Escape with Style

 

We all know Alaska is a tough place, after all how would reality TV survive without us ? And in the 40 years I've been around Alaska I've witnessed just about every kind of disaster ever invented. We've had earthquakes, tsunami's and avalanches. We've worked through fishery disasters, many floods and high wind events, volcano eruptions and ash fall like snow, record cold, record hot, Sarah Palin.....but I gotta tell ya this Funny River wildfire that we're now in the 7th day of has been about the worst yet, the air has been just thick. Here's a pic through the windshield as we self evacuated Saturday morning at 8 am.

I'll save you all the graphic fire pictures, those are all over the Internet. But the short and long of this thing is this....it doubled in size every day for the first 3 days, now it's size is estimated at 190,000 acres making it the 2nd biggest wildfire in Peninsula history. Luckily it has burned towards the wilderness and the 800 firefighters on scene have been able to stop it when it had threatened homes in Kasilof and the Kenai Keys area of Sterling. The smoke has been terrible and I seem to be unusually sensitive to it. I spent 2 days in the house and then we left....it was a kismet's moment. I live a little like Forrest Gump, good things just seem to happen in my life. Several weeks ago knowing that I wouldn't be fishing on Memorial day weekend my friend Chris Fejes invited us to his interior Alaska Nancy Lake home. Ol Chris kinda threw us a life ring, he said we'd have gourmet food and wine, outdoor life and of course....fishing. So Saturday morning we're outa here, hand our town over to the firefighters and the news people.

I just love a road trip. Having been north of Anchorage only a few times we had fresh sights to see, new people to meet, just the ride, we're going, we're moving on, we're mobile....just that is enough. And Nancy Lake is a pretty cool place, it's a pretty rare thing in Alaska really, a gorgeous large Lake that is actually in private hands, the people that live along the lake love this place. and boy did we get a glimpse of how successful Alaskans live. What's more Alaskan than this place which is just one of many with their transportation tied up to the dock.

These two pics are the property everyone on the lake talks about. The house sits on a point above the lake. These are the on lake parts of the estate, boat houses and how about an elevated barbecue lounge. I was reminded of what a guy told me at his Kenai River mansion house warming party...."ain't it amazing what you can do with a million bucks".

I kinda connected with this memorial along the lake. I could feel this guys presence, he was hard fisherman, maybe a bit of a loner who searched the lake for every rock and drop off, obviously an avid fisherman, and when you fish that much, well things just seem to happen. I remembered when I was cutting my teeth on the Kenai , Woody called me 'sand bar King'. Click on it to enlarge.

Chris has got the stuff. That boat right there I was about as impressed with as I have ever been with any piece of equipment. It's a MasterCraft ski boat with a 400 horsepower Corvette engine in it. It has direct shaft drive so there's no loss power, when boaters say the boat ' jumps up on step'....well if they jump, this one leaps. Incredible speed and power along with a bit of luxury. And a pic of MPeasy and Melinda in another boat of the Feje's mosquito fleet....and I'm not going to guess at the horsepower propelling that deal. Nope, ain't gonna do it.

Our first morning I was up at 5 am casting my pike lures from the dock. If people who don't fish were with me they'd see it all so clear. I'm the first up, the water is so flat it's hard to tell the real from the reflection, Chris has told me that float plane pilots have to learn to not let that confuse them. Out in the middle of the lake two Loon's cackled along and way off in the distance even with my bad ears I could hear a unique Alaska sound, Sled dogs. It was a little chilly, and I like that two. I cast for a couple hours and had one Pike follow...I felt him about mid retrieve and set, then again at 3/4 retrieve and then he was at my feet along side the dock and I left the daredevil in the water as long as possible but no fish, no hook up. That's fishing, and it's enough for me.

For the first time in my life I found a 4-stroke outboard motor that didn't work flawlessly. It's a Suzuki 9.9 horse and this darn thing gave us fits. It would run, then it wouldn't run....but Chris is pretty good shade tree mechanic and even though my expertise is in running the heck out of them we finally figured out a short in the kill switch mechanism and lucky us, we were out fishing at 4 am the next morning.

We trolled the cove with cow bells and worms for trout....notta.... we trolled daredevils at the outlet for pike....notta.... We threw frogs and weedless into the weed patches....notta. So I've always said the joy was in the pursuit and don't I look absolutely over joyed in that picture ? For me just fishing somewhere new for something new is exciting, it's really what I want to do as I settle into to be an old fisherman. Here's a pic of me watching the Indy 500, pretty comfortable with a guitar case for a back rest eh....


