Eagle Rock

Well I've been  putting some serious time in trying to get that first King Salmon of the season.  Sunday was the 35th anniversary of my friend Les Anderson's 97 1/4 pound world record catch and I've fished May 17th every year since.  It's not that I really expect some magic ju-ju on that day it's more about connectivity with the past, a way to keep it fresh. So, once again no salmon but me and MP and Bill Radke fished pretty hard. It's so strange there's nobody out fishing and I just don't get it. I'm pretty sure there is yet to be a King caught and we almost always have the rumor control rolling by now....and being  the only ones fishing it's kind of hard to decide it if there aren't any fish around or we're just having bad luck...I hope it's the later. Here's a pic of my favorite interception point looking both upriver and downriver on a really important day on the Kenai.

Through the years I've seen just about everything there is to see on top of Eagle Rock. Seagulls , ravens, logs , debris and even boats....but only one other time than Sunday have I ever seen an Eagle on Eagle Rock . He stood still just long enough for me to get the pic.

Years ago I had a photographer out who was doing a story for National Geographic about Alaska's Salmon dependent Eagles. He told me that someday this place would be as famous for the amount of Eagles as it is for the amount of salmon and I get his jist, right now in the lower river they are everywhere.  Yesterday on drift boat Monday Bill and I anchored in the middle of Fall-in-Hole and at one point counted 14 within view. It's so weird, the juveniles spend a lot of time on the ground and the adults are swooping and cackling as they work up to mating. It's also strange that when we do our walks along the river in Soldotna we see Eagles but nothing like here at Mile 14. If I had to guess I'd say that between Mile 14 and Beaver Creek ( 4 miles ) that there are 50 to 75 resident baldies, maybe even a hundred.

So now you're thinking he's talking Eagles because he can't catch a fish...mmmm....and you'd be right about that .

But oh....MP caught the Hooligan. That's another weird thing, when the hooligan hit the river so do the salmon, it's that food chain deal you hear about. I've caught King Salmon as early as May 3rd and to be here at May 19th and no Kings yet or even having not seen Kings rolling is kind of scary. One of the things we know is that if you graph a salmon run it makes a bell shaped curve and a large run starts to build the bell early and a small run builds the bell later. You often hear from salmon people that the run 'is late ' and sometimes it is and I really hope that is the case here now. But sometimes it's just a small run.....keep your fingers crossed for us.

I've been working on a new song and I didn't really think it was yet ' fit for human consumption ' as MP puts it when I'm satisfied but I recorded it last night and even with a flub up or two I kinda like it. Tonight I'll be back practicing in my usual environment...the garage. Every year as soon as it warms up I get moved out so MP can reclaim her dining room....Kinda funny, when I was a kid I'd hear " take that #$&* out to the garage " ....and now I'm a grown man with my own direction in my life and my own dreams and love of making home spun music, but it's still gotta be in the garage, like always 😎

2020

Ya know we're not even half way into the year 2020 and I have to tell ya, of all the years I've wandered the planet this is shaping up to be one of my least favorites . Today I watched highlight clips of a day old Pro Baseball game from Korea....yawn...the only good news is that having cut the cord finally I watched it for free on an OTA ( over the air ) channel. But that free thing can cost ya too, it's cost me my usually rosey view of the world and all the possible outcomes, the mystery of sports ya know, like the mystery of WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I WATCHING...and WHY  !!! jeez, I feel better now.

So on top of all that is this new world you might remember that record or near record snow fall that me and MPeasy came home to. Well, it's put the kibosh on one of my favorite things, the sport of Marine Salvage on the World Famous. I'll explain it as if I were an ADF+G  person doing a power point presentation at a River Board meeting..... Deep snow = lots of snow melt which = lots of water = high river level = deep water = water over you boots when salvaging and difficulty spotting treasure...and oh, that water is cold.  My first good foray down to Fall=in-hole I came back with the inside of my boats washed out. I told MP I had worn the wrong socks and my feet were wallowing around in my Extra Tuff boots and I thought I was getting blisters so I let some water in to cool my feet 😎. I don't know, maybe I'm like that ageing athlete and losing a step or two but I've been up and down the river. Yesterday we went to the run at Eagle rock which has always been ground zero for anchors, the holy grail of the marine salvager....notta...nothing...none. But I did find this hundred dollar rubber net so at least we're in the chips here at Mile 14 for the 2020 season.

But I did learn a valuable thing, don't gamble on the Golf Course with anybody from Kenai Riverbend Resort because it could be the guy who hit these balls across the river. Now the distance is impressive but the accuracy incredible,  they were all ' on the green ' . At one place I found four of them within a 10 foot circle of each other, impressive. I even told one of the owners that our crew here at Mile 14 would try and return a few of those balls but we just don't have ball strikers like that on this side of the river, we're fishermen, don't have time to be no 5 handicapper.  Naturally with the way things are going I wasn't surprised when the pic didn't turn out.

