried it with almost nothing on it. It was fantastic.

Here are three of our four boats. We have one of the nicest tie up spots on the lake. The river spot to the left is the outflow of chignik lake (the beginning of the Chignik river) and one of the best king salmon holes around. Hopefully soon I will have a photo to show of a big king.

Beautiful day on the lake!

Large bear print on the lake shore, but no bear in sight.

A couple of bald eagles on an abandoned cabin near our camp

Our camp viewed from the river. Building at the far left is the outhouse, then the generator room, then the shop/lab, then a storage hut, then the common room and bunks. We have a nice landing for the boats just out of view. There are VHF radio and internet antennas on the roof. VHF works great, but the internet is really slow.

Arrived in Chignik

Inside the common area of the Chignik residence.
Lots of food is stock upon those shelves.

Checking traps with the crew, Jennifer, Ryan, and Conrad.

Check out their weir! Its huge! Every one of those posts gets driven in with a pile driver each spring after ice out