Now it's time to go fishing.

With our King season over on Tuesday and the Kenai River sockeye run in total failure it's time to move on, we're going silver and pink salmon fishing, my favorite. With all net fisheries on hold until Kenai Sockeye escapement is met I think people will be surprised at how many Coho's get into all the rivers.

So humor me a bit here as I show you the graph that pretty much tells the tale of yet another fisheries disaster in the State. The commercial fishery is totally closed and common sense says it should stay closed for the remainder of 2018, even if a few reds show up over the 900,000 escapement goal one thing we're learning is that this fishery is so powerful it could really put a a dent in all the other fisheries. Of course the sport fishing has been reduced to just one red a day and Alaska's favorite fishery the personal use dip net fishing has been closed as well....but not soon enough for our commercial neighbors who are hollering that it's unfair if people fish when they don't. Never mind that we deal in dozens or hundreds and they deal in thousands or better yet millions....it's one of Jeff's maxim's in life, you see... miserable people want you to be miserable too.

The Governor ( who needs to be unelected) came down and met with the commercial guys and listened to them blame everyone including guys like me.....sheesh.....Statistically we catch nothing and we do a lot for the economy with that nothing and I don't believe the Governor has ever once met with us through the trials and travails of guided sport fishing. I don't know what it's going to take but our community will have to pull together sooner or later if we are to all share and respect each others fishery life styles....we might as well get started now if any of you are reading. But....this is what I see.

That's me on my way silver fishing...And boy oh boy did my friend Seth get us started in the right direction. Our first silver of the year was an honest to goodness 14 pounder. I call him Super Seth because.....well, he is....About as good and eager as any fisherman I've ever met. You've got a wonderful life full of fishing adventures and fair chase ahead of you Seth, carry on buddy.

So I hope you all come back to Mile 14 as we move into our fall season. Maybe you sense that this blog just doesn't have the ooomphaa it usually has....well, it' been a bit emotional for me to deal with all the weirdness's of rules changes and fishing closures, it's not how I imagined my last year of guiding. But that's in the rear view mirror now and we'll get our swagger back...I took this pic of my work bench that kinda tells the story of this lifestyle....complicated but simple at the same time, ya know what I mean ??? all of you that guide, I know you do.