Port Armstrong Hatchery

I have had lots of jobs in my life but I think the most fun and satisfying was when I worked at Port Armstrong Hatchery. That is on the south east side of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. My boss, Lon Garrison, was great to work for. He gave me a list of things he wanted done on Monday morning and then left me alone to do it. At the end of the week he would see what was done and make up a new list for the next week. We worked very well together.

Before I was hired we were told that there were lots of Alaskan Brown Bears on Baranof and if we didn’t have bear stories now we surely would after working at Port Armstrong. It was really our biggest concern with Kay and Christy being 8 and 11. Lon had two girls 7 and 10 and they all played very well together. For three months during the summer when the bears were around the hatchery the kids could not even go between the houses without an armed escort.

My old friend, Ervin Brackel, (Some say I should call him my long time friend but after all he is a couple years older than I am and that is old) came to visit and fish for halibut and salmon. He had a ball with the returning Cohos and he showed me a few things about catching them. Like when there were acres of Pink salmon on the surface, you could cast over them and let the lure sink below them and retrieve slowly and pick up a Coho under them.

After he made two trips up there from Montana we had a project that I didn’t have time for and I thought of Ervin, it was perfect for him to do. When I suggested it to Lon he went for it and we worked out the details. Ervin came up to help remodel the house that was very close to my shop. Little did he know that once he got there Lon made him sign a contract that he would finish the remodel project. That bothered him but I knew both Lon and Ervin’s abilities so I said, “Just sign it!” which he did.

Ervin always said that he expected to be working for me and instead he was just told what we wanted and “Go do it.” He did and did a great job and also had lots of fun fishing and had his airfare paid and made some money to take home with him along with his fish.

There was a board walk that went through out the hatchery. From the bunkhouse the board walk crossed a bridge over the creek and along side the west powerhouse, then right next to the house that Ervin was remodeling and living in and then on the other side of the boardwalk was my shop.

This board walk was about 8 feet wide and right after the creek there was a “Y” with a 4 foot wide board walk going about 50 feet to the south to the powerhouse. Then on the same side was the house Ervin was working on and about 10 feet after his door onto the board walk was the corner of my shop. You had to go about 30 feet on down to get to the door of the shop.

One morning I was doing my morning rounds which included checking out that power house. As I came out there was a brown bear on the main board walk heading to towards the shop. That section of the boardwalk seemed to be a main thoroughfare for the bears leaving the creek and heading for the south beach. We always hollered at the bears when they were on the boardwalk because we wanted them to know that those boardwalks were for us and they, the bears, were suppose to stay on the beach and woods. The bears were pretty good about it for most of the area but that spot between the house and my shop there just was no good place for the bears to go so they used the boardwalk there.

Anyway, as I was saying, this morning I was just coming out of the powerhouse and saw this big brown bear on the main boardwalk. I had my 45-70 with me so I just hollered and stomped my feet and the bear took off. He ran between the house and the shop and turned a bit heading down to the beach. Well, unbenounced to me, Ervin had come out on his house and on this beautiful morning he stepped off the boardwalk and was relieving himself beside a tree when I came out of the power house. He looked up as I hollered and saw the bear head right for him. He said to himself, “NO! Don’t chase him here!!!” He stepped behind the tree and the bear ran within about 3 feet of him. After he calmed down a bit he wiped off his boots and pant leg and told me what happened. The bear was long gone by this time so we had a good laugh about it.