Kelsey Kashluba and partner Danny Arundel are on two sides of the fishing business in a location a long way from the Coast.

On any day during summer, Kashluba is at a farmers’ market in Kamloops or the Okanagan where her enthusiastic personality hooks shoppers.

“Everyone wants to tell you their fishing story,” she laughs.

But Kashluba isn’t just listening to stories, she’s telling them. And when the market-goers leave they’re often carrying away a catch of spring salmon fillets, salmon burgers and tandoori salmon.

“People want to know how it’s caught and how it was handled,” she said.

Five hundred kilometres away, unreachable except by occasional and unreliable satellite connection, is Arundel. The veteran fisherman spends summers off the west coast of Vancouver island or the fertile fishing grounds of Haida Gwaii.

Based out of Heffley Creek, the pair operate Fisherman’s Catch Wild B.C. Salmon & Sales. Kashluba reels in customers at farmers’ markets in summer and craft fairs in winter, while Arundel practices the ancient trade.

“It’s a lifestyle,” she said. “it goes with our living. You have to love what you do.”’

With her outgoing personality, Kashluba enjoys the routine of meeting customers, connecting food with the fisherman. She explains the routines of life aboard the 42-foot trawler, including the routine of cleaning and flash freezing salmon within an hour of hooking it.

The result, she said, is far superior to netting salmon or other methods of preserving them.

Most of the time Kashluba has her feet planted firmly on shore. Yes, she loves seeing ancient rain forests, remote fiords and white sand beaches of the Coast but suffers from the effects of the ocean.

“I love the idea of being on the boat and seeing the Coast. But my sea legs don’t like it.”

Kashluba said she will work the boat in an emergency, when Danny can’t find other help. She relies on a special wrist band and gallons of ginger tea. The nausea never goes away, but it is controlled.

She remains a crucial link on shore, however, when Arundel spends up to two weeks at a time on the open ocean, whether it’s two miles or 20 miles from shore.

“Sometimes you get 30 seconds,” Kashluba said of a phone call from Haida Gwaii, requesting a critical engine part needed after a breakdown. “It can take two tries to get a call or it can take six calls.”

Kashluba said she orders the part and has it flown to Masset or Sandspit, for example. There is little time for being idle in a breakdown while salmon are running.

Winters are spent selling salmon, repairing and winterizing the boat, where it is kept at Steveston, beside the Fraser River.

In addition to market sales, Fisherman’s Catch sells direct to restaurants and has a stable of existing customers who want to fill their freezer with wild salmon. Depending on the tonnage of salmon caught in a year and the market for it, they may also sell to a commercial buyer.

“It’s just like fishing,” Kashluba said of finding customers for the catch. “Sometimes you catch fish and sometimes you don’t.”