Two really big things happened at Mile 14 this week. The reds (sockeyes) arrived in force and
I turned 57, but my right knee tells me its 77. We held our own on the King salmon front and I made new friends with Bill and Linda
Worsham who are from Texas and personal friends of my musical hero Kevin Fowler. They tell me that Kevin is as nice and
approa
chable as I could tell from his music that he would be. Pretty cool, I'm feeling connected. We had a great day, they fished with the
Kruncos's and Mike caught this nice King. But the
narliest and most exciting fish of the week was this beauty caught by our friend Elaine
Woodburn. She stuck this guy like a seasoned pro back bouncing the tide and it jumped and ran and well....it was just one difficult fish and took 20 minutes to land. Elaine was born and raised here in
Soldotna, her family (the Davis's) were some of the people that made me feel welcome when I arrived in the 70's. So it was pretty cool to be able to help her to catch her first King ever but also go
sportfishing on the
Kenai river for her FIRST time ever. As you can see Elaine was awful darn happy with that King Salmon...a new
Kenai convert. Elaine works out in the gym with MP and I so I know she's looking forward to that wonderful salmon protein.
When my friend Tony Knowles was Governor he had the
philosophy that the most important salmon was the one that Alaskans eat. So the
Kenai River Personal Use
Dipnet fishery was started and oh baby is it popular. This Pic was taken from the bluff in old town just today. Kind of reminds me of the pictures I've seen of the Woodstock Rock Festival....kind of the same look, rainy and tents but with a whole lot more dead salmon. In the background you can see the old Columbia Ward Cannery where I had my first regular pay check job. On this same day in 1972 I was loading carts full of cans of these same salmon into the retorts to cook at high pressure for 45 minutes. Then we rolled the loaded carts into a lye wash to clean and cool . I remember the 'popping' sound that was a bit like reggae music as the cans cooled and began seal. Oh, I made $2.65 an hour.
And red fever is alive and well here at Mile 14 as well. Why not, what a deal to have this
wonderful source of number 1 grade Red Salmon so plentiful. Our parking lot is
crammed with cars and the fisherman are easily catching their limit of 3. To put in perspective, the fish enter the river at a rate of 50,000 a day. Its dangerous being a salmon, I think I'd take the road. The next pic is our local Red guru here at Mile 14. Mark Johnson lines these fish better than anybody I've ever seen. He's a natural born killer and because I don't have time to either
dipnet or
sportfish for them Mark helps collect some for us. the next series of pics is the scene at our gutting table.
Alaskan's love their fish and this shows in how its taken care of, winters coming as we say.... I'd like to be able to tell you all about it but the best I can do is describe it from the rivers view. The old rivers full, done up, full of people, full of fish. Full of fun, full of greed. Full of wonder, full of rumors, full of profit, lots of laughing...its one unique place,
that's all I know.
So what a wonderful week it was but you have to take the bad with the good. My friend Gene Chambers aorta exploded and he left the planet. I called him the Genius...because he was. You hear love stories of how people met on the
Internet and well I guess that was us. I found Genes wife
Helen on the net to do my
web page and years later we're
simpatico. Gene was about as direct and honest as anybody I've ever known. He loved his wife. He was a mechanical guy and viewed a computer just like a 57
chevy, man he was good at it. He was my friend, when things
weren't so good he'd call, tell me .... "hey King , ain't no deal".......
Fishing this week was steady, we held our own and batted a good 500 for the week. some of the fish were absolutely gorgeous like this one that Tom Brugeman caught yesterday. This fish was interesting as I was experimenting with hooks because we'd been missing some bites. I had Tom rigged with a big wing cheater and an 8/0 hook, usually a 6/0 is what we do. This fish swallowed the hook so deep that it couldn't be retrieved without major surgery so when Tom took the fish he got the hook as well.