Chris and Melinda rolled out the red carpet for us, I kind of think they do for all their guests. Below is a picture of the chef himself with Saturday nights entrees. We had some fresh Copper River Sockeye salmon and halibut with a nice white sauce topped wit side stripe shrimp. Then we had some wonderfully fresh spot shrimp from Prince William sound and some aged Fillet mignon that was about as tender as anything I've ever eaten. And you'll notice one of my favorite things, a real nice sipping Tequila straight from Mexico, this one is a 'blanco' Jimador brand. It's funny that you don't think of tequila as being a sophisticated thing but.....as long as you don't throw it down and then slap your glass on the table upside down, it's really a flavor treat. And a bottle of Silver Oaks, what can you say about that?

And two pretty girls just a 'swingin'.....

So thanks Chis and Melinda for the rescue, it was a wonderful time. And that thanks isn't as much about hospitality as it is friendship, you know what I mean. And today May 27th a few years back Mary Patricia Brown King was brought into his world...and for that I'm a happy guy...and of course finding her was a pretty good trick too.  So happy B-Day MP, I'm crazy in love with you.

May 17th

For the first time since my friend Les caught the world record King Salmon on May 17th 1985 I wasn't out fishing on that day. I believe in connections so every year on the anniversary I would troll Honeymoon Cove when he hooked it around 9:00 am, on that lure right there, the trusty old Flame/Chartreuse Spin Glo, with a glob of cured eggs that were most likely Boraxed. I'll bet he didn't have very good eggs but they sure were good enough to trick a new world record.

In 1985 I was in about my 3rd year of guiding and had just invested in a 'real' guide boat. Les Anderson and his wife Clare lived upstairs from our best friends Neil and Connie Arthur. For the first 20 year I new les he called me 'Jess' as he was a little deaf, but the last ten years or so he figured it out. When you hear so and so never said a bad word about anybody well that person was really Les Anderson. He was a true gentleman and his love of our river immense. He was fishing with his brother-in-law Bud Loftsted who was legendary pioneer aviator here in Alaska. Back in that day we usually didn't get serious on fishing until memorial day weekend so it was not only unusual for him to be out fishing but to catch the biggy, well....wow. This is the REAL story....

Bud and Les started out early that morning in 'Old Blue', a 16 ft lund that had loose rivets and leaked badly. On the way they reached into Neils boat and borrowed a net....that is a big part of the story. Les was never one to back troll so they were drifting through Fall-in-Hole that tails out at Honeymoon Cove. Les's rod just dives to the water, at first these big fish with this technique will make you think you're snagged on the bottom....well he was....the BOTTOM LIP.  The fish stayed around that area and made many runs up and down but pretty soon they had drifted on past where the Pillars are now and were attempting to net. Neils net is the size we use for reds and silvers...the fish won't go in all the way and it's a miracle that they didn't loose it then when they had it half in several times. But pretty soon Bud problem solves and he beaches the boat on the gravel of an island above Eagle Rock that I named the ' Toilet Hole' years ago for obvious reasons. Well, Les bull dogs the fish up the gravel a ways with Bud pushing and grabbing and pretty soon they have it high and dry, killed with a rock. The two of them are pumped, they know it's huge as they admire it having no clue it could be a world record....and then as the pandemonium settles down they look to see ' Old Blue' floating down the river without them....yikes. There was a guy fishing around the corner at Eagle Rock and he came screaming upriver as of course the sight of an empty boat made him think the worse. But Les and Bud were just fine and after retrieving 'Old Blue' they went back to fishing. The best part was yet to come. Here's one of my favorite pics of Les that shows a bit of his Character.


I was hanging around the  Tackle Box, a new story that my friend Jerry Johnson had opened outside of town. I was chatting with Craig Lott and Jerry, mostly hoping some tourist would walk through the door wanting to go fishing when a truck came flying in with Les who owned the Ford Dealership and one of his salesmen, one of the first of the new world record hangers on, groupies. They wanted to know if Jerry's scale was current with Alaska Dept of weights and scales to verify a new world record. The scale wasn't and the fish was weighed anyway, we were all amazed....but the strangest thing was that about 15 minutes after Les hurried off to find a registered scale Johnson Brothers Guide Service showed up in a van with some people and an 85 pounder...yikes the Kenai was having a good day. Here's a pic I took myself f Les, you can just see that he's one nice guy. Then one of him years later with the mount at the Chamber of Commerce. That day as he went from place to place, from friend to friend he held 100 pounds of salmon up so many times I was afraid he might have the big one, he did have a weak heart that finally got him about 7 or 8 years ago.

