We know how much the captain means to our anglers. We’re careful about everyone we hire, but we’re most careful about captains for a lot of reasons – safety, quality of the experience, fish production, and care of our equipment. For 2018, we’ll have two new captains and Captain Sarah who will be moving to a full-time schedule. All have paid their dues by deckhanding for at least 3 years, all have the proper training and credentials. All have the fishing, boating, and people skills required to do a first-rate job right out of the starting gate.
Sarah deck-handed for Chuck for several years and earned her captain’s license in the spring of 2017. She took the helm on a limited basis in 2017 and will be running full-time in 2018. She’s been on the water nearly every day for the past four seasons. She’s calm, hard-working, smart, and absolutely loves the ocean environment. She really knows what all aspects of a trip mean to our clients – the beauty of the place, the wildlife, and, most importantly, catching fish. We’re already getting requests for Sarah from people who enjoyed her as a deckhand.
Jack has served for three years on the deck of Story Teller. In his case, deck-handing wasn’t what taught him fishing; it was more of a finishing school. Fishing isn’t what Jack does in his spare time, it’s who he is. He’s hard-wired for it. And, for those who have this wiring, running a boat is a dream job driven by a passion that guarantees he’ll be an excellent skipper. He’s excited to take the helm and we’re excited to have him there.
Jaime has deckhanded in Sitka for the very friendly competition on our dock for the past three seasons. At the end of August each year, he has jumped over help AU finish our season. We’ve gotten to know him well. He’s a good friend of the departing Captain Bo and he shares Bo’s excitement for fishing. Jaime has a contagious enthusiasm, he has lots of good experience and we’re thrilled to have him running a boat for AU in 2018.