Early Birds

It's one of the weirdness's in my life...I'm early for everything. I'm always anxious to go and generally anxious to leave , like a bad party guest that shows up while you're still getting ready. I've heard many times in my life that the early bird gets the worm...well, the second mouse also gets the cheese eh ? So let me tell you, there's still a lot of Alaska left in this winter, I've not seen one single degree above freezing since we returned and although we love it here at Mile 14 and have earned our snowbird status honorably within many a winter in the north....I'm ready for spring, even just a hint of spring. Our first fishing event of the year a Winter King Tournament in Homer canceled, harbor frozen.

And the weirdest thing is that we're just not used to it. I've been just healthy as can be on my Mazatlan Pacifico  and french fries diet and then I get here and walla....the flu. Came down with it on Sunday night and I'll spare you the gory details, you all know it's the worst. Then I get to feeling ambulatory and this morning it went off for MP and it hurts me to see her suffering....the good news is that once again we've settled the ' who's tougher ' issue and you don't hear me bragging.  And oh, ya know that weight I gained in Mazatlan....I don't recommend the Mile 14 Influenza diet, but it works.

So with the winter being harsh and long God love MP, she's worried about the birds. But the bird feeders frozen down surrounded by 3 feet of snow so I take the house itself off and look for something to put it on....Problem solved in true North Dakotian style, it was her idea.

I snapped these pics the other day of one of our neighbors struggling through the coldest winter in many years. I saw them through the window as I worked some client e-mail and when I put the telephoto on him I was happily surprised by how good he's doing. But there's always somebody around to pee in your Wheaties. No sooner had he and two more got bedded down in the sunshine of the empty lot next door what we call a 'gooner' ....short for looky lou drove into our driveway and actually got out of the truck taking pictures. Up they stood and ran off to the cost of many stored calories. With the flu bug going I was just to tired and sick to step outside the house and ask...' what heck ya doing' ????

I like that pic...got my boat in it and kinda show's ya what we're dealing with here at Mile 14.

In the fishing department I have news that I'll try and convey as simple as possible...and when it comes to the Kenai River that word 'simple' you don't here often.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) dropped the gavel and ended the 2017 Cook Inlet meeting and we now have a ' plan for our early run King Salmon....about time fella's, ya know what they say ' when you fail to plan , you plan to fail. The plans weakness is that it relies on ADF+G's run projections which are sometimes wrong but always subjected to the current politics of the day....that being said it's way better than the Ouija Board management that's been going on. In essence the sonar counts and projections lead to a series of triggers that could liberalize the fishery when it hits certain numbers. These could be things like catch and release, no bait, slot limits and wide open fish and keep anything with bait if the projected numbers are big enough. Conversely if the number projections are horrible we could have closed or just catch and release fishing. One thing the BOF did finally is that they created no fishing zones where a lot of the early run Kings stage while ripening to go spawn in the smaller rivers and creeks that make up a huge part of the total run. So, all in all, good work gentlemen and Sue Jeffries. So what does that mean here at Mile 14 for the 2017 season ? With the projected run strength that has been announced it falls into the scenario where for the first time in a few years we will start fishing whenever we want but with catch and release until the sonar counts indicate how to proceed with management. Good news. Lets' go fishing , we love the river in the spring. Quiet , clean and clear....my second favorite time.  We'll release the May fish, take it from a guy who's released hundreds of them, they swim right off like they're leaving the gymnasium and you'll enjoy, it's fun.