The next series of pics I decided to include because they will give you feel for the era. The energy on the Kenai was electric, the fishery was just clicking off, it was before the horse power limit and we were all just learning the ways...Everyone new we had big fish in the Kenai but Les's fish made it official. Up until May 17th 1985 nobody had heard of any 90 pound plus salmon caught. But since then there have been at least 5 and maybe 10 over 90 caught, that's a knarly salmon. Below is a pic of Jerry Johnson and his crew sitting up a drift in Fall-in-Hole. That Alumaweld Sled has a 150 Horse power ' Black Max' that I think was the biggest outboard sold at the time, we once took that boat from Mile 14 to Skilak Lake and back in an easy 6 or 7 hour day.

And a pic of yours truly wearing the 'Team Tackle Box Hat' . You can see in the background that I'm building signs and everything that went with building a life around this wonderful River. 1985.

I don't care where in the world you go if you have fish like these you'll have people like this. Here's a pic from that era of the drift at Beaver Creek. One time I had the legendary R.L. Parker tell me...." hey, if you want your own water, bring a bucket ! "

I guess it was only natural....the next pic really tells a story. It was taken well after Les and Bud caught the fish, you can tell by how dry it looks. People started to think of the promotion, the money, the value of this world record. The guy on the right is a friend of mine and the guy in the middle is a fairly well known guide from Oregon who was new up here and just couldn't stand to not be included. Actually I think what he couldn't believe was the fact that HE didn't catch it. The next year his promotional literature said he "assisted" with the world record.......mmmm.....One time this guy had the first Magnum Wiggle Warts I'd ever seen dangling from the lines hanging out of his boat tied up here at Mile 14. I asked him to "salt a few around" so we could try them out....Well, he went into a lengthy lecture about how he was a tackle tester and Storm Lure Company didn't want them out in the public hands just yet and I'd have to wait until they came out on the market....Well, as soon as he drove off for lunch I hacked two of them off the lines and went fishing, they worked really good. That's the way we roll around here Mr. Oregon .

So hey...this is a great story but I got lots more. So swing by Mile 14 sometime and we'll walk a few holes, share a tall orange and recapture some of those fishing moments, like the time I caught a 170 pound halibut in a 16 foot boat....or the time the commissioner of the Dept. of Natural Resources caught a seagull in mid air...or the time Tim White caught the only 30 foot long stick I've ever seen that was alive.....or.....

If I don't go fishing soon I might go a little goofy

I always told MP that some year before we're done with this program we were going to shut down the launch and enjoy this special place at Mile 14 all to ourselves....well, I didn't figure it would be May and June 2014, courtesy of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. Normally a few boats would be out and some rumors would be flying, that I miss, but I have to tell you that when Keith and I went downriver the other day on a salvage run there was something really cool at work on the Kenai River. It was just us and the animals, that's all. This soon to calve out moose gave us a good look.

And the run at Eagle rock might just be my favorite place on the entire planet earth. The stretch of river right here has delivered a special life to me. I've caught hundreds, make that thousands of silvers and Kings here, I've found anchors and lures, I've watched baby eagles learn to fly and seen brown bears scavenging for salmon. I've seen moose and caribou swim the river and coyotes, many coyotes. I love this place.

 

Just around the corner we see something bright yellow, low and behold something I've never found before, a nice new soccer ball. Keith shot this pic of me after I locked the hubs in to get through the mud and retrieve it . I as saying " WILSON, WILSON....I found you......WILSON ....don't ever run off again like that Wilson"...

And there lots of seals, lots. So I got to wondering, just how many salmon were around that they would be feeding on....they don't come to this river for a haircut. I  think because ADF+G forecast a weak May and June run we should have started with a catch and release fishery. It hurts nothing and supplies one of the three tools they use to estimate run strength, the creel census. They also use the sonar which we all know barely works if at all and then they run a test net boat in the lower river where they catch and ...guess what ?....release the salmon. These three things in concert have always been used to estimate the run size. Now we're doing it with two and why???? politics...that's all. plain old stupid self serving politics on the part of influential groups and a small side order of stupidity  thrown in as well..... So let me re cap. ADF+G feels it OK to catch and release with a net and who knows what that mortality rate is but not OK with hook and line when we have science to prove that there is so little mortality it is of ' scientific insignificance . All I can do is quote my old friend Randy Berg when at an ADF+G meeting one time said " hell of a way to run a railroad".

