The other day in the grocery store, while my daughter Haley eyed the gumball machine by the doors, a headline in the Daily Sitka Sentinel caught my eye: "Search for Missing Boater Suspended," or something like that.

A few weeks ago, I began receiving satellite text messages from Eric Jordan aboard the troller IGotta, with detailed reports on daily chum poundages. Could I break free from obligations in Sitka and fly down to deckhand for a bit, catch some fish?

Flakes falling like wet socks from the skies, coating alder branches and truck hoods and boat anchors. Dumps followed by the cold right hook of a sunny day, clack of snow shovel scraping gravel.

There is no clear line between the mood in town and the mood on the fishing grounds here. Here in the Earth's largest temperate rainforest, in the sun-shadow along the outside coast of Baranof Island, seasons are determined by salmon runs and the kind of fishing boats at work.

The winter troll line in Sitka extends from Point Woodhouse on Biorka Island to Cape Edgecumbe, just off the volcano. The season continues from Oct. 11 to April 30 -- or until the quota is filled, whichever comes first.

When Brighton Coggins landed in Sitka on June 28, his name was Elizabeth. Coggins was flying from Bethel to Baranof Island to attend the intensive two-week Sitka Fine Arts Camp. This was his first year, and he wasn't sure what to expect.

We'll begin with the boat. Mid-March, a few days after flying in, I woke to a call from a buddy on the docks who told me that the high-water alarm was bleating. Ran down to find water above the floorboards in the engine room. We got a couple of pumps on the boat, and got ahead of the water coming in.

The first time I hunted deer alone in Southeast Alaska, my friend drew me a map leading to a stand of old-growth trees in a river valley. I set off at a trot on a sunny November morning, following a trail along Indian River, which ran heavy with fall rains.

Just as daffodils and groundhogs, cherry trees and robins announce the arrival of spring elsewhere, so the sac roe herring fishery spells the end of winter here in Sitka, Alaska. Seine boats with names like Storm Chaser, Perseverance, Leading Lady, Defiant and Invincible begin to appear on our island from points north and south, often rafting to my tugboat here in Eliason Harbor.