Lake trout are Alaska's largest freshwater fish and they are also the largest of the group of fishes known as char. They have a body shape common to that of trout and salmon. They have small, light, irregularly shaped spots on a silver-to-dark gray background, but color varies in different seasons and in different lakes. The males and females are quite similar. Males have a slightly longer, more pointed snout than the female.

Lake trout are found north of the Brooks Range but are not found in lakes of the North Slope lowlands. To the west, they are found in the Kobuk drainage, but not within 400 miles of the Bering Strait. Lake trout are common in Bristol Bay lakes and in the Pacific drainages just south of Cook Inlet.

Lake trout prefer large, deep, cold lakes in which they spend their entire lives. As the water cools in fall the trout feel the urge to spawn and the mature fish look for broken rock or rubble areas typically found along the lakeshore. The spawning act occurs when one or more males press themselves against a female. The eggs and milt come out simultaneously. Most of the spawning occurs at night.

In spring, when the lake is cold, Lake trout are found near the surface. They feed more voraciously during the spring and anglers catch more large specimens at that time than at any other time. The world record catch for Lake trout is 50 inches and 102 pounds in Canada. In Alaskan waters, Lake trout weigh up to 54 pounds. They are caught with bright spinners, spoons, trolling lures, jigging lures and even pieces of cut fish.

By Jonathan Boots

Mix the lard by hand with some sugar and some water in a medium sized pan. Keep adding sugar and be sure to mix it well. If the lard and sugar get hard to mix, add a little water but not too much. Keep mixing the lard, sugar and water for about 20-30 minutes. Then add the partly frozen berries, but be sure ro mix them in fast because they will freeze the lard.

Gerilyn Fitka

A couple of days after school got out my family and I went camping. We were going to go to Cuilnguq with my uppa Frank Coffee but we didn't have enough gas to go there. Instead of going to Cuilnguq we followed Camille to the place where we went with him two years ago. On the second day my uncle Roy and his family joined us. I also went commercial and subsistence fishing in June and July. This year we did better than last year partly because the prices were higher than last year.

With most of the money I made from fishing I went to Bethel for the Fourth of July. We went to Bethel on the third and we came back on the fifth. The same day we went over to Bethel, Bo-Boy went over too. On the Fourth of July it was really hot. BoBoy and I felt really lazy, so we stayed in his auntie Mary's and played Nintendo. We were so lazy we didn't even go to the fair. On the fifth we came back to Marshall in the morning. My uppa had gone subsistence fishing, and when he came back we had to bring all of the fish up to the fish house so my grandma could cut them.

My dad's big boat broke down this summer and he bought a littler boat from George Owletuck. I went someplace almost everyday in the new boat. Mostly I went rod and reeling up in Wilson or Willow but sometimes I went up to Kuiq. I also went to Devil's Elbow and over to Owl Slough to go black bear hunting. But I never even saw one bear this summer.

Willie Paul Fitka

Leland spent part of his Christmas vacation in New Mexico with his mom and dad. He didn't actually get to spend Christmas itself with them because he didn't get to New Mexico until January 1. However, he did enjoy New Year's day with his parents. His two daughters were also able to come out to his parents' home for dinner.

Leland then spent about a week in New Mexico just relaxing before returning to Alaska to teach. He said the weather was great while he was there and he enjoyed it a lot. But he was also glad to come home to Marshall.

Leland Roundy did a few things this summer. First of all he bought Mike Stockburger's boat and commercial fishing permit. Leo Fitka was his helper during the season. It was Leland's first time ever fishing. He relied on Leo to show him the places to fish. It was a big learning experince for him. He learned a lot about the river and the process of selling the fish. They did about as good as everyone that fished.

After fishing he went down to New Mexico to see his parents and kids. He left here the last part of June and drove to New Mexico from Anchorage. It took him about a week to get there. While driving down he followed the Alcan Highway and went through Vancouver, Canada. He had never been there before and wanted to check it out. He also drove through Washington state. While Leland was there he didn't do

Leland left New Mexico the first of August to come back up to Marshall. It also took a week to get back to Anchorage. When he finally got back, he got ready for fall Chum and Coho fishing.

By: Leland Roundy

Interviewed by: Fred Alstrom

"I had a boring summer," she said. "1 didn't do anything except cut fish, pick some berries, clean-up,and washed the clothes. I was busy."

"On the 10th of June I was busy with my youngest daughter's birthday. She had just turned three."

"When the berries got ripe me and my friend, Sophie Moxie, went out to pick blueberries."

"In June I came back from Anchorage where I was since March.The day after I got back we went camping with the Bolivers. I sorta had fun when we went hunting in the evenings. But I'd say that this summer was so boring I'd never want one like it again!"

INTERVIEWED BY

Lena Smith

(Kinaleria)

"I was born here in Hooper Bay on January 6, 1900. My mother died right after I was born. They were going to let me die with my mother but my uncle took me. He wanted to take care of me. As I grew up I always thought that my uncle was my dad and that his wife was my mother. There was no milk in those days. They only fed me with the juice of the meat my uncle chewed for me. I had no sisters or brothers or uncles or even a grandma and grandpa as I was growing up. They had all died. I got married to Billy Smith and had two kids. During the cold midwinter months after a couple of years they both died. Then later I raised some other kids of my own. In those days lots of people used to die.We had no warm houses because we had no stoves during the cold winter months. Our windows were always iced over when the house was really cold. They used to put wood in the middle of the house and start the fire and warm up the house until the ice was melted on the windows and ceiling. We had no lights, only seal oil lamps. Nowadays everything is modern. And I'm getting really old, using a cane that I never used to need. I'm the oldest person here in Hooper Bay now."

Lena started off her summer cleaning out her fish house and getting it ready so that she could cut fish.

By the first part of June she already had cut 25 King salmon. This was the first time she'd cut fish in her own fish house. The first fish that she got she cut strips, and everybody was dropping by to give her tips and pointers on how to cut the fish. Then later she started cutting Chums. After all of her racks in her smoke house were full she started going on boat rides and getting wood for the smoke house with Vassily.

When the berries were ready she went to the tundra every day to pick blue berries. One time they went to Kwik to pick berries but it started raining and they had to come home early. While coming home they encountered a cow moose around Willow and they stopped the boat and watched it eat for a while. When they got home she cleaned her berries and went to maqi with her friends in John Moxie's steam house.

Joe Fitka