Whats the matter here ?

The other day hundreds of Geese flew over our heads here at Mile 14 so the next morning MP and I decided to go bird watching on the Kenai flats like we've done for decades. The birds stop and feed in the wetlands at the mouth of the river and although their numbers aren't what they used to be it's still mighty darn impressive...but.... we couldn't fine them. How ever we did find the largest flock of gulls I've ever seen and you have to admit, the views from the flats are stunning.

We went to the south side of the river and looked for the Geese along the roads that lead to the salmon Canneries were I worked and delivered salmon as a kid, I have fond memories of this area. The smells of the fishing industry and the energy of it all is so uniquely Alaskan. I was thinking all of this when we came across a disturbing sight, I don't understand.

We're all neighbors here on this little trip around the Sun and it bothers me to see this. It's not really about Sportfishing. I mean do they really think that Fair Chase people like us would want to walk through their  cannery just to wet a line in the tidal mud and fish the oily mud water with no hope of a Fair Chase bite ?...no, they don't think that, this is just a message, 'we don't like what you guys do and we don't like that every year more people recreate for fish and even teach their kids and family' and.....It's amazing to me. Last year somewhere around 1300 commercial fishermen caught and sold 3.1 million salmon. I don't blame them for that, I really don't, in fact it's impressive....what I DO blame them for is that they would begrudge people like us the few that we catch and drive this wedge into a  wonderful community. For perspective I went through my 2015 logbook that I keep accurately every year. My old black boat had a total of 159 people fish from it and caught and kept 171 salmon....That's a lot of smiles, a lot of hours and a nice little bump for us and I don't think it's too much to ask from a resource that supposedly belongs to everybody.

The contrast in all of this wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't the experience and know the players here like I do. Some of our most outspoken commercial fishermen are people who really ' recreate' with commercial fishing as they have other jobs. One is local school principle, one a north sloper, another a local dentist....and we even have a State Senator who not only gets a retirement and health care from the State along with legislative per diem but he also works full time for Conoco/ Phillips Oil Company....So how much Alaska does a guy need I'd ask....maybe you guys could leave a little for everybody else. And cut it with the messages, a bunch of us know what you're saying.

I'm thinking a nice loud song oughta help me right about now....here's a Daryl Dodd song that's new to me that I really like, hope you do.

And seeings how I got my YouTube channel finally up and running here's a video I promised a few years ago that I was never able to figure out how to load on the blog. Me, Tony and Slah got into a herd of Spinner dolphins out of Mazatlan that was incredible. It was really rough that day so the video is a bit choppy but man oh man....these guys were jumping completely out of the water, there were hundreds and hundreds of them.