Front Street in Kotzebue

Front St just after the ice went out

My co-workers and a big sheefish

Watching weather move in on a calm night

The ice finally went out in Kotzebue! We had some very windy weather for a couple of weeks and had several days in a row with sustained 25mph winds. Even though the shorefast ice was still in, there were big open patches of open water that were choppy (and even had whitecaps at times) for weeks. Last week I crawled out of bed one morning to see open water, completely flat calm, with chunks of ice floating by. In my early morning haze I was completely confused and it took me a good 30 seconds to figure out what I was looking at.

It's also easy to fish for sheefish off of Front St now. I hadn't really thought about fishing too much since I'm working very long hours, but after my co-worker caught this whopper, I figured I'd better get a pole and a license or I'd regret it later.