You see that red string looking deal at the bottom of the pic ? Well it's a tag that was put into a King Salmon by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. They like to track fish and map spawners and all kinds of things that leads to good management of this wonderful resource. Right on it it says Please return to ADF+G ( address P.O.  box Soldotna Alaska ) . So I figure I'll put it in the boat and return it when I see an ADF+G technician who would love to hear the story form me of where and how it was located and maybe even what it all might mean to a highly experienced and educated 37 year fishing guide 😎

So with our salvage season going the  way of the Seattle Mariners season me and MP just went fishing yesterday and it felt really good . Really good like in a comfort way, that might sound strange to you but that's really how I felt...of course that might have also come from a mini dose of hypothermia that most early spring trips create...but I don't think so...I was with two things I really love.

" Today we fished for King Salmon and they were unaware of it " Chic Kishbaugh 

Happy Mothers Day to all of you out there. My song of the week is for the favorite mother in my life right now...and honey, I'm still trying to be a better kid, I promise.

Back pain is only youth leaving your body

Sciatica, I got it . For the life of me I don't know what I did. I'd been feeling soooo good, I have my weight down to where I've wanted it for years and we walk 3 miles everyday and...oh. it's excruciating. Once I get moving it's not so bad but in the morning after I stretch I can't lift my left foot to put my pants on without a severe stinging running down from my left kidney to my butt. I spent 2 days getting my boat out of winter lay up and I guess I just did to much....but  ya know , in this day and age if a  little back pain or even a lot of back pain is your biggest problem that's a pretty good deal. I'll take it.

BUT...having said all that I gotta ask and you know I'm a guy that does everything himself  and never asks for help but this is different. I just can't do the shoveling to get the winters silt off the concrete boat launch surface like I always do and we'd really like to get the boat launch open as soon as possible. So if any of you guides or Kenai people that use Stewart's Landing read this and can pitch in MP and I would really appreciate it. When I do it alone it usually takes about 2 or 3 hours and this year it's not as much as usual...

 I googled '  funny pictures for back pain ' and there weren't any....guess it's kind of a hard thing to make fun of.

So me and MPeasy have cabin fever on about an 8 on the 10 scale so the other day we decide to walk the beach in Kasilof and have ice cream for lunch at the Mercantile along the way, my favorite....chocolate chip cookie doe. Oh baby, it was the first ice cream we've had since going to the movies in Mazatlan in February, made my lips tingle. We pull up to the parking lot at the beach access and see this memorial, I was impressed. It was made of welded aluminum channel and situated in one gorgeous location on gods green earth , for forty seven years now that beach just always gives me pause and this certainly helped that along.

Now the Agates that we all collect aren't exactly gem quality but what they lack in clearness they make up in quantity. Mp , she likes the unusual and the darker colors, me I go for size, it's the fisherman in me no doubt.

The Agates might not be gem quality but the ice sculptures are . They're going fast, it's springtime in Alaska.

So we end up on the Kenai flats looking for those thousands of Snow Geese that used to have a layover here every year. I don't know what happened to them but mother nature is kinda quirky, back then we had thousands of Geese and few Cranes and now it's just the opposite. I call the Sand Hills  Pterodactyls cause they kinda look like them and make that dinosaur  sound, really loud cackling. Here's the best pic I could muster using all the zoom I had....guess it's one of the ' ya gotta be there ' deals.

So tomorrow is May day and the boat is ready and we'll be salvaging and fishing real soon.  This year the ADG+G is actually going to let us start fishing with a slot limit for keepers so all of us river people are excited....but ....in a really  trying to be optimistic way.  After the last 8 years of having to explain the vagaries of our fishery to customers I'm glad that I don't have to deal with this new era but I worry for all my friends who need business and yes , we're in the Kenai up to our necks and would like some business here at Mile 14 as well.  I just don't see people from the 48 coming to fish and quarantining for 14 days before they do and then again when they get home. So, come on Alaska...let's go fishin !  Here's our new neighbors at Stewart's island.

Speaking of guiding. I've been cleaning out my office, so many pictures, so many thank you notes and letters.... the workings of my life's business.  I decided that I needed to burn all my client info and banking info and thought it would be kinda hard to do, erase my life's work . But ya know when I started that fire in my drive way it was a moment....it was moving on...it helped me see the future and know that we, me and MP still got a lot to do. So take it from me, if you're retiring from something you loved, something that defined you the mechanical process of moving one helps...it was kinda fun...adios to the old, hola to the new.

And...my song of the week... I decided to save them for last,mmmm,,,, but maybe there's a good chance I've already lost some of you and an even bigger chance that I'm fixing to , so here goes. I can't figure out why the guitar sounds so tinny , I tried it on the Martin and it was just as twangy. Guess I need a better way. Ty gave me a Go Pro a while back so I really need to get better with that which is the right equipment.