I turned 57, but my right knee tells me its 77. We held our own on the King salmon front and I made new friends with Bill and Linda Worsham who are from Texas and personal friends of my musical hero Kevin Fowler. They tell me that Kevin is as nice and approa
chable as I could tell from his music that he would be. Pretty cool, I'm feeling connected. We had a great day, they fished with the Kruncos's and Mike caught this nice King. But the narliest and most exciting fish of the week was this beauty caught by our friend Elaine Woodburn. She stuck this guy like a seasoned pro back bouncing the tide and it jumped and ran and well....it was just one difficult fish and took 20 minutes to land. Elaine was born and raised here in Soldotna, her family (the Davis's) were some of the people that made me feel welcome when I arrived in the 70's. So it was pretty cool to be able to help her to catch her first King ever but also go sportfishing on the Kenai river for her FIRST time ever. As you can see Elaine was awful darn happy with that King Salmon...a new Kenai convert. Elaine works out in the gym with MP and I so I know she's looking forward to that wonderful salmon protein. 
wonderful source of number 1 grade Red Salmon so plentiful. Our parking lot is crammed with cars and the fisherman are easily catching their limit of 3. To put in perspective, the fish enter the river at a rate of 50,000 a day. Its dangerous being a salmon, I think I'd take the road. The next pic is our local Red guru here at Mile 14. Mark Johnson lines these fish better than anybody I've ever seen. He's a natural born killer and because I don't have time to either dipnet or sportfish for them Mark helps collect some for us. the next series of pics is the scene at our gutting table. Alaskan's love their fish and this shows in how its taken care of, winters coming as we say.... I'd like to be able to tell you all about it but the best I can do is describe it from the rivers view. The old rivers full, done up, full of people, full of fish. Full of fun, full of greed. Full of wonder, full of rumors, full of profit, lots of laughing...its one unique place, that's all I know.
Helen on the net to do my web page and years later we're simpatico. Gene was about as direct and honest as anybody I've ever known. He loved his wife. He was a mechanical guy and viewed a computer just like a 57 chevy, man he was good at it. He was my friend, when things weren't so good he'd call, tell me .... "hey King , ain't no deal".......
Those folks there are Phil and Jean Shelton with their nephew David and his new wife Sarah. We met in 1986 and on our first ever fishing trip I knocked Phil's first ever King salmon off with the net. Our relationship survived that and now 25 years later we're like family, I love these folks. Phil and Jean are retired educators from Metropolis Illinois, all of us should be so lucky as to have our children taught by people like them, caring, insightful, free thinking and Phil knows more 'stuff' than anybody I ever met. Just the other day while fishing I was telling them about being invited up to the PentHouse of El Cid in Mazatlan to watch the Carnaval fireworks. I explained that our friend Rose works in Boise for the Symplot family and they share the Penthouse with her...Well Phil dug into his American history and told us all about how a fellow named Don Symplot invented the process for mass producing and freezing french fries that fueled the growth of American junk food and made the future for corporations like McDonalds. Now knowing that and being from Illinois is impressive. Phil and Jean travel the world and as they have no children they keep their family close. The next Pic is of the King Salmon David caught , I know alot of you Kenai people might think that fish is on the small side but our friend David is 6'9" and weighs 300 pounds.....or so....I'd guess....maybe...
The best person I know loves her garden and yard. Rain or shine, sleet or snow its kept looking like the Anchorage Botanical garden. She loves to run the mower, I think its the therapy that comes from being able to change something so fast and entirely that she loves but she'll say its the exercise and love it all. Through the years she's mowed the top off our septic clean-out enough times to get it down to the level it should have been installed at to begin with. She's mowed the forrest, she's mowed the driveway and she's even mowed the boat launch. So let me tell you that if you have an avid mower in the family invest in the Honda Mower, those $100.00 Home Depot specials last a year around here.
at me, it looks like something you'd see on the island at Jurasic Park. The next pic is our vegetable garden with the required moose fence around it. We usually get some carrots and radishes and maybe a little cauliflower. MP has invented her own potato technique that I call 'towering spuds'. She grows them in a 5 gallon bucket and when the leaves get to the top she adds another bucket and continues to add dirt as they grow. Last year she went 3 buckets high and when its time to harvest you just dump the buckets....walla, patent pending. 
jillion. Cukes are one of those things that you can only do so much with. My favorite is a tart cuke salad made with sour cream, vinegar, shallots, a little dry mustard and a generous amount of the secret ingredient, dill. A few years ago I found a recipe for cold 
cucumber soup on epicurious.com. I went to the store and bought the heavy cream and all the ingredients...it stunk. So now we just eat them fresh sliced up on a plate with tomato, sweet onion and an avocado with a little olive oil drizzled on top and maybe a little Maytag brand Blue cheese. mmmmm. 
e blueberries of course when a guy gave me unsolicited advice. He said that if you want to impress your wife with something that will actually grow in the frozen north get this Cherry tree. So he picked one out for me. He was spot on, one year later its growing like a weed and has two cherries on it. Magic. 
