I soooo wanted to have a great time this year, a smiley swan song ya know. And of course when things go awry it effects our morale and the bottom line. So this scene is over for now and we're moving onto the most dynamic month of every year here at Mile 14.
So with June turning into totally closed for Kings and with our only real option being trout most everyone jumped ship.....except...my friends Marty and Bill Enkhausen who know the joy is in the pursuit. Instead of the the ol 6:00 a.m. LeMan's start we waited until a civilized 8:00 and then went and tried for sockeyes first. Darndest thing, on about Bill's 3rd flip he had a salmon on. Yahtzee,,,,,
I'll bet some of you recognize ol slimey there, yup, that'd be a King salmon, a jack. So it swam away. And those scabs on Bill's hands will tell you not to try and lift a halibut by the mouth. We fished reds for an hour and never roled one so it was off to Soldotna where we ALWAYS catch trout.......mmmm.... Well we get to drifting and trying different beads and flesh flys and although we had several bites and fish on we never got one to the boat. It kinda dawned on me that although the river was pretty clear it was still raging pretty well so maybe the faster than usual current was the problem. We finally got out my new light levelwind set ups and went to trolling the cutest little Hot Shot and Wiggle Warts you've ever seen and Walla...fish on...We had one huge, and I mean huge spit the hook and before the day was done we'd caught plenty of nice trout. Here's Marty with one pic we got and one of a rainbow jumping right before it spit the hook on that blue Hot Shot you can kinda see.
That Friday of fishing and fellowship was huge for me. Thanks Bill and Marty for making me feel normal. Sure was a nice quiet day on the river eh ?
So tomorrow I start with a pretty darn full July calendar. All the folks who are with me the first 2 weeks of July have been notified that the only change for now is that we will be fishing with no bait. Everyone understands that with the closure in June ADF+G is going conservative for the July run so as to make for as much escapement as possible if the run is smaller than average. All my fishing friends just want to fish....except for one guy. The one guy that you'll always run into that has no trust, no empathy and thinks he's guaranteed fish and oh, I almost forgot rude as well as the second time he called me with the ole " I'm hearing rumor's " B.S. it was 8;30 at night. So, he got the hook and gets the pleasure of fishing with Brand X if he can find somebody who will take him.
This week is going to be balmy warm and we'll scratch some King salmon out of the ol river. I'll then update the blog for you all that might be fishing late July if there are any changes or I expect any. You know I'll let you know as soon as I know. I have all my old and best friends coming to fish in late July so I expect it will be as much fun as I'd hope for no matter what. If we have to fish reds we will....no matter what don't buy them at the store because that's exactly what the jerks running this place want you to do....although that is a pretty good price at our local WalMart.
I wish I could control everything about this crazy life at Mile 14 but I can't. But I do know the serenity prayer. I also know that what ever we're doing we do it 100 % and have fun doing it. So all of you that are fishing 2018, we'll see you soon....
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