A Pain in the Bee-hind

Those of you that follow Mile 14 know I'm highly allergic to bee stings. It gets a little tiresome for MP as I'm actually about half paranoid about them after having been through a couple severe reactions lately....So...this yellow jacket infestation that we have is absolutely terrible. The worst anybody has ever seen. They're saying that the mild winters with no freezing are making them thrive and thrive they are here at Mile 14. It's horrible when you have any protein available, they smell it and walla...instantly hundreds arrive. I've been gutting fish on the boat just because.

But in truth ' Jethronian ' style, I know the right people. My friend Ty Tobias is the President of the Alaska Bee Keepers Association and he knows the way. He brings down the trapline for me and baits it with bacon, who don't like bacon and I think we're winning the war. In the  pic of the bacon I think you can actually see them hovering. It took all of 5 minutes for hundreds to arrive while he baited the traps....Well played sir Tobias and thank you for all you do. Mile 14 is livable now because of you. I looked at the traps and we have killed thousands.

Here's your annual picture of ' Woodstock with fish ' at the mouth of the Kenai River. It's turned into a tradition where me and MPeasy go to Louie's in Kenai for breakfeast on the 3rd Sunday of July. I have the fishermans Benny with shrimp and Crab and chat with the commercial fishermen I know like Senator Tom Wagoner. Then we go to the bluff for the pic and then we drive K-beach and then we go home and I sleep 4 hours while the Nascar race provides background.

As you can tell by the waves and the clouds it's windy, cold and well....your usual Kenai day. It's a  'ya gotta want to do it ' day. And plenty of people have that grit as you can see. We came across this scene that always bothers me. Fish fever, I hope nobody was hurt , it always bothers me to see a wounded boat...I'm a boat guy ya know. I had an axle ripped right off a boat trailer one time so I know the feeling, thank goodness the boat didn't get it as bad as the truck.

I know , I know, I know....where the fish....Well I seen plenty of them this  week. In fact I saw gorgeous Kings and a couple fought about as knarly as any I can remember.....but I liked this one best which was in mid-carve on our walk yesterday morning. The cedar smell made me want to take a sauna.

While Ty was executing bees his running buddy Lowell was getting some serious work done as well.  As you can see he is a grizzled veteran of the Kenai and an Alumnus of  ' Fish Pose' graduate school.  It always amazes me how an expert can take a 12 pound red Kenai King and make it look like this. He plays the lighting, he plays the angles....amazing work Lowell.

Of course  Lowell uses advanced techniques that are not available to the rank and file so my favorite pic of the week is this one....what's better than a smile on a twelve year old ? Nothin, that's what. Way to go Tanner and thanks for bringing the fam.

My friend Anthony caught two Kings in two trips....I'll never hear the end of it. I just gotta warn ya Anthony about momentum, it works both ways. One day you're the bug, the next the wind shield. So try and keep your moe-joe aligned and we'll try for an encore when I see you in September.

On Saturday I fished a laid back crew of veteran Kenai anglers. Rob had never fished with me but had fished with one of my competeters who I consider one of the very best so it was pretty cool when the rods kept going off.  They're fishing with this other guide tomorrow so I wish him well, these guys are great fishermen s once old slimeys is on the line your odds go waaaaaay up.  Here's Sean , Steve and Rob.

Well I think that's about enough dead fish pics for one week. I want to thank everybody who came along for this week in 2016. We got one more week of King fishing to go and then as my old friend Chick Kishbaugh would say the ' real ' fishing begins. Silvers/ Pinks /Trout.....2016.