Meet the Alaska Fishermen Who Bring Our Catch to Your Table
In this month's Catch, I thought I would share a little about the people behind your fish and how their season is going. The first fleet member I'm going to highlight is my dad and one of our original fishermen, John Skeele. He's been a commercial fisherman for almost 50 years, and this year was one of the best in recent memory. I enjoyed our time fishing together, and I thought it would be interesting to hear John's perspective.
John Skeele aboard F/V Sunfish
He had a fantastic keta salmon trolling season this summer in Sitka Sound. Why so great? First the price was double what we received last year. For many years, he had fished keta salmon for around $0.50/lb and this year it topped out at $1.75/lb. For John, commercial trolling here in Alaska is often pretty fun, but it’s also a business that must turn a profit. This year on the F/V Sunfish it was both!
The fish were bigger than normal, so each one was worth more, and the schools of salmon were spread out, giving the fleet room to troll around without danger of a collision. The ocean was pretty much flat calm, and good weather makes a hard job that much easier. Weeks of sunny weather are a real rarity in the rainforests of SE Alaska — but he didn’t need any rain gear this year! And since the keta salmon were in such high demand, there were plenty of tenders (the bigger boats that pick up the fish from fishing boats and take them to the processing plants) available.
He wasn’t expecting such a strong finish to the season, but with the extra profits, he’s going to rebuild the deck hatches on the Sunfish and work on tying new fishing gear. When fishing is slow, John feels like his time would be better spent on land hiking and enjoying the summer, but this hot salmon season really lit a fire under him. He’s already getting excited to see what next summer brings.
Cale Laduke, captain of the F/V Kraken, has also been with Sitka Seafood Market since the beginning. He grew up in Sitka and has been fishing since his teenage years. For much of his 20s and 30s, he crewed on longliners for halibut and black cod out of Sitka, fishing all the way out to the wild Aleutian Islands, 1,200 nautical miles west of our hometown. Crewing brought steady pay and allowed him to travel and surf during the winter months, but he grew tired of the long days and physical work on deck. He bought his first hook-and-line salmon troller, the Saami, ten years ago and began running his own operation. Sadly, he hit a rock with the Saami and lost the boat in 2019 on his way in to sell a load of fish to us. I called him to ask when he was coming to offload his salmon, and in typical Cale fashion, he said, "I'm standing on top of a rock right now, so it's gonna be a while." He bounced back with a bigger fiberglass boat, the Kraken, that could troll and was also set up to longline. After spending decades crewing on longliners, the fishing part was easy; learning a new boat wasn't. After a lot of breakdowns and system overhauls in his first couple of years, he got the Kraken tuned up, and now he longlines black cod and halibut and trolls for kings, cohos, and keta salmon.
Cale Laduke, aboard F/V Kraken
This summer he had to train his crew for the upcoming black cod survey, where they fish to help determine the amount we're allowed to catch. The survey requirement calls for an already-trained crew, so he was too busy with training to fish the July king salmon opener. He was sad about it, but then he heard fishing was slow, which helped him feel a little better about missing out. There were rumors of keta salmon hitting an all-time high price early on, and that caught his attention. After he finished his black cod survey and got back to town to start getting ready for more longlining, he got a price update of $1.45 per pound for keta salmon. The next day it rose to $1.50, and later that same day it jumped to $1.65. It was time to switch gears, so he made it out into Sitka Sound to fish keta salmon. Cale didn't expect much, since he hadn't fished keta salmon much and was still getting the hang of the fishery. On the first day, as he got close to where boats were congregating, his lines got into a big tangle. He turned away from the fleet to deal with it, and once he sorted it out, his lines started loading up with keta salmon, and he never looked back. It was a great little boost to his season before he switched back to fishing black cod in the Gulf of Alaska. When I caught up with him, he was drifting offshore waiting to haul gear about 280 miles northwest of Sitka. The weather had been pretty brutal, but he was catching bigger fish and making 25% more per pound than his best trips of 2025. With only a few more days of fishing left, he was headed to fish in front of Sitka, where he can choose his weather days and spend time with his family. Good luck, Cale!
Isaac Reynolds aboard F/V Alaska
Isaac Reynolds, on the F/V Alaska, has had a hard go of it the last couple of years. Last winter he replaced the engine on his 44-foot wooden troller, the Alaska, only to have it blow up right after his first king salmon trip in July. Replacing a 2,000-pound diesel engine is no easy feat, and he was pretty defeated when his new engine failed so quickly. For reference, a well-cared-for diesel engine can run for over 20,000 hours without needing a major overhaul. This time, thankfully, the new engine just needed a top-end rebuild, which meant the engine could stay in place, and he was able to get it completed by the end of July. As soon as the F/V Alaska was back in operation, he made it out and was able to take part in the banner year for keta salmon in Sitka Sound. He's still learning how to dial in his boat for keta salmon, having spent many more days targeting kings and cohos throughout his fishing career. He did well and was able to make up some of the difference from lost time and mechanic costs for the season. Once keta salmon fishing slowed down, he geared up and headed out for kings and cohos to close out the season. He got called into a hot bite and was able to catch a month's profit in one week of great fishing with strong prices. It's all part of the highs and lows of making a living on the ocean. Now he's got his hands full with three small children and getting his boat ready for fall king salmon in Sitka Sound. When he does get a free moment, he's an avid Sitka blacktail and wild mushroom hunter.
Marsh Skeele
Marsh is our original fisherman and helped start Sitka Seafood Market over a decade ago. He grew up fishing with his family outside of Sitka and began his own fishing journey captaining the F/V Loon in 2011. Shortly thereafter at a dinner party sharing his catch, he met friends that figured out how to get his fish to the Midwest and Sitka Seafood Market was born. He loves finding the highest quality ingredients and sharing the stories of their harvest over a dinner party. You can find him fishing with his family in Sitka and searching for the next delicious piece of seafood to share with you.
