Introduction

Welcome and thank you for visiting The Four Sockeye! Take time to look at our prints and see what we're all about. We've tried to bring a little of what makes these fish and Idaho so beautiful! We're also trying to bring to you why these fish mean so much to us. Hopefully you have some of the same passions we do about these incredible fish from Idaho! So, with that said, we hope that you will enjoy our work as much as we enjoyed creating it!!

We started this partnership, this project, in 1991. That year only four Sockeye salmon returned to Redfish Lake in the Stanley Basin of Idaho, their ancestral spawning grounds. This journey of over 900 miles is the longest anadromous fish run in the lower United States. Over the past eighty years, Idaho has seen Sockeye, Chinook and Steelhead numbers plummet from millions to, in the case of the Sockeye, the vivid red fish that gave Redfish Lake its name, just four adult fish in 1991. With the rapid decline in numbers to these last four, Sockeye Salmon were listed as an Endangered Species in November 1991.

Once they returned to Idaho by the millions. they swam upstream hundreds of miles - up the Salmon to the Sawtooth Valley, to the Twin Falls on the Snake, to the headwaters of the Clearwater. Today most rivers and streams that once welcomed Chinook, Sockeye and Steelhead have no fish that return at all.

These fish represent the beauty and determination of Idaho, its people and its priceless native fish. It is both sad and painfully profound that these fish may, in the future, be seen only in photos or prints like this. Their fate hangs by a strong but thin thread.

About Us

Well, the Four Sockeye got their start in 1991. That year we had the privilege of being able to make our first print, "Redfish Return". Only four Sockeye returned to the Stanley Basin that year, and we were able to use one of the four fish to make a "fish print" that represents all four. Fish print? Fish printing? What the heck are these guys doing? Believe it or not, we actually take a fish (usually deceased), paint the fish with acrylics to closely match the natural colors and then press it on a big sheet of paper.

Our type of printing is loosely based on the Japanese art form called "Gyotaku". Only we don't use ink (until later) or rice paper. We also do a little more work with other media to make the print more recognizable as a fish. The acrylic paint and heavy watercolor paper we use does not pick up as much detail as ink and rice paper will. The paint does provide a good image that is somewhat vague. This allows us to come back later and add much more detail of our own artistic flair. The process gives us a great deal of flexibility with color, technique and inspiration. We have even used linen instead of paper, and usually one dark color to get an image of the fish.

The founders of the Four Sockeye, Rick Alsager, Doug Young and Dan Baker, are all "fish people". We work with fish, we go fishing, and now we even paint fish! Because of our extensive time spent with the fish that make up our prints, we have a close, heart-felt relationship. Check out our personal bio's by clicking on any of our names, and see why we have become such great admirers of these fish!!

Since the first print, Four Sockeye has produced four new limited edition prints. In addition to "Redfish Return", the prints include "Salmon River Rogue" (Chinook Salmon, 1998), "Spring Fling" (Steelhead, 2000), "Fish On" (White Sturgeon, 2002), and "A Cutt Above The Rest" (Westslope Cuttthoat Trout 2005). One more print is expected between 2007 and 2008 (Bull Trout).

Of course we hope that you will like our work enough to want to put at least one of these prints on your wall, but we also ask that you take a little time to find out more about these wonderful fish. Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate! These fish are truly symbols of the Northwest! They are no less important than the American Bison, the Peregrine Falcon or the Bald Eagle.And, they too deserve saving. It will mean that some sacrifices have to be made on our part.

Four Sockeye donates 5% of total print sales to the Idaho Fish and Game non-game fund and has set aside 50 of each of the prints as Conservation Edition prints for donations to organizations. As a result, we've made donations totaling thousands of dollars to worthwhile organizations.

In these times of environmental disregard and uncertainty, the words of Aldo Leopold ring more true today than ever before;

"It has been said that some can live without wildlife. Some cannot."