Now we're fishing

That's what my friend Chick Kishbaugh would say every year at this time when we transitioned from Kings and Reds to Silvers and Pinks..." now we're fishing"...and it's pretty true Chick-a-saw.

The other day I was on my bike ride at 5 am. I took this shot at Soldotna Creek, I think you've seen this type from me before but it was so perfect and to me really captures the essence of sport fishing. The day's just starting with new hope, the air is crisp and so clean that it smells like....well, just fishing I guess and this man is alone with his thoughts and passion of the pursuit. Then when we got home and took a look I noticed that line of Mergansers and wow, I hadn't seen that, so in Jeff's world this shot here is a home run, a real dinger.

And this place never ceases to surprise me. People have asked me if I ever get bored with fishing every single day and I of course tell them  that the way I see it is the river is a living thing and just like in your life how every day is different so it also goes for the ol Kenai. And that's how it was when we came across these guys the other day. I've seen them in the mid river hunting before but never frolicking around 20 feet from my boat, pretty cool.

My friend Steve Wendt has his friend Wes visiting from Calgary Alberta, the home of many of my Mazatlán friends. Wes there was kind enough to catch the first silver salmon of the season for us and in my world, that's a big deal.

Steve has been on the team here at Mile 14 for 15 years or more I'd guess. We've become great friends, he's a steady guy. When we fish we talk politics, kids, current events, you name it and although his views are a bit more conservative than mine we see the world revolving around with the same appreciation and observations. So  we went trout fishing because we've always threatened to and never had. Well, Wes hooked a king salmon and as we finished getting rid of him as fast as we could I saw a big ol trout jump on the right side of the boat.....mmmmm.....then I looked over to Steve on the left side of the boat and he's working on a knarly backlash like I've never seen before on a spinning reel. So Steve finally figures the only way to land this guy is hand over hand and when he gets it close to the boat and I see how big it is I tell him he better loosen the drag a bit....but we land it and although a bit unorthodox you can't argue with success. I told Steve he must be a little rusty or he'd have run it through the prop as well.

Once again I'm honored to be fishing with people who came back after a twenty year hiatus. Jim Smagalla was with Pat Mcavoy in 1994 and he enjoyed it so much that he finally returned with his family. He's staying with Keith at the same cabins as before and although older and a few speed bumps behind us we're still having fun fishing together. Here's his son in law Rich with a nice silver salmon, how about that smile eh ?

Remember when I said ADF+G would cook the books to get King Salmon escapement if they had to....well walla.  I was going to show you the actual numbers they had up on their web page and when I went there this morning, it's changed, it's different. I guess they figure stupid people like us just wouldn't notice but this is what they're doing. The numbers showed the counts ending July 31st when the King Salmon management plan ends. For all the time I've been here that was how it was done and the 10% to 15% that sometimes came or might come in August where 'bonus' escapement and not part of the management plan. Up until  today even the ADF+G published comparison number showed 2011 and 2012 ending at July 31 and 2013 and 2014 counting until August 15th when the commercial season ends....But they changed their web page and added fish for august 2011 and 2012 so it doesn't  look so bad but here's a bit of evidence they forgot. On the graph you can see the two lines that end before the 2013 and 2014 lines. You see where the purple and green lines end ?...that's when they quit counting on those years or else the lines would continue I suppose.

By counting fish now that they never used to essentially what they've done is lower the escapement. And why? Well, it's pretty simple , just so the commercial fisherman can fish like they will today and like they did the day before yesterday and catch.....King salmon like the ones that were regulated away from us in July. But it's a brilliant way to get escapement and ya know what guys....if you don't get the numbers you like by August 15th  what the heck, just keep counting until May and maybe some of those early run 2015 fish are really late run 2014 Kings.....ooops shouldn't be giving those guys any ideas.

Every now and then even I  come across something that just doesn't make sense and no matter how many scenarios I run through I can't find an explanation. Along the high bluff across from RW's many people have steep walk ways built to access the river but this 12 foot step ladder can't really help much...I don't get it. mmmmmm.....maybe part of an ADF+G research project ?????