By now, gentle reader, you may have concluded that only men fish the Bay. Untrue! In point of fact a handful of exceptional women work as both skippers and deckhands. As I was walking back to the boat harbor I ran across Patricia at the Peter Pan Cannery. She was loading firewood into her pickup. I stopped , shook hands and caught up on old times. I first laid eyes on Patricia in 1982 when I was fishing kings in the Nushagak. She was skipper of an ancient , wooden gill netter named the Lovac and always towed around a tiny skiff named the Blue Toad. She was an attractive, young blonde who always wore a dress with a sheath knife belted to her waist. On deck she wore a sort of wrap-around oilskin apron over her dress. No matter the weather or the water temperature ……she went barefoot on deck…and she often fished alone. From the first time I saw her pulling gear alone in a 30 knot blow…I was filled with admiration and respect. In my book she was Sailboat Tough. The years have been kind to her. She is still an attractive blonde. She and her husband fish the Lady Patricia. Her 25 year old daughter is skipper of her own boat and fishes the Bay like her mother taught her. I asked Patricia if she still fished barefoot. No…she had finally put on sea boots…..I noticed that she still had a knife belted to her waist….