Today on The Homer Alaska Podcast we sit down with Steve Tutt, captain of the F/V Redemption, a 55-foot seiner, to talk fishing. We talk about his business of chartering Feeder King Salmon trips in the winters out of Homer and seining Prince William Sound in the summers. We also discuss the lifestyle around fishing - how to make it a career and managing a family - as well as the difference between captains who risk it for the big catch vs playing it safe. In an attempt to escape Coronavirus news Alex and JJ discuss things they love about Alaska and we talk to Jessica Powell, Speech Language Pathologist at South Peninsula Hospital, about swallowing disorders. (0:37) Intro/Why We Love Alaska (12:40) Jessica Powell at South Peninsula Hospital (17:28) Steve Tutt  www.TheAKShow.com Facebook.com/TheAlaskaShow IG: @AlaskaShow @AlexanderTrokey @JCoe_Photographer Interview Notes Captain of the F/V Redemption - summertime seiner in Prince William Sound - charter boat for Homer King Fishing in the winter. Steve’s son Eric got the idea to chartering the vessel in the wintertime instead of just sport fishing themselves. Steve started fishing at 8 years old with his dad. Now his sons are getting into fishing. All the fishing they did was not local, so they started this chartering business Homer King Fishing in order to be local. There are 3-4 guys that run winter charter operations. It’s more of a sporadic business in the summer. Maybe one charter a week - and if the weather’s bad they might go a couple weeks without one. But there’s a fraternity of guys who charter fish and exchange fishing information. They seine in the summer, big game hunt in September, then roll right into winter King Salmon chartering.  Homer is becoming a real destination for winter fishing because of the Winter King Derby, especially over the last 4-6 years. It’s brought a lot of notoriety to this area. Steve’s clientele in the winter isn’t just Alaskans - they get clients from all over the country. It’s a tough business because you can spend a ton of money and not get a lot of action. They have an online presence and need to work on the cheap initially. Word of mouth works well for them. They use FishAlaska and KGTL for advertising. The winter chartering isn’t a big business. It’s partially a passion and partially Steve trying to help his son Eric get a sport fishing business off the ground. It also gives Steve a chance to really connect with the community and clients in a deeper way. The feedback they get is “you make us feel like family” A lot of their clients are slope workers, military groups, and business people. Steve runs the only commercial fishing vessel that charters here in the winter. It’s a good chance for people to experience life on a true Alaskan commercial fishing boat. “Winter Kings” or “Feeder Kings” are in the phase of life where they are feeding. It’s distinct from the “spawning” phase when most of the flesh oil has gone into reproduction. When people have complaints about salmon that it’s dry or overdone, usually that’s from spawning salmon. Winter kings are very rich and oily. The first year Steve fished was 1969 with his dad when he was 8. His dad was only a few years into the seine fishery at the time but also gillnetted on copper river flats. He had a 36 foot wooden boat. The whole operation was just $18,000 and no permits required. But the income level was negligible. $40-50k was a huge season. Today the insurance bill is higher than that gross. But it was a more carefree era in fishing. Steve loved fishing as a kid. Even when they threw the anchor down he’d have a hand line down for halibut. By the time Steve was 12 he was running the skiff - full time by the time he was 14 or 15. By 19 he got his first gillnetting boat and fished Copper River in Prince William Sound. Steve had his sons on the boat at age 5 and by the time they were 17 all three of his boys got their own boats and started fishing. So they have several generations of fish