Logo of Rollman Family Salmon featuring a detailed illustration of a salmon fish alongside the brand name, emphasizing quality and family heritage in salmon production.
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Logo of Rollman Family Salmon featuring a detailed illustration of a salmon fish alongside the brand name, emphasizing quality and family heritage in salmon production.

About Us

Trevor was born with a cork-line in his hand. Only a week old, in June of 1977 he rode on his mom's lap in the Willy'z Jeep fifteen miles up the bumpy beach to the fishsite. Another summer of hard work set-netting for salmon was ahead of them. Growing up on the beach and learning the trade with his family developed a deep love of the commercial fishing lifestyle that has kept him coming back to the fishsite every summer since.

Forty years after that first trip up the beach, Trevor and his own young family started Rollman Family Salmon - but the story and tradition of commercial fishing in the Rollman family begins further back.

It was the summer of 1969 when Bonnie and Tom hit the Alaska Highway with Tom Jr. in an apple crate in the back seat, and sister Suzy on the way.

Dad had been promised a teaching job in Anchorage if they could just get there - over 2000 miles of dust and bumps. Arriving with literally only coins in their pockets, one of their first meals was a chum salmon given to them by a generous angler at the Bird Creek campground. Little did they know the significant role salmon was soon to play in their lives.

After that first winter teaching, Dad jumped at the opportunity to buy a fish site, sight-unseen. The living conditions that first summer on the beach were tough for Mom and the kids, and Dad soon learned that the sites he bought left a lot to be desired, but he and my uncle learned how to fish that summer from the "school-of-hard-knocks" and Mom kept the home-fires burning.

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Couple smiling and posing with a freshly caught salmon at a fishery event, showcasing their catch and enjoying a day outdoors.
An elderly fisherman wearing a black hat and waterproof gear stands on a boat, surrounded by misty waters and a forested shoreline. The early morning light creates a serene atmosphere as he prepares for a day of fishing.
Family fishing trip on a small boat, featuring a man in a striped shirt and yellow overalls, a woman in a red sweater, and a young child holding a fish, surrounded by a large catch of fish in the boat. The scene captures a nostalgic moment on the water.
Children posing proudly with a large fish hanging from a hook outside a rustic wooden building, surrounded by pebbles. The boy wears a red hoodie and gray pants, while the girl is in a white long-sleeve shirt and striped pants, smiling at the camera.
A smiling couple wearing waterproof gear stands on a beach next to an all-terrain vehicle, surrounded by greenery and a rocky shoreline. The man wears red waders and a blue vest, while the woman is in black waders and a blue jacket, showcasing a joyful moment outdoors.
A man in fishing gear holds a large fish while standing with a baby, a girl, and a boy, all wearing life jackets. In the background, another person is visible near a wooden structure by the water, under a clear blue sky.
Group of four individuals in fishing gear standing in shallow water beside a boat, smiling while posing with a blue container filled with fish. The scene captures a sunny day on the water, highlighting a family or team engaged in fishing activities.
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The story continues...

When the season ended and a much more desirable neighboring fish site came up for sale they scrambled to scrape together the resources and made the purchase: A beautiful piece of oceanfront land with a simple cabin at the mouth of Seven Egg Creek. Fishing in the summers and teaching in the winters would become a family tradition and pattern of life for decades to follow.

Through the '70s and '80s, every summer Mom and Dad raised us kids on the beach, teaching us to pick fish, drive old trucks and steer tiller-handled outboards on wooden skiffs. While learning how to harvest food for the planet, we also learned how to grow vegetables, cut firewood and hunt moose. We hauled drinking water from the creek, baked bread in our wood fired cook-stove and used kerosene lamps for light.

I cherished growing up in "the bush", close to the land and water. I knew that one day, when I had a family, I wanted to raise my kids on that same land where they could learn the same values of hard work, resourcefulness and self-responsibility I had.

Salmon paid for my first pick-up truck when I was sixteen and put me and my siblings through college. Every spring my brothers and I returned from college to Alaska, joining Dad to harvest the provision of the ocean that would help us through the winters. As each of us got married and began families of our own we each branched into our own fishing ventures, and fishing continued to provide.

In later years, while my brothers successfully diversified their fishing interests in Bristol Bay, Adria and I focused our summer efforts at the original Cook Inlet fish site at Seven Egg Creek, and in 2017 we began Rollman Family Salmon.
Direct marketing our catch had always been a dream, but now the move to add value to our catch had become somewhat of a necessity -- I was quitting my teaching job, we were selling our house in Wasilla and moving to the fishsite to stay for the winter!

 

A smiling man and girl wearing orange fishing gear hold a large fish while standing on a boat in a lake, with a cloudy sky and wooded shoreline in the background.
Three men wearing fishing waders pose together outdoors, smiling and enjoying a sunny day. The background features a rustic wooden building and greenery, while a barbecue grill and other outdoor items are visible nearby.
Man in red fishing gear proudly holds a large silver fish while standing on a beach, showcasing a successful catch during a fishing trip.
Group of fishers standing by a blue container filled with freshly caught fish, with a boat in the background and water in the foreground. They are dressed in fishing gear, smiling and showcasing their catch.
A man stands on a rocky beach holding a large salmon, flanked by two children, a boy in a red sweater and a girl in a blue jacket. The background features a calm sea and a clear blue sky, with a boat visible in the distance. This image captures a family fishing experience, showcasing the joy of catching fish.
Group of children and an adult pulling in a fishing net from the water, surrounded by a natural landscape of trees and gravel shore. The scene captures the essence of fishing activities and teamwork in a river environment.
Two fishermen in orange rain gear pose on a boat, smiling as they hold a freshly caught fish against a backdrop of calm waters and a cloudy sky.
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We weren't sure how starting a new business would go, but not long after posting flyers around town and starting a Facebook page, orders started coming in. A few weeks later we were making our first trip to the Friday Fling market in Palmer to meet up with our new customers! The inaugural season would be a success and supported us financially through our winter off-the-grid.

For the next four years, each winter looked different for our family, going on a different adventure out of state, home-schooling as we went, but in keeping with the age-old pattern, summers at the fishsite remained our anchor and the primary means of God's provision in our lives.

The out-of-state winter adventures ended in 2022 when we decided it was time to settle down and give our three children a stable place from which to launch their adult lives. Ella and Brandt were starting 10th and 9th grade, Clara 6th.

Our landing place? Soldotna, AK. Trevor always wanted to live closer to the fishsite than where he grew up in Eagle River, so we gave Soldotna a try and we love it!

Each spring we look forward to moving from town out to the fishsite, enjoying our summer life in the bush, setting the nets and harvesting the bounty. We also look forward to our customers' friendly, familiar faces and filling their coolers with fish at our local meet-ups. We look forward to booking freight flights for our salmon to land in places like Dallas and Baltimore. We look forward to the simplicity of steering tiller handles and driving pick-up trucks on the beach, and picking each fish with care, knowing it will be deeply appreciated by another family, like ours.
Thanks for reading and being a part of our story!