Oncorhynchus Gorbuscha

That's Greg Smith holding a dandy. Pink salmon are the smallest and most abundant of all the salmon we see, and they're one of the most interesting . They are the only salmon that doesn't reer in fresh water, these salmon come to the river and spawn and immediately return to the salt and then in two years they're back. On our river they show up on even numbered years but other parts of Alaska its every year. The pinks morph into their spawning colors quickly when they hit the river so theres about a 2 week window when we catch them ocean bright. The males grow this big hump to attract the females for spawning, it must work because theres loads of these guys. The name Pink salmon comes from the color of their meat, its a pale pink and softer than the other salmon with a nice mild taste. MP and I did a smoker full last week and it's great, the fillets are nice and thin so they take to the smoke well.  Around here there seems to be a bit of salmon snobbery at work, the ole humpy doesn't get much respect. I don't know exactly what it is but I guess its a combo of things....they're kinda ugly, theres lots of them, people think they don't taste as good as other salmon and they're easy to catch. Who'd have thought that we'd malign fish because they're to easy to catch?....well that brings me to the story here.

If anybody has ever thought being a Kenai river guide was easy work they ought to try releasing 50 to 100 of these salmon a day...I'm not kidding. as we hope to catch silver salmon and sort through the pinks the ratio used to be 14 to 1, this year the silver fishing so far is just fair and the ratio has to be twice that, 30 to 1.  My back is killing me. And being a semi-body building weight lifter I know exactly which muscles they are. My lats (latissimus dorsi ) and my ab's (abdominal obliques ) are just howling...its humpy release syndrome. Below is a series of pics showing the rubber net release. I try to teach the angler to ' cut the angle',  always hold the rod so that the hook would fly away from you and not directly at you if the fish spits. However that mostly works for the fisherman and not the releaser....its dangerous. You reach, then you lift, then you bend over and grab and then you remove hooks and as gracefully as possible flop ol slimey back into the water with a splash that generally hits you in the face and loads up your glasses.

Then theres the 'free hand' release. This one is pretty dangerous and I use it when I see that ol slimey is really hooked well. You simply grab hold of the leader, slide your hand down until you can either grab the lure of get a finger in the gill and lift. This release is hard on the back because you have to get right down to water level but the idea is that it happens quick so you can move right on to releasing the next....remember the math here, speed is important if you're going to catch those silver salmon.

The third release is one every angler knows....the 'long distance release'. This release usually occurs right after you say " holy moly, IT'S A SILVER"... then its...." mmmm, we could of used that fish". Like this beautiful one that my friend Ty Tobias caught, and killed.

Ty there is an expert fisherman and pretty darn good at life in general. He's fished with me for 20 years and he knows that when we go after these fish we go after them full speed. So, he knows we need energy food and he never disappoints.  This pic is a typical satchel of our fishing diet, its a good thing I only see him every so often or I'd be back up to the 240 pounds I used to wear.

So this week I'd give the silver fishing a 5 on the 10 scale. If you're in just the right spot at the right time you can load up on them, some days that was us and some days it wasn't....But those humpies, they get a 10 on the 10 scale. Some days if you're in any spot with any lure at anytime you can load up on those babies, this last week that was us, everyday, and my back can vouch for that. I ain't complaining, I'm just happy to be out doing what I do, what I'm about . Thanks everybody for being out this week, lots of smiles.....