Feast or Famine

I hate to bore you with another graph but this is so dramatic that I just have to. The river is dropping like a busted jackhammer, anybody that thinks the river is not a living thing that's always in motion and changing day to day needs to see what I see.

Not only that but the Kenai is plum full of gorgeous coho salmon. Coming off the worst King year in recent history (but our escapements were met , a good thing) we're now enjoying what might be a record silver run...but we don't know because ADF+G really doesn't know. Years ago I coined a phrase for when you leave things alone for the best outcome, I call it 'proper neglect'.  Well with silver management I think the dept. has taken a page from the life and wisdom of Jeff King, they're just leaving those babies alone and it seems to be working. Unlike the King runs our silver runs have no, none,  'tools to manage them for 'maximum 'sustained yield'. No escapement goals, no sonar counters, very little creel senses, no weirs to channel ol slimey to where you need him. There's no test net fishery or tag and release program to follow their upstream migration and eventual discovery of their spawning grounds. In other words our fisheries managers just let mother nature take her course and....well....it's working great ! Keep it up guys. We have a river full of beautiful fish like this one Chris Bidwell caught, he's a musician so we kinda bonded.

And here's a pic of a morning's catch after we let a few go after some calisthenics.

Then I got the opportunity to fish a young couple from Germany. They were touring Alaska with Julien here to finally end up in Fairbanks where she'll do fall semester at U.A.F. They endured a brutally windy and rainy day but she caught the first fish of her entire life....pretty cool.

And you know me it's got to be about more than just dead fish. I snapped this pic as soon as the guys pointed out this coyote. He was  rusty colored and didn't much like that we spotted  him but he was real close for a while and looking over his shoulder at us.

Here's something I never do: how's about a RECIPE ? 

You must know that feeling when you taste something that's different than anything you've ever tasted before, it has to be one of life's simple pleasures, a discovery. Well we had that feeling years ago when our friend Chris Fejes introduced us to 'his' Hungarian Pork chops. Chris being a 2nd generation American decided years ago to visit what was then Czechoslovakia and look up his direct family. He came back with a lot experiences and lessons in love and culture...as well as this recipe that we enjoyed again last night.

First off you take some nice high quality lean pork chops and cover them entirely with paprika. And I mean cover them and don't buy the cheap paprika, we use the real imported Hungarian stuff.

Then I get the barbie real hot and sear some real nice lines on the chops. The paprika seems to seal in the juices so these chops ain't going to be them ol dried out milk drinkers that your mom made.

So I got my lines seared and I then put them away from the fire on the top shelf at 350 or so. At about 15 minutes in I'm thinking they're getting close and that's when you pile on the goodies. Each chop gets big ol dollop of authentic saurkraut and then a couple huge spoonfuls of sour cream, MP's partial to the stuff with the chives in it and then sprinkle it with....yes....more paprika.

 I let em go until the sour cream is melted into the saurkraut real well and walla. Chrs's pork chops, they'd make a Bulldog break his chain. And oh, a nice bottle of Malbec.

Now Chris....if I don't have this exactly right hows about a refresher course next weekend when we're done fishing ? Maybe even make that famous Ceaser's salad of yours with the secret ingedient ?