Me and Mpeasy pulled into Soldotna in an old blue dodge pick-up in July of 1977. We were headed south to see our old friend Walt Larson in Anchor Point when a pretty red step-side Ford pulled up close behind us honking the horn and flashing its lights.....mmmmm......two guys and they're wearing cowboy hats....So, being fresh up from Montana I'm figurin theres some kind of road rage problem or they're drunk and want to fight, I just don't know, but I pull over and tell MP I'll take care of it and to stay in the truck. Well that guy right there , Tommy Rosin and his brother Orin jump out of the truck saying "he man, where you from ? we're from Billings". I told them the 5 on my license plate meant we were from Helena and that's how we started a 30 year friendship. Before I started guiding I fished with Tom and Orin a lot. I played music at the Maverick club with his brother Orville who had a gorgeous J-45 Gibson. Tom plumbed the houses that we built when I worked for the Passe's so I was just absolutely tickled when he walked up and got in my guide boat the other day for a trip that the Cabaret, Hospitality and Restaurant Association had arranged for their state convention. The other guys might have gotten a bit bored listening to old times but I don't think so, we caught a lot of fish and it was good to catch up with Tommy. Thanks buddy, that's what we like about our small town living......continuity.
So the next day I got to follow up by fishing with one of my favorite people in the entire hemisphere, Jim Bennet. Jim is the funniest and funnest guy I've ever known and his zest for life is legendary here in Soldotna. Jim is a cancer survivor and is active in the awareness movement, he volunteers at the Hospital, he's president of the Dog Obedience group, he's an Elk and just an all around community supporter....just the kind of guy that inspires me and that I want to be around. He's also a pretty darn good fisherman who's good deeds seem to translate into to good Karma driven moe-joe.It was the last trip of the season on my books so to end it with Jim and my friend Kevin Fuze was pretty darn cool. When Jim owned Signal communications he hired me yearly for his friends and employees, pretty much put my kids through college he did so here's a big thanks to you J.B....me and MP love ya....
Thats a pic of Jesse who caught his first ever salmon with me this week. My friend Greg Smith with Repsol ( the Spanish oil company) had business here and snuck in some fishing with the guys. His friend John in the pic below is retiring so it was a fishing send off for a guy who's a real outdoors man. We kept 9 silvers as you can see which is short of the limit but we released several as they guys wanted a good full day of fishing, and with the sunny weather and beautiful fall colors who wouldn't want to fish 8 or 9 hours. It was great.
So unless I get a call for silver fishing next week its a wrap for salmon in the season of 2011. Of course I hope to get a call as the fishing is really holding up well this year and I've just been enjoying it so but if I don't I'll winterize the boat and stow the rods. Theres no getting around it, Kings were a struggle this year but we had absolutely exceptional silver fishing. I met some really cool people and many of my old friends were around. I had a little speed bump with my health which kind of puts things into perspective for a guy...I end the season feeling good, knowing I gave it all 100% effort, its all I can do....
Please come back to Mile 14, we might not be salmon fishing for 7 months but I guarantee we're going to do some catching. Catchin life, catchin fun, catchin love, catchin on and probably some other fish to....
No comments:
Post a Comment