When you fail to plan - you plan to fail

That's what we need, a plan. Right now we're on catch and release for May / June King salmon because there is no harvest able surplus. There were just barely enough in 2011 and not enough again in 2010, I don't know about the managers at Fish and Game but I'd call that a trend. so, if any of you have any influence or knows a guy that knows a guy....PLEASE, tell them we need a plan, it might even be called a ' May / June salmon recovery plan'....hows that for helping out ?

So fishing last week wasn't exactly red hot but we do hunt them babies down. I got a call from a guy named Rex Bell who's wife Yvonne and him fished with me in 1984. Hows that for cool, have a guy look you up for an encore performance 27 years later, and to make it even better, as life would have it Yvonne works in Great Falls Montana with my brother. So after 7 hours in a steady rain,  trolling and hoping and grinding and wishing the rod went off and we were hard into a salmon. What the Kenai is all about, high risk, high rewards. This fish that Rex's son Norm caught was really something, it jumped, it ran, it was flat thrilling and came in at 45 inches and 48 pounds, a beauty.

The day before I did a trip for some wonderful people, Tom Luetscher and his wife Audrey and niece Shirley. We had not one but two good chances where the fish didn't get the hook and I'm beginning to think that our chances are up....and walla...this beautiful 35 pound hen picked up Shirley's wiggle wart lure and provided a gourmet meal that night in the campground.  Thanks Tom, you guys were great.

I don't know what it is with the catch and release that some folks don't like, this week I have a crew who decided not to and another that doesn't care. The bright side is that the river will be quiet and fun and they have a chance to maybe catch more than just the one per of a daily bag limit if you retain the salmon. As for me, I like letting them go, I feel involved, doing my part. If you remember a few blogs back I released a huge one a week ago or so...and it was great, ole slimey just furnished a thrill and then went on his way, more salmon in the future and that's part of the plan, I guess.  Some of the guys are going trout fishing or taking their fisherman to the Russian for Red salmon, well, that's not me, we hunt down King salmon, its what we do and I'm hoping to have some C+R trips, we'll see.

Yesterday was the warmest day of the year. I've been a little bluesy with the loss of some salmon trips and with the weather and inspiration from the U.S. Open me and MP decided to go golfing. But why go all the way to the course when we have acres of green and a completely empty parking lot right here at Mile 14. So we spent some hours shanking balls into the woods  and recovering the ones that actually ended up where we intended. Even Jet-dog helped with the retrievals, as you can see our dandelion crop is gorgeous...Sure made me feel better, smacking around a few golf balls with the person you love in the place you love...that's pretty darn cool.