Kenai Gold

That's a whole box of it. It takes little fish to catch big fish and it seems that the Sardine bait fishery in San Francisco bay failed this year and a box like that is a rare thing in Slowdotna Alaska. But being an adherent to the 5 P principle ( proper preparation prevents poor performance) I got plenty of them. So on Saturday which was our first day of being allowed to use bait I had confidence that we could make the ' rod go off '....This fish that Todd Tukey caught was text book, it did everything these wonderful fish can do. It bit hard, it ran out 100 yards of line, it jumped and several time it was my favorite show, you're a little tight on them and they come up shaking their heads and splashing real well....flat exciting.

And you'll notice not a boat in sight. I don't know what it is with our guides these days but they were all up river fishing when the tide was absolutely perfect for the down river fishing, oh well, we didn't really miss them. Here's a pic of a great family, the Tukeys from Maine...

I got to use my new water proof camera this week. Boy was that exciting. One thing about having spent most of my adult life in a boat on the Kenai River is that I am certainly a rain expert. I've sat through many a toad strangler...Tuesday was rainy but Weds the 6th of July in the year of 2016 was exceptional...it flat poured...all day... Here's a couple pics that might help you feel one millionth of what me and Bill Church and two Ed Churches fished through...thanks for being tough guys.

Kimmie here grew up in Great Falls Montana so we had a pretty good day of Montana speak. I have to admit, Montana is a gorgeous, cool place...but after 45 years of  Alaska it seems so limiting when I go there. Do ya know what I mean ?... But Kim and Brian who live in Rhode Island go there all the time and fish and hunt so it was kinda cool that they both caught the biggest fish of their lives.... so far that is, that's the way I look at it.

So yesterday was the first day of dip netting. I know this ain't the right place because I know my friends / readers wouldn't ever do anything like these jerk wads...but I have to show the pic of what me and MP came across on our walk. Ya know I've had fish fever as bad as anybody, I still get it, that excited ' I gotta hurry' feeling, but I'd never...Our visitors that do this oughta be ' uninvited ' to our town. Hit the road jerks, don't come back. Period.

I don't have a song for you this week but I did come across this poem. I liked it . Although it's about commercial fishermen I guess me and MP's lifestyle fall right in line with this. We rely on the fish, we rely on the government, we can't control the weather...we work damn hard.