Fish pictures----------SOON

It's Amazing

how fast seasons change here, I'll never get used to it. All of you that read this regularly know that a week ago we still had freezing weather , a frozen river and 3 ft. of snow. Well about 5 days ago it got to be in the 40's during the day and the high 30's at night and never mind that during this time of year we gain 7 minutes of daylight everyday, think about that, in seven days we have an hour more sunlight. We've had an open ' lead' at the launch for a week but this series of pics is the last 3 days taken from about the same place.

 Below is last night as the break up was occurring. The open water pushed all the ice onto the shallow riff below the property and stopped the current. We watched the water level rise a full foot or more.

 And then this morning it had released taking all the ice and water with it.

Last night as it jammed up I took this short 16 second video. At first the ice crunched so loud we could hear it at the house. MP and I hung out at the launch after supper hoping it would release so I could get a video but no such luck. It must have happened shortly after we climbed the hill though.

So this morning as soon as it was light and even before we ate we hustled down to the river to see what it looked like. I found my first treasure of the 2020 season in exactly 2 minutes, the river had washed up this gorgeous K-14 Kwikfish...I was a little excited so when I handed the camera to MP she said I needed my ' O ' face.

So now the season will start in earnest. I don't know what is going to happen and I expect the launch will have few if any customers.....BUT, I'm anxious to get on with some fishing of my own and outdoor work like cutting all the beetle kill spruce I can handle. We've been home from Mexico a little over a month now and it was a long one...but I gotta say we kept the faith and didn't miss a single day of getting our 3 mile walk in, and I do 45 minutes on the stationary bike every morning. Some of the days walking fell into that ' ya gotta want to do it ' category.

It's been a little wet eh ? Hows about the Peninsula's biggest mud puddle, brought to you by the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce, I personally think it's a promotional shot and should be sent out with every request for info from people who are thinking of moving here. I'm standing there in the middle.

This year we took a a Fire Stick to Mazatlan as our building continually  cuts back on services like television.  Our internet wasn't as good as it could be to run it flawlessly but it did run it well enough to know we need to use it in Alaska where we do have good internet. We had left our Dish Network service on for our house sitter and low and behold it was blanking out and not working right. The Dish people said the satellite had moved and I needed to have the Dish re- positioned.... Nope, considering we have no live sports and the service cost some serious $$$$ I decided I was cutting off the service . With more than a little time on my hands I researched Over The Air TV and almost ordered an antennae from Amazon when I came across the do it yourself approach on YouTube. Unbelievable how good it works, I built an antennae for both TV's and now get 18 channels Over The Air. They are all 5 major networks in high definition  as well as some I've never heard of before but with that and the Firestick we've got all the TV we need, for about a hundred bucks less a month. Here's pic of one of the antennas being made and then installed ( we're close to the broadcast tower )

And my song of the week....I put this up on Youtube a while back. But tonight I'm going to sit down and record a new one so I hope you come back...In the meantime I hope you all stay well, keep smiling. 😎🐟💚🎸🎵🚤

Bored

Boy howdy...and I thought the days blend together in Mexico ! So like just about all of us I've been looking for things to do. Life here at Mile 14 is kind of unique, we have wilderness so we can adventure outside whenever we want...but...there's still 2 ft. of snow. So you know how I loves list's, they give the appearance of organisation to a decidedly unorganized life and I haven't done one for a while so here goes...

Things I did this week

1. Learned to play Farkle

2. Learned to play Farkle frenzy

3. Found the Kaminsky Method on Netflix

4. Finished the Kaminsky Method on Netflix

5. Built a T.V. antennae

6. Found a recipe for Menudo ( will report back )

7. Read three books... The Farfarers is going to take me bit Willie ( will report back)

8. Watched the 1998 Daytona 500

9. Paid bills...all out come and no in come.

10. Took sauna

Speaking of the sauna....years ago as MPeasy and me headed down the hill on the 4-wheeler she being the astute one in the bunch pointed out that we were breaking every single safety recommendation that was prominently posted on the machine. Yikes....well, we still are.

I did a smart thing and stocked the wood for the sauna before leaving for Mexico last October and that was a good thing because you'd need a Huey Helicopter to get the job done now.  But we had a great fire that hit the optimum 180' within about 15 minutes and had about 3 ten  minute sessions at 180 before going up the hill to fall asleep during The Curse of Oak Island....Ya know I tell people they'd better be watching because you wouldn't want to miss it when they find the treasure, well, wake me up when that happens eh MP...?

