Is it? Could it be?....Really???

Tuesday, May 18th of the year 2010 was a huge day for me. Our friend Mike Swan bought a trip with me to celebrate his wife Marci's 39th birthday. Theres nothing more flattering for me than being picked by somebody who knows them all , so I really, really, really want to see Marci catch a King. Nope. Nadda. Mike and Marci along with a great father son team from Texas never have a bite. In my commercial days it was called a 'waterhaul'. But, we smiled, it didn't rain, we saw these and other moose, we settled some political problems and I even got a hug from Marci when we parted. Great day.

The next day I again fished with Robert and his son Cowen. They are real outdoorsmen and know that fishing is fickle. Its so early in the year and with the run just starting my experience tells me that when we fish hard like we will today good things happen.....but not today. Nadda.

So this morning I meet my new fishing friends Jim and Beth Roukema. I look at Beth and think to myself...she's got it, and I know one thing that I've joyously and sometimes painfully learned through the years, nothings forever. The next pic is Jim and Beth running the boat, notice thats theres not another boat in sight.

The morning is clear and cold but as we run downriver you can tell its going to be one of those days, sunny, fishy. I never really have a stringent game plan, I always kind of use my intuition and make it up as I go. So as we run into Fall-in-Hole I decide to keep going. Even though most of the fish that have been caught this year have been caught there I really don't want to fish around the 4 boats that are trolling it. I'm figuring to fish the holding water down river and if that doesn't work I follow the pattern that I have for years and find the incoming tide and follow it up. No worries. But we can't get a bite. Its 9 am by now and the left side of my brain says......."you &**$#@ idiot...why ain't you at Fall-in-Hole" ? So we run up there just in time to see two of the four boats catch a fish. Yikes. We fish there a while but I know you need to stick with what made you so I go back downriver and we're the only boat again , all alone I bet on the tide. Its way into the morning and I'm really enjoying Jim and Beth and they are so casual that I laughingly take two different colored Qwikfish into my hands and put them behind my back and tell Beth to pick one...She says left hand and its a chartreuse with silver. As she's reeling in to change lures I see it, pull down! I say "you've got him"...Beth thinks she's on the bottom and I figure she's a bit aggressive by nature because she instinctively jerks hard. Its hooked for sure. The fish continues going upriver and almost outruns the boat but finally we get in control and Beth lifts the rod as it runs off 100 feet of line. She's great, its the first King she's ever caught and she fights him with the rod (and not the reel) and we finally see it. The only way to explain it is they just shine....you pull them up from the bottom and the sun hits them just right its plain magic, everyone in the boat including me goes, (whooooooh.....thats a niiiiiiiiice fish)

It turned out to weigh exactly 40 pounds. A gorgeous creature and a very delicious creature. We fished a few more hours more but to catch another this time of year would use up alot of credits. It was a great day, in fact a great week. The trip ended. I'm happy, Beth and Jim are Happy but of all of us involved the happiest was probably the seagulls when I threw the first of THEIR season into the river.

I begged a fillet, fresh Kenai King Salmon tommorrow night, pass the chardonnay.........