Finally : push comes to shove

 MP and I arrived safely back in Helena Montana a few days back and I know I should write about that and the wonder of my life. It's early in the morning as I type and the lights of the valley twinkle in my window and....I just can't write of that as I'm bothered by the news from the Kenai , the unprecedented total closure of  ALL fishing for Kenai Kings, sport / guided / commercial . Now I know nobody likes an outsider with strong views, I know they don't for sure in Montana but in this case I think, no, I know that I've earned a seat at the table and maybe my views can finally get some traction. It's all hands on deck to save and what remains and then common sense at the same time we should plan for the future for our beloved River and Salmon....Craig Medred has a wonderful synopsis of where we are now with the commercial set net fishery . Funny how how it took the wheels to come off the cart before any innovative thinking was accepted....not funny, sad. https://craigmedred.news/2023/03/22/lifting-the-curtain/

I've been wanting to post this picture for years .  I never did it to until now as to be honest I didn't want to run into a commercial fisherman beaming with anger and entitlement at the Fred Meyer store.  Through my history in fish politics I realized that this sport / commercial thing could be violent, so much passion involved....but this pic is revealing. Do you see hard working business people with fish blood covering their Grunden's with a lack of sleep in their eyes from working the nets 100 %/////Nope what you see is a bunch of entitled ' hobbiest ' with a smirky carelessness about them that has become the face of the set net fishery. After all as I 've been reminded many a time, they were here first .

You know how  I like list's so here's some observations from me and then I'll shut up about this forever.

1. The river had it's first closures of Kings over ten years ago. IF recovery doesn't come in a reasonable time and I don't know what that is but if they ain't coming back it's time for the introduction of hatchery fish . 

2. IF we get numbers to allow a return to the hey day or regulations are imposed to allow for commercial and sport fishing I have these suggestions.

A.  Use historical fish tickets to identify the beaches that harvest the most Chinook and close them. I think it will be shown that those areas are Salamantof  south. Or just expand the closed waters area at the mouth of the river to include all those sites.

B. The winter King fishery in Homer has to be looked at seriously...it defies common sense that a good chunk of those fish aren't immature Cook Inlet , ie : Kenai Salmon. 

C. The sport fishery on the Kenai has never had a starting date and I've alway's felt that the first Kings to the river were caught at a way higher rate than later in the season when the river get's twice as much water and get's it's Kenai green turbidity that also helps cut down on harvest.  I remember days of excellent results with sonar counts that were in the handfuls...

D. For sportsman a yearly harvest limit on ALL salmon. It might work something like this....you have a punch card for one King, so many reds, so many silvers etc .  Structured so that Alaskans who live off of eating fish have all they need but not from the harvest of the smaller runs .

E. Just as we need a start to the season we need an end to all fisheries, especially fall Silvers . 

F. No derbies, tournaments , fund raisers until the fish come back.

G. Escapement goals are ridiculously low .

3. We need to re vamp the Board of Fisheries . The politics, the appointments the whole system basically stinks. It might be open and more fair than the North Pacific Fisheries Council but that ain't saying much. Maybe it's time for the long talked about paid professional Board .

4. by catch in any and all fisheries has gotta be looked at with the goal of  zero. Reward the people who figure it out and penalize the ones that don't want to, can't or don't care.. 

Well...I'll stop there. I've vented .  And yes , I feel a little responsible like I know all my peers do. Nobody either commercial or sport did anything they weren' t allowed to do. We just did what Americans do, see opportunity and take advantage. Now that I'm retired I look back and remember thinking that we were building this guide industry for the future and that we did. But a few things went off the rails and it's so sad that for at least the chase and harvest of those gorgeous , huge and sporty not to mention absolutely delectable fish turned into a one generation deal. I'm sorry for that . We should have done better. That boat , all of us .

Me and my friend Bill with a 70 pounder. I hope and pray they return and I still think they can....but the cost and sacrifice is sooo huge . This where I wish all my friends on the Kenai the best .  Hang in there.

Always learning

 Well, that month slipped right by. And how's about that New Years resolution I made to fire up Mile 14 with more posts and restore it to it's former glory....mmm....the first casualty of every battle is the battle plan, I could give you some ' the dog ate my homework ' kinda stuff but that fact is I've been kinda in doldrums and this new personal record of 5 months in Mazatlan has me counting flowers on the wall . It's like Bill Murray's Ground Hog Day , it's a big blend of " what day is it honey " ?  and " we gotta get out of this building , what do ya wanna do " ?  One of my wiser friends who retired from the worlds best job told me once that there's nothing you can't do to much of and this year we've done to much Mazatlan.

I mean we're still finding new and fun things like a 3 Kilo bag of Cheetos but it's different, we damn near bought it to officially end my long running plan to get down to 185 pounds. I almost gave up, almost.

Of course my neck is somewhat better so I'm back to fishing at about 2/3 speed.  Tim and the guys have some dandy fish surrounded over in town but I don't get there to much, right now I kinda need to seek my own counsel so I fish alone .

Now I'm not bored enough to start stacking rocks and making a beachside decoupage  to celebrate my mood and to communicate with my fellow wanderers like this person did..... but I gotta tell you that  I sat there and followed along for 15 minutes or so, I got lots of time here in Mazatlan.

So here's a few things I learned.

1.  you can read until you see double..

2. Some of our friends who do extended stays here sometimes go back and forth during the season....they're smarter than me.

3. People like songs they know better than songs they've never heard until I sing em. Now that one stunned me. A wonderful friend clued me in, she said it makes the listeners feel involved when they know the song....no wonder I got cut from the LaMarina music scene. I'm always working on new stuff and searching for just the right song to tell people how I am and ask how are they....I'll tell ya how they are, they don't like it.

4. Eating your big meal of the day in the afternoon will help relieve restlessness. And I think it helps you digestive track and for me my desire to lean down to 185. So...after cocktail hour it's " pass the salad please '.

5. Listening to 25 year old podcasts of Art Bell talking about the shadow people and the energy of the Roswell saucer crash really helps...that stuff will capture you !

6. I've turned into a sunset snob....unless it's cloudy I stay and practice songs nobody wants to listen to.

Yesterday was me and MP's 45th anniversario ( see there I'm actually learning Spanish ) and we went to a new Place and had a wonderful night, we talked about how we got here. We talked about all the good, no bad.....gawd I love that woman. It was new Italian place called Toto's and we had great brick oven pizza...but it was kinda weird. MP picked out the pizza with all the things she likes, artichoke hearts , dry salami, mushrooms etc....well the pizza came with segments, every two pieces had one fo the ingredients and not the rest.....mmm... So we get back to LaMarina and the guys who made the music team were playing so we sat down for a listen and this came with our order....Thank you friends. 

The good news we're on final approach and will be back in Montana on St. Paddy's day.  I've promised MP I'll spend much time in the garage and we'll have both vehicles fired up so she can ski daddle anytime she wants . She ain't said it but I know she's dying to go shopping at the thrift stores....and we got our annual Costco check to spend on some frivolous fun thing they might have in stock. AND I'll get to play all of my guitars that's had 5 months or rest, guess I'll polish up all the classics and learn Hotel California, maybe even take a shot at Stairway to Heaven....The Alaska / Mazatlan Refuges will see ya soon Montana.