Peas soup fog + inexperience + salmon fever + stupidity + greed + unmoveable object =

THIS

If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it. Eagle Rock is THE biggest landmark on the Kenai River, everyone and I mean everyone, knows it. I only know of one other person who's hit the rock (hehehe, and he's a blog reader who I'll let keep his dignity )  and to his benefit he hit when it submerged by tide and only bent the prop.  Saturday marked the craziest and most unsafe day I've ever seen on the river. There was tournament on and thick fog. But we're used to the fog and this was a bit different. First thing in the morning a boat zoomed by and ran aground on our island 100 yards below the launch and then this. People were racing to ' get the spot ' , we had boats go by the launch at 4:00, two hours before daylight. I quit running in the fog years ago when I ran up on a tree that cost me a new outboard motor but these guys.....don't learn, don't know. I anchored behind the island 1/4 mile below the house safe and sound, the fog cleared at 9:00 and we went and caught all our silvers, easy peasy. Actually that ol rock maybe saved a life because this idiot could just as easily hit another boat head on. This is what a 30,000 dollar loss looks like.

 Now that morning it might have taken us a bit longer to catch our limit than it did the race around in the dark and fog crowd but Mark Maureen, Dan and his fiance Sondra caught this catch by noon and never broke a sweat....and oh, we wear our life jackets for any of you guides reading this that want to someday be successful...and alive.

My friend Dan there is certainly guide qualified. I net the fish, hand him the net, he applies the coup de gras , cleans the blood up and then gets everybody fishing again....and oh, he grabs the anchor line and re sets us and how about this.....he knows the guide pose.

Our old friends Dick and Loretta Hahn are here and it was deja vu. The hired me for 2 days just like they did back in the 80's before they moved to Alaska and then left  after 15 years.  I got a pic of them later but this pic of our friend Trina I had to publish for my sister Karen.....she's doing great Karen and can catch a fish, drink some wine, tell a story and has a good life... she says hi.

It took us about two hours to limit out.... and legally I might add... so we decided to run the boat to the harbor and I'd show them the cannery where I worked and lived in 1972....where were you ? I lived right there in that bunkhouse in room 17 on the 1st floor where me and Mike Galagher would play Neil songs and drink a little Carling Black label Beer. 

And how about a gorgeous restored Coastal Cruiser right where it oughta be, anchored in one of the prettiest places on the planet.

It was getting on to high tide and there were seals every where. I guess it was my week for Kenai things that I've never seen before because there were so many it was astounding. You could look out and see 50 at a time. They came to the boat for food I guess and the pics just don't do them justice. But you can count the dots and there must be 8 or 10 in that frame alone...incredible. It's pretty obvious that ADF+G  doesn't have a 'sustainable seal program '.....If I was a commercial fisherman I'd be screaming over escapement, after all those cute little water dogs are eating fish I could sell !

And for the 3rd and 4th things that I've never seen before it gets better....We've been in the line up at Beaver Creek and it's been good but I think everybody between the bluffs and Eagle Rock are limiting out daily so those places might be better, certainly quieter. We're next to a sand bar that really collects fish guts and spawned out fish and the seagulls and Eagles that are there is incredible. It' s like fishing in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They fight and carry on, they fly into and get tangled in your line and never mind that the sound is at the threshold for ear damage. I took this pick and it just barely illustrates...and oh, always some fog to make the sound echo more.

So just as we go to end our fishing a guy in a Bayrunner pulls in behind I us to anchor and try and catch the fish he  sees us catching. In the above pic you can just see the boat below me that is pretty much the ' polite ' distance away, this guy throws the anchor out 40 feet below my boat.....and promptly drags anchor right into the guy below. Finally realizes that a collision is pending and pulls the dragging anchor and starts the Honda motor and and in half throttle fouls the guy's anchor line terribly, nicely played. It must have been wound pretty darn tight in that prop as they were locked up like a couple show dogs for about 15 minutes.... I just hope everybody was polite....but I doubt it.

So with a week of great catches and better yet great friends around and of course a few things happen that just seem to give the Kenai her personality we ended it with a party last night. We had salmon of course, we had home made country music, beer, a little wine....all right, a lot of wine , fresh garden veggies , gourmet cheese and walla....just excellent. For company we had the Hahns, Norrie and Barb Johnson, the Goltzes , Trina , the Larsons and my buddy Ernie....more on him later this week as all this excitement has me a little tiiiiired.

But I did take time to motor down river and check on Eagle Rock. I mean that poor thing could have been hurt and for me it's the most important rock in  Alaska. So rest assured, she's doing just fine and hopefully it'll be another 40 years before she's assaulted that way again.

And how about one last view of Captain Hazzlewood Charters...." we're fetched up hard on the rocks and I think we're leaking a little oil "....the King of understatement.