How many ADF+G employees does it take to rip a brand new prop off a brand new motor??? Just three, that's all.

And then I spotted it. A big fat weathered leather ( that kinda sings doesn't it) wallet. I open it up and the credit cards are a doctor from Florida, it's huge and he has more plastic than I've ever seen in a wallet. My hair stands on end and I tell Keith....we're in the money. But, on further revue no fun tickets in the wallet. Only credit and airline cards, Lotto receipts and a drivers license....now what kind of  guy runs around without at least a C note tucked away for emergencies. So it's a mystery, did someone rip him off and lift the green then toss the wallet ?  Was he broke from being a compulsive Lotto player ? Did he have a fish on when he fell in the river and lost the wallet ?  If so was it a big fish ? And did he land it ?....my mind was racing. I found  the Doctors mailing address so I sent snail mail to him to find out the answers to this mystery. Here's a pic of our haul for the day. The wallet is in the middle of 2 anchors, a fishing rod with a nice level wind reel, a really cool pair of split ring pliers, a soccer ball, many lures, a fillet knife in it's sheath, sunglasses and a piece of aluminum that I have no idea what it is...another mystery.

This guy was parked at Freddies today, he had just driven up the Alcan. You don't see that everyday around here....so I'm figuring maybe this guy is hooked up with one of the 84 reality TV shows that we are supporting here in Alaska. mmmmmmmmm.....them dawgs are riding in style....I guess it's that season in our great state....let's have some fun.

Jeff's World

 

I've never been really to good at making money and in school I was kind of a C student. My mind would wander, I'd think of songs and fishing and travel and girls and....well I guess I'm living all those things right now. Pretty cool how life goes. And all of those things I'm really, really, really good at. Years ago I remember a conversation with MP as we drove north not really knowing what the future held. I asked what she wanted and she told me " just to be loved".....well done deal. I mean , how couldn't ya be goofy about somebody who walks the dog at Mile 14 looking like this, cute eh?

 



She's in Montana right now so it's a little weird here at Mile 14. Last night I celebrated Cinco De Mayo day which is connected to my 2nd home in Mazatlán. The Mexicans whooped the French who were in expansion mode so us Americans wouldn't have to. Normally MP would conjure up some Mexi food and most likely some blue tortillas....well, I had a Banquet brand Mexican TV dinner (it was actually pretty good) and washed it down with a Corona and few shots of real Mexican Tequila and turned the amp up louder than if she were here and played an hour of my Mazatlán friends favorite songs.

 

I drove her to the airport in Anchorage on Thursday. We've made that drive hundreds of times but this time it seemed unusually gorgeous...I guess it's my age or the current situation and a need to not take things for granted like I once did. I had a friend from Montana tell me one time that the drive is like Glacier National Park the entire way, and I guess it kind of is. For you non-Alaskans here's a drivers eye view of the last frontier.

 

 

Even though ADF+G has turned my world topsy turvy I'm just drawn to that old river. Because of the warm weather we've had the melt is fast and there is plenty of water to run. I guess I just have to keep on keepin on so I got the boat ready and Keith and I did a first exploration. Up around the corner we found this dock float that I'll bet is worth 50 or 75 bucks...that's something more than I had yesterday. I did have a moment while me and Jet waited for Keith. She's not doing well and I sure as heck don't want her getting hurt so she lets me lift her into the boat...at one point I lost my balance and we both fell down in the river sand....I thought to myself...It's the hand we're dealt Jet-Dog, you and me, I ain't happy about it but it's the way it is.



 

I had so much fun with last weeks list that I decided to do another one here. There's so many things I can't control and of course  one of the secrets to peace in life is to control the things you can. So this list is things I can't control but would sure make for a better Jeff''s world if they were to happen.

 

1. 7500 early run King salmon....that's a no brainer eh?

