On Thursday I had my throat dilated. although I had great apprehension going into the operating theatre it was really no biggy and it worked so well that last night night I had my first meat in almost a month. It was a perfectly grilled tenderloin about 1/2 pound with fresh corn, a ceasers salad and a nice Malbec...we're living good again. Here's a pic of me and my anesthesia nurse Gena, she, the doc, the facility, all of it is fantastic here in the small town of Slowdotna. Thanks everybody.
On Friday after the procedure I had a guy I'll call Joe Blow booked for silver fishing. Well Joe called to check on the fishing and to screen me I guess. Well old Joe was all focused on the 6 red salmon bag limit instead of the two silver bag limit. I explained to him that the silvers are a ball to catch....unlike the reds they actually bite...and jump...and go craaaaazy. So, Joe's giving me a bad vibe and with 30 years of experience you'd think he'd have some trust in me but he didn't. Well, its finally nice to arrive at a place in life where you're truly steering your own ship and I gave him the hook. That's right, I politely told him I might not be the guide for him and good luck filling his freezer.
But the next day (Saturday) I have a big trip planned. A wonderful guy named Les Hamilton who we new we'd love has me booked to fish his entire family. Its me and two other guide boats with kids, grandparents the whole shmeer. Going into it although I've done thousands of silver trips I'm a little nervous, I'd yet to make a silver trip and because of the huge red run our friends in the commercial industry have been fishing almost non-stop to mop up salmon....including our silvers. So I load up the youngest kids and their parents, Ger, Lyndal, Doyle and the 3 year old LaLa who is a miracle child having received a liver transplant shortly after birth and 20 some procedures since, she's the apple of her grandpa's eyes and I can see why. I run the boat downriver until my intuition tells me its the right spot and toss the anchor. We run out a couple Kwikfish for the kids and eggs on the bottom for the adults. Right away Ger says he had a bite. I'm kind of wondering but his eggs are gone so we re bait. It happens again, bite, hook set, no fish, eggs gone. mmmmmm..... I think we have silvers. Its not long and we have our first guided silver salmon of the 2011 season in the boat and I'm a happy guy.
So in true Jethronian style, we limit the boat out, see many seals, have a nice boat ride and finish up just after noon which is just about the right amount of time for kids this age. Perfecto...mucho pescado....mucho sonrisas.
The first silvers here are usually a bit smaller than the later ones but they don't know it, they really fight on the end of the line and that one on the right is an honest 14 pounder. Good work girls. The next pic is the entire Hamilton clan. I was honored to fish with them, they're steady ranch folks from Colorado and it was a great way for me start my silver season.
On Sunday we drove to Kenai and figured we'd check on the commercial fleet. Its ramping down for them and they've had a great season. It looks like we're going to have a good silver run so everybody's happy. I snapped this pic of the idle boats with Mt. ReDoubt in the background. This is the scene that so much spazzazed me 40 years ago when I arrived here....and it still does. I used to commercial fish so in the sport vrs commercial deal I'm real modertate, everybodys gotta live. The nets are up and the management plan calls for us to get the late silvers and we will, two more months of the best fishing of the year. I'm happy, the commercial guys are happy and even those seagulls are happy....everybody's getting their share.
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