Now I'm going to take a chance and publish this sauna photo just so you can see what we're dealing with on our historically late break up / lasting snow / frozen river / etc...and of course there's the fact that I'm an unabashed egotistical ....well, let's say I'm comfortable in my own body and thought that people who know me and know how hard and long I've tried to get to 185 pounds might get a kick out of seeing what it looks like. 😎

You've noticed I've been trying to publish a few songs lately....it's medicine for me. So you're going to have to suffer through another one. But, I promise from here on  until life gets semi-normal I'll try to keep it to just one week. This on here is one I searched out about 35 years ago when the fog had just started to lift for me... I HOPE ALL of you are doing well and keeping your spirits up, remember what we say here at Mile 14... &%$#* &>* I just FARKLED again !!!

Break - up , break - out , Break a leg

Well the editorial staff here at Mile 14 hasn't got any of those three things going on. The traditional Alaska break-up is late, we'd love to break out of the house but we can't and with all this ice you gotta be damn careful to not break your leg...just like Mexico when we do our daily walks you spend the entire walk looking down so you don't hurt yourself, the good news is that when you look down you find things like a nice pocket knife the other day. In Mexico  this season I found a nice bracelet, a cell phone ( which I got returned tot he owner ) car keys ( which I got back to the owner ) and a couple years ago I found 2 american C notes, yahtzee.  Here's pic of MP on our walk yesterday so you non Alaskans can see what we're up against snow wise.

We walked 8000 steps which was an hour and 15 minutes. Of course we talked about what everybody is talking about so we take our good cheer whenever we can find it, Soldotna's most cheerful fire hydrant.

My friend Dan sent a picture of the river open and flowing below his house 20 miles upriver from us. Usually when the river ' goes out ' we wake up to the sound of Ducks and Seagulls but like everything now days, 2020 is acting different. It's moving our way and the open leads we're seeing are sort of news but by jiminy it's open water and we'll take it.

With break up also comes clean up. The roads are sanded so often that tons and tons of it has to be collected. The street sweepers kick up dust that's just horrible and until the job is done just the everyday traffic creates a dust storm, it's one of my least favorite things around here... tree hugger alert ...  there's got to be a better way , look at all of this that ends up in the River we all love under the bridge in Soldotna.

The first week of December 2001 Toby Keith was in Alaska and added a show at the Kenai Auditorium. He was new on the scene and just had the red album, Dream Walking out. We were on our way to Las Vegas as we routinely went to the National Finals Rodeo to watch  Country music acts so we bought cheap seats on the balcony and listened to Toby... he was great and played this song for all of us that were experiencing post 9 / 11 . I think it stands up today.

Today is the day after we got the news. People like me all over the USA are playing John Prine songs one way or another, here's mine.....damn.

Music helps me, I hope it helps you

My friend Kiki recorded this for me a few years ago at his house in Mazatlan. As you can see we ain't afraid to bellow out a song. Of all the things I've done it my life getting to where I finally like ' my sound ' has been the hardest. I'd tell you it's taken years of work but like they say....' when you do it what you love you never work a day in your life'. I've been lucky that way.

So with all of us sequestered in our homes I thought a few songs would help everybody's cabin fever. Here at Mile 14 we've been skiing and walking the river but there's still a lot of winter here. A side order of springtime will go a long ways to making social distancing a lot easier.

There we are, the 1st two people to be at Fall-in-Hole for the 2020 season. Alaska is an amazing place, within 5 or at the most 6 weeks we'll be boating on that river...but yesterday when we did our river walk it 20 degrees which was about as warm as it got all day.

A couple years ago me and MP almost got stomped by a moose when we got between her and her knew calf which we didn't see...so...the city if Soldotna wouldn't have put this up if it weren't serious. Ya gotta love Alaska. It's been a long winter for those moose.

Any of you that saw Clint Eastwood's ' The Mule ' well recognize this song. As the credits rolled Toby Keith sang us the secret.

I hope Blogger will give me enough room for one more, a Cody Jinks song I worked up. I'm going to sit down tonight and record a really cool song that I have now and then I'm working to find a way to get a video off of MP"s phone that she took of me and Diana and Jack playing live in Mazatlan....Stand by, I'll try to get more out soon.

We'll try one more....here's a bout 30 seconds of my friend Carl, that guy can play that ol Crafter guitar of mine. Next year we gotta work some stuff up together eh Carl ?

Well it looks like Blogger will give me more space so I just sat down and did a couple of the newest...If you think I got a Cody Jinks deal going you're right, his songwriting takes me to where I was when I discovered country music, personal. This song is short and is about how some of us. (me) seem to always anticipate the worst. Optimist say ' there's a light at the end of the tunnel'...pessimist say ' but what if that light at the end of the tunnel is a train ? 

I think that's about enough....but listen to these lyrics about life and the creative process....It seems to me that we learn the simplest things in the simplest ways and just don't recognize it until we have a volume of life's events to draw on....