Moving On

With our abbreviated King season over and the craziness of 1.5 million red salmon ending that's what we're doing, we're moving on, that's something I've always been good at. This ole river and us at Mile 14 are breathing a big sigh of relief.  And the news is not all bad, even though we and our neighbors suffered through it the escapement of Kenai Kings is not bad and bodes well for our future. Even though its not optimum we should come in with over 15,000 spawner's and following our traditional recruitment model of 3 to 1 we should have 45,000 kings from this parent year, lets hope so, that's the way Jeff's got it figured. .

And to make things even better it seems the coldest July on record has let go and we're enjoying better weather, even some sunshine. It hit on Friday.....sunny day, sunflowers. I took this pic of the sunflowers you see first when you arrive, its a pretty sign and a  pretty girl. I especially like the bear climbing the pole, it was MP's birthday present from her friend Robin, pretty cool.

It really is remarkable that we can go out and catch our supper pretty much whenever we want. Today the Nascar race got rained out early so we loaded up to see how the river was doing. So here's a pic of MP with our first salmon on the line, she's smilin again eh.

Being a health nut and finally old enough to prepare and appreciate good food, I always tell people that for me fish freshness trumps variety. So a fresh king is number one with us but a fresh pink beats a frozen king or a red for sure. These pink salmon have kind of a bad rap, they deteriorate quickly once in the river and of course the males grow the hump that makes them the 'rogue male humpy's' that get side ways in the current and wear you out. But the fresh females like this are wonderful fish, although the flesh is a little softer and paler than reds or silvers they have a wonderful mild taste, and the good news is, they come to the river in droves. You gotta admit, that's a gorgeous fish.

mmmmm, I think I just set a record for consecutive pics of my running buddy. So here's something that jumped out at me when we were walking this morning through town. I've never been into Northland Furs but judging by the looks of their place I got the feeling it would be a fun and interesting place to shop, give it a try. I mean how often do you get to see a moose with no clothes on and well....the sign kind of speaks to the Alaskan way of life, these guys are on our team I'd say.

So this week starts my favorite fishing of the year. I have many of my very best fishing friends scheduled, I even have my surf fishing guru buddy Ernie Mills coming in September so please come back to the blog. we're going to catch a ton of fish and have a ton of  fun, we're movin on.