About: Michael Jackson
I have been a Commercial Fisherman since running out of money on a rock climbing trip in 1979. I picked up a hitchhiker in Jackson, Wyoming to help pay for gas. I told him I was a little broke, and he gave me the number of a guy with a fishing boat “up in Alaska somewhere” that needed a strong back and a weak mind, both of which I had at the time. (I can no longer claim a strong back) At a phone booth in Stanley, Idaho I scavenged enough coins from between the seat cushions to call the number to “that guy up in Alaska somewhere”.
“When can you be up here?” he asked.
“Anytime after I get back tomorrow afternoon” I told him.
The next night I was on a flight to Dutch Harbor and I have not looked back since. I have fished from a wheelhouse in the Bering Sea to a skiff in Ventura, and the one constant is that I have loved almost every minute of it.
Currently I have scaled back my fishing to the summer months and the Sockeye Salmon fishery in Bristol Bay. I harvest Sockeye aboard by Gillnet boat, the Kelley J, named after my lovely wife. I raised my two older son’s in the fishing lifestyle, and they grew up fishing on my vessel as crewmembers. They have taken a huge leap of faith and at the tender ages of 22 and 19, bought a boat and permit together for the Bristol Bay Gillnet fishery. I very much look forward to fishing alongside them as fishing partner’s for many years, and hope they will do almost as well as their Pops….
Where is Bristol Bay?
Bristol Bay is unique in that it is the furthest North Sockeye Fishery in Alaska. It is located in the Bering Sea, and is a pristine ecosystem that is producing at or near historical record runs of Sockeye. Each year tens of millions of fish return to spawn and I am there to welcome them back, with open arms and an empty net! The Bristol Bay fishery is not only Sustainable, it is considered one of the best-managed fisheries in the World, and as such, is a model for many countries that look for ways to sustain or build their own salmon runs in these modern times.