Comfortable

I had several things happen this week that just made me smile with gratitude. I guess I'm pretty comfortable now with my guiding and I work as hard as always but I just do it different, like I'm finally in charge of my own life. No more am I the guy who races down the river in the dark of night to get the best spot and be the first back to the launch with a limit of silvers....now, I don't mind being the 5th guy back to the launch with a limit of silvers and I'm enjoying the fishing more than ever.  Sometimes when the fishing is slow I like it better, it's the challenge.....But anyway it was quite an honor to have the phone ring and have the Director of Alaska State Parks want to go fishing with me. Before his appointment Ben Ellis was a Director of Kenai River Sport Fishing Association so he knows the way, he knows all the guides and he chooses me, that's pretty cool.

Of course Ben and I are old musical friends so we had a wonderfully comfortable day on the river catching our limit of fish and our limit of  local political B.S. ....And I have to congratulate his buddy Billy for catching the bloodiest fish of the year. Good job Billy, you're an animal.

If taking Ben fishing wasn't enough to validate what I do how about Chuck and Pam Moore who were some of my first customers from the 1980's. It's been almost 30 years since I'd seen them and we recognised each other and it was like just yesterday that we met. Nothing is more flattering for me than when people like Chuck and Pam do a return and we share the knowledge that when you really look at it all...us, the river, the fish, the scenery , the chuckles....well we're all doing pretty darn good. Thanks for coming you guys, I love ya.

The fishing this year so far has been about a 7.5 on the 10 scale I'd say. For the first time in about 10 years we have really low water due to all the warm weather, no rain and little snow pack. So the water is so gin clear that the fish are super spooky once the sun comes up. It took me a couple days but we've down sized the lures and we look for some shade and walla.....fiiiish on.

In the ' all things important category ' I've also been a pretty lucky guy. You know how I like those sunrises and sunsets so in a few months I'll be seeing the latter across the old Pacific but for now I'll settle for the former through the woods at Eagle Rock.

For this blog I still use my first old digital camera because it's only 3.2 mil mega pixels and I don't have to shrink them to publish. It's an old Minolta Dimage with a 10 power zoom that I sometimes get lucky with, like the other day when I got this King Fischer. I don't know how rare he is but he isn't one we see every day....and he even stood still.

The other day we parked the Minnow 4 under just the right tree. This guy was sunning himself and he held this yoga pose for over an hour.

Our little town had quite an ego boost this last Friday night when the Soldotna Stars beat the Anchorage South Wolverines in the first football game of the season. Last year both of these teams were State Champions but South being the Large school conference and Soldotna the Medium school. It was real ' Hoosiers ' moment. Soldotna has a tradition of excellence and have won 30 games in a row and 7 or the last 10 years championships but to beat a school who has 4 times as many kids and is the best int the State....well wow...it's pretty cool.  Oh, it was 21 - 17.

And the flop side of that athletic excellence was this dumpster performance by my Seattle Mariners. They gave up a franchise record of runs to the Red Sox and this game was over in the 3rd inning. To coin a phrase.....'  that's ugly Howard '. hehehe....we had a carpenter years ago named Howard and Mark Passe said that to him so many times it became his name. Oh, and did I tell you they gave up all those runs with their Cy Young Award winning pitcher " King" Felix Hernandez ?  I'm still hoping to get a season ending run out of our guys but that game there kinda makes ya wonder...mmmm...2016 ?

Austin Jackson looks a little embarrassed there doesn't he ?