We're going catching

In a 9th inning attempt to reach King salmon escapement the ADF+G made the river catch and release on Tuesday and then totally closed it on Thursday , I hope it works....I truly do. But I'm afraid that for the first time ever the minimum goal won't be met. I just don't have the heart to be to critical right now and what good would it do anyways....so we did what we always do... we went fishing. I've got the best people around me. Here's a pic of my friend John Japp who's a fairly new member of 'F' Troop expertly casting that Triton series Shimano. And though I didn't get a pic of his world record backlash on the next drift his running buddy Chuck made a semi-duplicate just for our photo viewing pleasure. Thanks guys, it was great to see you.

It was a great day but a 'water haul' all the same. So the next day we went into executive session and decided that with the Kings being released and all we'd try some new fish...in fact we decided to go catching. It's the beautiful thing about this place at Mile 14, theres lots to do, loads of options. And even with a fishy change in plans the rest of the story never ceases to amaze me. We saw this scene not once but twice while red fishing with the second one so close we could smell him. Tom thought it was ultra cool.

I take pride in not hitting things but the above Soldotna stretch of water cost me a prop for the first time in 7 or 8 years. I was releasing one of these gorgeous rainbows like this one that Jeff caught  and floated onto a rock while in neutral. It kinda made me wonder if I was getting like that ageing athlete that you hear of 'losing a step'. Oh well....it was worth it ,on each day we went up we caught at least 25 or 30 of these guys. As you can see we use the rubber net so it doesn't take the slime off as we carefully release these wonderful fish.

Most of them were around 2or 3 pounds but we also caught a few in the 7 and 8 range and then this whopper that Doris got hold of. This fish jumped eye level several times and ran off half of her 12 pound test. We actually had one that was considerably bigger but I didn't get a pic because I wanted him released right away.

I know, I gotta work on my fish pose, having half of him covered up with my arm is kinda junior varsity . So tomorrow we set sail for silvers and failing that we run up above Soldotna and trout fish. I expect with the commercial guys shut down for King conservation the good news is that we'll see good silvers and early silvers. Stand by....and you know me, fishing is an event, it's everything, the vistas, the humor, the stories, the learning and sharing, the wildlife, the air and the sounds of an eagle screeching away...it's all of it....and I love it. Our King's aren't doing so good right now but the rest of it is just hunky dory.