1st of the year

Betcya read that title and figured fish, right ? mmmmm....well, you know me. I'm on the side of honesty and we pitched our first no-hitter of the year today, and hopefully the last. I've been feeling guilty for not getting a blog post out recently but my strategy was to wait until today, my 1st real day of hard fishing was over so I could include a pic of ol slimey on his way to the barbie. As my friend Chick Kishbaugh  so wisely word smithed "today we fished for King Salmon...and they were not aware of it ".

And its to darn bad because I had special guys out today. For a guide like me it doesn't get any better than fishing our guys from the military and local military guys to boot. This is Mike Mathews and his running buddy Scott from Elmendorf Air Force Base. I met them a few years back when Mike won a trip I donated for their Christmas party and they've been with me ever since. These guys are steady, military Professionals, 20 year guys who make me realise our country's in pretty darn good hands, not to get mushy....but I'm proud to know these guys. Scott grew up in Wisconsin and knows his fishing and Mike a native Ohio en is rotating out in June and I really wanted him to have ' the picture ' like so many of us Alaskans have, its a gorgeous 44 pounder , silver dollar shiny with sea lice being held up at eye level and stopping at the knees...Well sorry Mikey.

The day promised rain and it didn't. We had an actual Eagle on Eagle Rock but he flew off as I fumbled to get the camera out of the water proof bag. We saw some moose but I forgot to take a pic and a boat below us caught a nice King so we were right in the game. The run is just starting and we all know its a crap shoot out there, we trolled 8 hours....but, how often do you see Fall-in-hole look like this ?

Not a boat in sight. Although there were maybe 8 or 10 boats on the river it was a quiet wilderness today. All you hear are the gulls and eagles screeching as they look for mates this time of year, pretty cool. It was so quiet at Beaver Creek that this Loon sounded like he had a Peavey Amplifier like mine. My picture taking kinda went like the salmon catching...there were actually 2 Loons together which defies the conventional knowledge that there is only one Loon per lake or area. Well, I'd have one on the surface and one diving for food....then I'd have one on the surface on the right of the boat and one on the surface on the left of the boat. Just one of those days I guess.

So we got Mike and Scott on the road back to Los Anchorage at 2:30. The outdoors like this can make you a little sleepy, especially when you drive down at 3 am. But I got no worries with these two guys, with their work schedule and what they've gone through on deployments a little sleep deprivation and a fish less day is duck soup...easy... And me, well, I'll sleep good tonight. We got guys like this watching the gate. I got my season started and worked hard, it says something when we go biteless and I get a tip....so thanks guys for everything and if I don't see you Mike good luck in Missouri, it was a great day.