fishin for spring

I kinda stole that title from a buddy of mine...buy ya beer for it Dave. But that's about what we're doing here, it's spring, the calendar  says so but yikes, it's been cold. So on the very warmest day of the week I talked my running partner into a Fall-in-Hole search. It was a little dicey I must admit, the ice we walked on was kind of soft and there was many a time you could break through and break...well who knows what. Maybe it's just that me and MPeasy aren't adventuring as gracefully as we used to. But boy howdy I found some goodies....here's MP on the hunt.

The prize of the day was this broken fly rod with a gorgeous Galvan brand reel on it. It's a fairly high end reel and washed up perfectly with the drag working smoothly , a great find. The problem is that I get to looking at this reel and it's professionally engraved with ' Alaska Wildland Adventures' on it.....mmm.....so for anybody else it's finders keepers, the law of the sea, you know. But they are a large guide service and one of our best customers here at Mile 14. So... I'm still deciding how to handle this unexpected bounty, in any case it's going to be fun to jazz the guys a bit, charge em a couple of those really cool shirts like Phil Horak wants down in Mazatlan.

Then I see a shiney thing on the river bottom just a shimmering away like a huge golden oak...and it's this really nice pair of Cabelas pliers. Now if any of you lost these guys let me help....ya see those loops on the handle ? Well, they're for putting a piece of line with a loop to go over your hand so they don't....guess what ?....sink to the bottom if you drop them. Of course being a fishing Prima Dona I pointed that out to MP right away and she related that fishing guides weren't really geniuses including yours truly. It's amazing how she can word smith such insight...

About twenty and some ought years ago I had the bright idea to put tires along the riverbank to cushion the boats on the property. It worked for a while but as the years went on they began to migrate. Last fall me and Nate were anchored up right in front and at the end of the day I went to pull the anchor and she's stuck firm. I've never lost an anchor before and I can't believe that I'm held fast right here at Mile 14. So I come up tight on the bow line and give it a good jerk with the outboard motor and holy moly it keels me over a bit and that's a bit of an unsettling feeling. So I give it one more jerk with the motor and I feel it break free...but... I can't lift the anchor. Thank goodness Nate helped and we lifted a 185/17 Good Year Wrangler full of mud to the surface, it must have weighed 300 pounds. So I still haven't lost an anchor but today those tires are outa here. When I'm done with the project there will be no, none, tires laying along the shoreline of the Kenai River at Mile 14.

And in the ' things you never see in Slowdotna ' category how's about this. I kinda sensed that our community has changes from the 500 citizens that I moved in with 40 years ago....so here's the proof. Yup, that's a genuine Tesla, only the second one I've seen. The first was a coup parked in the reserved spot at the 4 Season's Hotel in Seattle. mmmm, I wonder how the heater and defrosters work on that baby ?

I got one more pic, just because I thought it was cool . We were binge eating french fries ( you know I'm a french fry expert ) at the Kenai River Brewery with the Radke's and it jumped out at me. Gorgeous pescado, pretty lure and well....Alaska....what a place. Oh if you get to the Brewery they got Poutain ,  homemade Fries with beer gravy and cheese curds on top...you gotta be kidding me...

I'm going fish real soon, stand by Houston.