The Mighty Salmon Runs That worked their way annually through Puget Sound on their way to British Columbia's Fraser River provided a way of life for fishermen in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century. Commercial gillnetters and purse seiners pursued millions of sockeye salmon each season, hoping to harvest a portion of the massive schools of fish that migrated through the region on their way to their spawning grounds. It was demanding, often dangerous work, but a knowledgeable captain and crew could hit it big by being in the right place at the right time to capitalize on this natural bonanza. Such record-breaking "big runs" were the stuff of legend, rare events that were the dream of every commercial fishing outfit. In 1958, when Captain Nick "Foreigner" Barhanovich hired greenhorn Ray Fadich to work as a skiffman on Barhanovich's purse seiner The Emancipator, Fadich had little clue what thai, fishing season would hold for him. As the newest member of the crew, Fadich had to deal with a steep learning curve, days of backbreaking labor, and the practical jokes and initiation into the brotherhood of the commercial fisherman-all while The Emancipator followed the salmon through Puget Sound, chasing the elusive catch that would enter the boat and its crew into the record books. In this memoir of the 1958 sockeye fishing season aboard The Emancipator, Fadich describes in detail the disappointment and joy he and his crewmates experienced as they vied with weather, other boats, and time as they tried to strike it rich during The Big Run.