2. Have ACS get my cell phone bill correct at least 1/2 the time.

3. A loved ones fight with cancer is won.

4. Les Palmer's retirement.

5. My fishing team members in Mazatlán were to come fish the Kenai.

6. No mosquitos , last year was TERRIBLE,,, I know, we could get ADF+G manage them.

7. hey I got an idea....maybe you guys, my readers could chine in here, help me out....what would be good ????? Maybe I'll add to this as the week goes on.

 



I admit...it's all my fault...but then again....maybe....



Now I ain't inspector Closeau, but you don't have to be to figure most things out in life. As everyone knows our Early Run King Salmon are in a period of 'low abundance' as the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game words it. Now as hurtful and the waste of time that it is I suppose it's natural for people to assign blame, it seems like that's the way America works. I don't think it's even close to an entirely local problem but let's assume the worst here and say it is our problem...who's to blame. I had a friend, make that ex friend, tell me "they should have shut you guys down years ago"....mmmm.....well we just caught what they let us. And the commercial fisherman, harvest is their lively hood and they only took all that the managers allowed them to. Nobody did anything here they weren't allowed or in some cases even encouraged to do. So lets just call this a mystery and we ought to compile a little evidence. Having just been on call for jury duty I know that people decide guilt using three tools, common sense, motive an opportunity and the HISTORY of behavior.

First off I'm printing a list of our wonderful natural resources that ahhh....were....in the 40 years I've been here. Most are things that used to be harvested and now are not. Some are remnant's of what they were and a few I think are plane old gone. They all share the same thing, management. It's true that our area and the Anchorage bowl has grown in population but I thought that's what management does....it makes the population and demands of that fit the harvest. There's no doubt in my mind that people would change their harvest habits for the future. It's the only way it will work. In the future we will need a cleaner more exclusive guide industry and commercial component that fits our goals of sustainability...I think people are willing to change but managers are not, maybe. And really, I am optimistic for the future, here goes.

1. Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet King Crab
2. Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet Dungeness Crab
3. Kachemak Bay Shrimp
4. Kachamak Bay Clams , steamers and Butters
5. Deep Creek, Ninilchik River, Anchor River wild Steelhead.
6. Crooked Creek wild King Salmon
7. Early Run Kenai King Salmon
8. Ninlichik and Clam Gulch Razor Clams (just recently)
9. Moose
10. Cook Inlet Beluga Whales
11. and by jiminy we got rid of those pesky old Pike at Stormy Lake.

Well, you get the idea. I suppose they all have been effected by those things the experts can't control. Ocean oscillations, poor recruitment, age class, predation....let me tell you a story or two.

A few years ago these guys got on the band wagon with licensing and made all the charter people get their license. It's a hundred bucks every year...and every year you get a new number and fill out a generic form. Now every other revenuer in the State at least takes the time to create a data base and send you a pre printed form with your info on it. Dept. of Transportation sends your registration ready to go. The Dept. of Revenue, ditto for your business license. To State Parks credit they have their licensing ready to go as well. But not these guys, nope....that's called work.

And then just the other day the Clarion had a news headline, ' Fish and Game regulation book printed with errors'. They just forgot a few of the new regulation changes, I personally think they should pass a law that they can't add any more regs until they take and equal number out of the book. I'll get to that part in a bit. But one of the errors was the new closed water areas on this map that the Clarion printed. Doesn't look confusing to me, how about you?

As luck would have it a few years ago I was on the way to Mexico and one of our area Biologists was on the plane. I was reading Paul Greenberg's Four Fish which is an important best seller about the 4 ocean fish that they feel have gone past the tipping point, Atlantic salmon, Giant Tuna, Sea bass and of course Atlantic Cod. It charts what lead to the 'low abundance' of these fish. I showed it to this biologist and he said he was not familiar with it and it looked 'interesting'. So I asked if he'd like me to drop it off at his office when I got back from Mexico and he said....."not really".

That's page 52 of our 64 page regulation book. A real beauty, I love the arrows that help illustrate the closed water of the Kenai during red season, kinda of a 'knee bone connected to thigh bone, thigh bone connected to'.......aahhhhh, it's painful. Do you wonder why people get confused? But I know one thing, we're not on the map, the ADF+G won't bother you at Mile 14. And oh, how many books have you ever seen that don't read left to right ??? Well not this one, it reads from top to bottom like the free calendar you get at Christmas from the local gas station.

