The War's over

....and we didn't win. We're on catch and release again for King Salmon, it's not the end of the world but I can see it from here.  It's kind of funny, C+R wasn't good enough for us in May/June when on a certain date escapement was assured but it's good enough for us now with the commercial people hard at work eradicating a 'low abundance' run. I'll get the informational over early here....thanks a hell of a lot to the people at a certain sport fishing group that helped engineer this craziness. We have management plans here that are 40 years old and state that kings and silvers will be managed 'primarily' for sport fishing and sockeyes 'primarily' for commercial. So what we have here is total reallocation of the fish, with them harvesting 100% and us none. You see it's simple, they have all the fish. So, we're not managing according to plans or goals or fairness or sustainability  or....what we're managing for is chaos, and we've got it.

So with all this on my mind my birthday came July 16th. I had the day off as an Anchorage couple was going to come and had a health issue so I hope it's OK for them...but that's the way things are going around here. So feeling just stuck I guess, in the control of chaos that I can't do anything about I went for a bike ride....and man did I peddle. I sweated , I pumped the hills as hard as I could and instead of it all falling behind it seemed like I was just catching up to more...I wasn't doing well. When I got home MP and I went to the Freddies store, I needed to be busy. All I could hear was background noise and as I sat on a bench waiting for her to check out she asked if I was OK. I told her I'd just been thinking. It's the problem with being a 100% guy, there's no grey areas, there's 23 hours everyday of wonderful faith, happiness, respect and love....and then this, grief for the only thing that I love that I  just can't give any help to.

So with this on my mind I went into the guide week determined to have fun. I know it's not about me but my fishing friends just knew....I was flashing through the 30 some years and I was wondering about the future, I was....so thanks Ty , you're the best buddy. And Nikki and Tom, what can I say, this all has been a lesson in culture for us and I hope we all grow old together...smiling. And oh, Nikki always catches, she's got the right stuff.

I was working through my funk about mid week. The crisp mornings and the quiet sloshing of the river seems to kind of comfort me. I guess I felt better knowing that the parts of it all that I like so much that aren't fish related weren't just mine, the fisherman all said....gorgeous....and couldn't you help but think that a 6 am rainbow was a message, a good message.

And then I got a birthday card and my funk seemed to just evaporate. Marty Holleran is an original. We met in 1985 and although we don't stay in daily touch he's certainly one of my great finds of all time. Check this deal out close now. The stamps are genuine old 2 and 3 cent, you can tell he's in the stamp business and it just cheered me up. Thanks Marty, you're out of control.

Friday we had a Montana day. It was the last day for anybody to retain a Kenai King so I had all my stuff checked and double checked. MP's brother Dave is here with a friend ad his son Dan. Then we recruited a great guy from Columbia Falls named Paul Murphy so it was a perfect chemistry. But, we struggled. The closest thing to bite we've seen was going on and we only got hit once and he didn't stick. A friend of mine had two kings in his boat and us nodda...but we worked through and as always seems to happen, magic occurred. Paul's rod went off and he had this fish on. It ran, it jumped not just once but several times, it was about as knarly a fight as I've ever seen so we were pumped. So for me I took a second and thought...that's a great adios.

And of course I'm always on the look out for the unusual. I guess I should have taken a pic of the Park Ranger who raced right over to make sure we caught Paul's fish legally but I didn't want to embarrass him even though he had no problem embarrassing me...Ya know 30 some years of doing it all right just doesn't mean anything to those guys...or jerks I should say. But while I had my camera out I got this beauty...and no, they weren't doing it to us on purpose....I think....I hope....

Of course the dip net fishery is in full swing. So instead of giving you my thoughts and observations I'm just going to post a few pics to give you all the flavor of what it's about. Make up your own wise cracks and I'll see you next week.