Wild Beginnings
For most of my childhood and adult years, I would pack my bags in May and head out to the farthest most isolated regions of Alaska to spend the next 3 months on a fishing boat.
Hello! My name is Sierra, and I am a 4th generation Alaskan fishwife. Before it degenerated into a gendered insult, fishwife (from fish, and the old english wif for woman), fishwife meant a women in the fishing industry, normally engaged in selling fish, who were known for the industry, brashness, and ability to hold their own. I’m proud to be a fishwife.
I started my fishing career in diapers. By the time I was 14 years old, I was running the skiff for my dad’s commercial fishing operation based out of Chignik, Alaska.
My Family
I grew up between the mountains and the sea. My parents moved to Breckenridge, Colorado in 1996. We spend our winters here and enjoy introducing our friends and neighbors to Alaska’s fresh and wild bounty of seafood.
My husband and I decided to jump into the operational side of fishing. We now run our own family boat, a 55ft aluminum seiner. We started by tendering in Bristol Bay, and love being more connected into the journey of our fish, from fisherman, to you.
Chignik, Alaska
In western Gulf of the Pacific on the Aleutian Peninsula, east of Dutch Harbor, here lies a village called Chignik.
Accessible only by boat or plane, you can’t drive to this remote place.
With under a 100 residents during the winter, the summers see an influx of boats, captains, and crew eager to test their luck with the Salmon that return to Chignik to spawn further up river in Black Lake.
Press – A Family Portrait
National Fisherman’s North Pacific Focus magazine published an summary of my fishing heritage.
Click the arrows to scroll to the full story.