Now I could go on and on...I could tell you about the infamous radish study years ago. Or even when they were killing the trout they were studying by electro shocking them ( a fishing guide by the name of Bill Gavin shined the light on that deal) so they decided the best way to capture trout was to let their staff go fly fishing for them...that's pretty good duty. Or I could tell you about the 3000 fish sonar counts with nobody catching anything. But I won't do that.... My point is, all  us harvesters just did our jobs and if over harvest is part of the problem well it looks like we need to polish up the decision making part of this deal....lets quit the blame game and everybody start pulling on the same rope to get this thing out of the ditch. I rest my case.

If any of you are looking to book a trip and are surprised by this blog post please look at page 3 of my webpage. Our May-June fishery is closed until more fish arrive and I'm confident like other places in Alaska through the years this run will recover. So unless that happens we start fishing the second run on July 1st. Then we have fantastic sockeyes from mid to late July and our August/September Silver fishing is excellent and my favorite fishery. And of course during any of these timeframes we have great Rainbow trout and Dolly Varden fishing...and what ever we're fishing for we have the experience and that 100 % effort always.

1984

Actually I think it was 1985 or 86 but 1984 sounds so much more interesting and there's a kind of connection there to the viewing, maybe experiencing the future which for me is.....now.

That fish on the left was one of the first 'jumbo' units of my guide career, I'll never forget it for many reasons . Terry and his sister Paula Wetzsteon came to the river with their grandparents knowing like we all learn that at a certain age creating and keeping special moments with those you love are about the most important thing in the world.  As you can see we were making the drift from the 'Toilet'  through 'Eagle Rock' over and over and over and......Terry's rod goes down and stays down, I'm excited of course and Pa is having trouble reeling in, mmmmmm, he's got one on as well. It's the first double I've ever seen, since then of course I've learned to 'force' the double by having people continue to fish as we fight a King and we've had two on at once many times, even three. But this was flat exciting. We decide to focus on Terry's fish first which he had off the bow of the boat. Pa was to the stern and as we netted Terry's fish I looked over my shoulder and seen that he had lots, and I mean lots, as in what too much line out. So I  point the boat at the fish and Paula actually drives for awhile as we get organized for the battle. The fish had gone under a few boats but in those days the traffic wasn't what it can be now and we worked through it. Pa was tough, he lifted and reeled, lifted and reeled and like big fish do we really didn't see it much until it came up and into the net....walla.

Back then it was all so new , Hunter Fisher Taxidermy only charged 300 or 400 dollars for a mount and I remember the discussion. Paula's Grandma didn't want a dead fish in any way of any form in her house so the negotiation was interesting. It ended up in the house of course and now years later it's in Terry's Iowa home. It's the coolest thing about fish mounts....long after people are gone someday someone will say....."yup, I guess my great gramps wrestled that thing in Alaska, can you imagine catching a fish like that?"

So Paula was here almost 30 years ago with her 82 year old Grand father and this year she is coming with her 82 year old father. It's awful cool for me. Terry and his wife Carrie did a 'deja vue' trip a few years back and we had a great time. Now I'm honored to be part of new memories and a bit of refection on the old I'd guess. I wish people that don't seem to understand my job could meet the Wetzsteons. See you in a few months Paula....

Of course things aren't the same as they were, I guess that's everywhere and everything. But I have something at few of my younger competitors don't....life long relationships....1984.

Jacques Lizin....my friend of 30 years. A gift into my life brought to me by the Kenai River.

Jack and Joetta Wong put Mile 14 on their Christmas card...1987. Jack was a sail maker in Washington DC and disappeared off a boat. Joetta still sends us cards and best wishes....well we love you too Joetta.

Sally Brooks lifetime friend Libby who told me once that the best thing she does every year is go fishing with me. Wow, a year is a lot of experiences.

I met my friend Marty Holleran through Tommy O'Mara and Petey Karl, some of the funnest people I've ever met....and that's a lot of people. That fish Marty is holding is the one in my office. It's my " grandpa got that ....." fish story fish.

Me and Bert Holtan with our rally caps on. What can I say about Bert....one time business got in the way of a scheduled trip, he sent a check knowing I was a young guy with kids and....well....he was.... Bert made his last cast but his son and I are great friends and Keith is varsity player on the Kenai River.

And when you see this sight like I have thousands of times it never gets old. The fish grows in size and clarity as he gets close to the surface. The sun lights him up like he had L.E.D.'s of his own and your heart is pumping and get a really , really good look......HE'S JUST BARELY HOOKED.....now that's worth remembering.