Looking forward to show

The Alaska Gun Collectors Association fall gun show starts tomorrow at Raven Hall on the Palmer State Fairgrounds at 10 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m. The hours are the same for Sunday.

I was hoping my comment last week about this gun show wasn’t wrong, which is why I suggested looking for notices in the newspaper or listening for ads on the radio. I’ve seen or heard both this week, so plan on attending if you’re free. With the PFD having been dispersed to most Alaskans yesterday, money shouldn’t be too much of a problem for your potential show purchases.

Now that the weather is starting to cool down, I’ve begun planning to get my summer toys winterized. We usually bring the motorhome to Cache Camper in Wasilla for their winterization service. It isn’t rocket science to winterize an RV, but I know just enough about the various systems to be dangerous, so I prefer to have folks who know do the work. I normally do my own winterization on my riverboat, but I’d like to get it out at least one more time for some lake fishing and just to enjoy running it.

We didn’t take the riverboat out during the king salmon season because of the weak returns and the fact that the rivers where we usually fish were closed to any retention of king salmon during the season. Just about the time we were ready to take an extended coho fishing trip, the August rains began. Being more of a fair-weather outdoorsman in my advancing age, that trip got postponed and then cancelled as the rains both raised and dirtied river waters.

During these periods of boating inactivity, I completed several projects on the riverboat and can now honestly say that I can’t think of anything else I either want or need to do to the boat to maximize its use. I never thought I’d say that since, by definition, the word “boat” means “break out another thousand,” or is referred to as “a hole in the water into which you throw money.” Enough said there!

The Alaska Outdoor Council is holding its Valley fundraiser banquet tomorrow at Evangelo’s in Wasilla. Andy Couch has very kindly invited my wife Debby and I to attend as his guests. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to call him back with an answer to his kind invitation yet. So, Andy, if you see this before I get a chance to return your call, we’d enjoy attending with you, if the invitation still stands. Hopefully, I will have already spoken with you before this sees print.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) workshop meeting happens next week in Girdwood at the Alyeska Resort on Oct. 9-10. I hope to attend at least part of the meeting to meet new board members, say hi to the older members, some of whom I served with during my time on the board, and to listen to a stock of concern discussion I hope will take place. I mentioned last week about some of the questions that have been raised about under what circumstances a stock of concern designation is appropriate and exactly who has the authority to nominate a fish population for stock of concern designation.

I have been told that Fish and Game has no intention of nominating any Northern District salmon stocks for this designation this cycle, which is the appropriate time for such nominations concerning Cook Inlet to occur. This is a cause for alarm, in my opinion, for two reasons. First, according to the Department of Law attorneys who advise the BOF on legal issues, only Fish and Game has the authority to nominate fish stocks for a stock of concern designation that the BOF then so designates if appropriate. This sole authority nomination approach has not always been followed in previous board actions, so that’s why this opinion is being questioned.

Second, by refusing to nominate any Northern District salmon stocks for stock of concern status, Fish and Game is, in effect, saying that the Little Susitna coho stock is healthy in spite of missing minimum escapement goal numbers four of the last five years. In a couple of those years, the total return was less than half of the minimum number considered necessary to sustain a healthy population. Similar arguments can be made for some king salmon stocks in the Valley.

This doesn’t seem to be a reasonable management approach to me.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska

Department of Fish and Game.

Leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.