So ya wanna be star ....

It only happens if you go fishing. The only guy who was completely negative about going catch and release fishing this last week was a single guy from Anchorage who I had scheduled to go with John and Deb Adams who most people would pay money to just hang around with. He said he only wanted to keep a salmon like he's already caught one....jeeeez....I won't miss dealing with guys like that next year when I'm retired. Here's ol #003 doing it's thing and letting ol slimey swim away.

That fish was exercised by my old friend Ty Tobias on Friday and man-o-man it was a fighter. I snapped this pic of Ty fighting him not expecting that the best part was Jeremiah and Becca.  We had a great day and this second shot is the magic...you've had ol slimey on for two good runs and although he's jumped it was far off and you really didn't get a good look...he's ready for the net and you finally see the silver flash in the perfect turquoise water and you gasp......it's a 40 pounder, gorgeous.

One of my old customers Bill Church was scheduled to fish on Tuesday. As screwed up as ADF+G is even they are sensitive to the fact that people need some notice when they change the rules so when they announced catch and release on Monday they made it effective Wednesday.  So Bill was wondering why I hadn't called him as he'd heard the river was C+R....just your usual confusion here on the Kenai. So he was surprised when his son George landed the first of the day and we took the Louisville Slugger to it.

An hour or so later and the rod went off again and Bill's brother Ed caught a nice King. Here's me and him with the last dead King Salmon of my guiding career. I actually thought about that and it was no catharsis in my life just more of a bitter sweet deal...I wish it all made more sense.

Through the years I've learned to be careful about booking people for several days, I usually just don't do it. If the fishing is good they catch an obscene amount of salmon and if the fishing is slow after the 1st day they're ready to kill you instead of the salmon. But John and Deb Adams break that model for sure, they're just wonderful and this year brought John's dad Bob along. Here's Bob working out a fish before the release....nice.

As you can see there are no boats around. The fishing experience is wonderful. We went up to Soldotna one day and caught 25 trout or so just to shake up the fishing. And wouldn't ya know the river delivered an eater to John.

Our new friend Frank Bridge took a pic of us at the end of the day....Frank I'm sorry for not getting you on Mile 14 but you know we'll leave the light on...

This is that week....want stress, go to the grocery store. Our town must have an extra 50,000 people here chasing red salmon and of course it's show time for the great american dollar here at Mile 14. I put the boat on the trailer and park it at the house whenever possible so MP can sell my real estate.

This something I get a kick out of....yup, a budget motorhome. We see this quite a bit anymore but it never quits amusing me. Don't ya suppose it feels a bit like a prison cell in there when they close the door to go to sleep ?

And in the salmon fever department this guy here is a friend of a friend like everyone here at Mile 14. He was in hot pursuit of a large sockeye salmon when it spit the hook right in front of him. Of course the lure came flying at the source of the tension and he dodged the hook but got impaled in the chin by the swivel. Lucky for him his friend Beth Roukema is a Doctor so when it wouldn't quit bleeding she waded out to him with forceps and a suture and closed it up with one handy stitch....unbelievable is all I can say .