Ya know when I was a kid with an old wood boat and more courage than brains I don't really remember learning a new fishery as a difficult thing to do....you just went out and did it. Well this Wally deal, learning the fine arts of catching the best consumables in the state is kinda humbling me. But I've learned a lot, I got me the harnesses you need and all the right electronics and bait. We spent a couple days camping at the Lake with our friends Bob and Dana and I had a few breakthroughs, and yup, I finally caught a couple that were a bit bigger . I caught two like this.
Keith being about as fish goofy as anybody I've ever met has walked me through a lot of the basics and introduced me to the Worm Blower. Never in my life would I imagine that someday I'd be stabbing a night crawler with a hypadermic needle and giving him .75 pounds of air pressure to help him float., ya gotta have a nice floaty wiggler for the Lindy Rig.....and then I met this guy.
I was lucky enough to camp right next to Glenn from " over the hump, in Pahrump " Nevada, one hell of a guy....another great fisherman who had everybody awestruck with his killing power. After the warm up he dialed me in on the Night Crawler needling when you need just the right presentation. He says ya just can't have an old in active balled up do nothing worm. Ya gotta thread him onto the line which does two thing's, it makes for a life like look and it hurts so bad the worm really squirms for a while. So you know me, it was off to the worm threader store and bought one for me and all my close friends, didn't have to spend much money. Here's a pic to prove it really exists as I kinda doubted it myself for a while..
So if you acquaint this learning Wally's with any school I'd guess I'm in about 6th grade right now....just starting to grow hair ya know. It's a weird problem to have but one of our biggest problems is the darn trout, they are everywhere. I'm here to tell ya these lakes are chuck full of them and we kinda wade through them to get at Wally. Yikes.....this one that Bob has is real typical.
The first night we slept in the camper our camping future was in doubt. That damn bed is so hard I couldn't stand up straight for three days . But we found a couple of comfort mats at Walmart in the pool floaty dept for 5 bucks a piece and walla another layer did the trick.....the problem though was that with the stock hard cushion with an added inch of temperpedic topper along with the comfort mats that every time I sat up in bed to go in the middle of the night I knocked my melon pretty good into the ceiling......Here's our camp and MP and Broda Bob cooking breakfast....which just had to come during the best time to Wally fish.....mmmmmmm.
So I put a Kenai River Guides Association sticker on the ol Minnow 6 , I think I've got the liberty to advertise for my buddies as well as promote the overall sport. I got this outfitted for sure. Garmin plotter / finder and GPS. Cannon downriggers...man, that's a beautiful thing . Here she is at rest in front of our camp where we had to pay 5 bucks to use the dock. That Lady that ran a place called Stewart's Landing in Alaska would hit me for twenty bucks and bottle of chardonnay.
It's hot here. I've always thought there had to be a way to beat the heat and my plan worked. Yesterday morning we spent a few hours watching MP's nieces and nephews display their 4-H projects, steers and pigs....the pigs are more fun, I liked the way they kinda cane em to get them to walk in front of the judges.....but I digress....By the time we were out of there it was 96 degrees. We love to picnic so we picked up Chinese from Panda Express then bought some Coors and headed up to the Continental Divide, 15 miles away. We went to the top of the top and as we climbed the temp fell and fell until we were lunching in 84 degree weather with this view.... I was kinda proud of myself .
And the Bass....well I'm a little ahead of 6th grade with them. I go to the pond most mornings. I get there right at sun up and though this is a busy Park I'm alone for the first two hours and usually catch 5 to 15 fish. I love it. It's quiet. I'm alone . I'm tricking new fish. It's good. Here's a sun up and of course ol slimey so ya know I ain't B.S.ing.
Being the original ' what's worth doing is worth over doing ' guy you won't believe the garden we have. We've been picking these guys for two weeks now and can't keep up. We've had Zucchini fried, fritters , bread , salad.....I know we shouldn't let them get so big but at a certain stage they grow and amazing half a foot a day. So, any of you Helena peeps that read Mile 14 that might want squash just give a holler and I'll deliver, no kidding.
And in my rare but inciteful political action section of Mile 14 I gotta post two pics with two statement's , you decide which goes with which...I don't know but I just read that Exxon reported a 17 Billion, yes billion in profits in the last quarter which amounts to $ 2,800.00 a second...and I don't think they're Democrats. And, I'm with them.
AND NOW...last Mile 14 I did ' Things I miss about Alaska. This edition...
Things I don't miss about Alaska
1. Living in Rain gear...
2. Fish politics....
3. Deet. ..we were in the Big Hole country last week and the locals thought the bugs were bad....na, nodda
4. those @#%& eagles screeching outside my bedroom window in the morning.
5. Humpies
6. October
7. ' free postage does not include Alaska and Hawaii '
8. Red eye flights
9. King Salmon shortages on going
10. Howard Woodford
