July

Well we jumped into July with a mixed bag of excitement, expectation and to a certain degree just a bit of disappointment. The River has just been a joy to fish, it seems that people stay home until they hear the bite is on, I guess some miss the finer parts of our sport. But on the opener my friends Chis to the 2nd power came down and fished with Dale who stayed in the campground. Dale caught two small Kings and Team Chris...nodda. But I suspect that they came down for a morale booster for their friend and for me that's the best, all I can say is thanks guys. Here's the threesome floating Eagle Rock and the view upriver to the toilet hole at the same time, we seldom see it like this.

The early sonar counts are actually good and we're counting way more than expected once again. We already have more than twice the number as the previous two years...but this old Kenai won't let you catch a break, although fishy the water has been pretty ' chalky ' and with our artificial only rule the bite has been a real crap shoot. The water just keeps rising  and soon it has to stop, has to, and when it does I think we'll do alright.  So far we've caught about 5 small and one nice King. This next pic is Butch and Jen who fished two days with me, they deserve a metal for optimism . Thanks for coming, you two are wonderful. This couple knows the way and being Montanan's we had great fellowship.

You know me, the joy is in the pursuit and the entire thing that makes a trip so special here at Mile 14.  Here are two pics I took at 5:45 am from our spot ....this morning there was just the perfect break in the clouds, just big enough to fit Mt. Redoubt into . And then a sunrise that kinda reminded me of a Mazatlan sunset, magnificent.

And in the ' other things that make a trip magic ' category these three guys bolted out of the woods this morning and swam the river right in front of us. We've had a Brown Bear hanging around the boat launch and I suspect by the rate they were traveling he must have spooked them pretty good.  If you were a Moose would you be in a hurry to get into 53 degree water ??? They were so close I hit neutral in the troll or we might have had our first double hook up of the 2015 season.

When it comes to the ' fairness ' of the bite I have a saying.... "never try to out fish a twelve year old", it just won't work. I guess I believe in the energy and the wonders of youth and that's just the way life ought to work....and it does. So five minutes into our first troll as I described the bite to Mike, Carma and Ace here  when the rod went off just like described....but sooner. So good work Ace buddy, you're in for a lifetime of quality moe-joe .