It's so hot I

 saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking. This morning at 5 a.m. it was seventy degrees , ten degrees higher than the daytime high in Soldotna Alaska. So you're wondering how the fishing went as what else would a guy be doing at 5 a.m. , right ?  mmm..... well actually we close the house up after we completely open it up as early as we can in the morning, fan at the front door, all the windows open and then close drapes and windows about 8:30 and then its, 85 by 10:00. I know to most of you this is routine...I'm still learning.

So we got a lot to learn. For instance , in our joy of having an Apple tree that produces pounds of wonderful McIntosh juicy red apples we never dreamed it could carry so much fruit that it breaks . Yesterday we went out to find a huge branch bearing over maybe 100 pounds of fruit broken and bent over. Yikes !  So being that guy I sharpen the chainsaw and go to work . It was 10:30 and already 85 degrees....I get dizzy and kneel down before I would've fallen  down and scared the crap out of MP and honestly, myself.... MP helps into the house and twenty minutes in front of the air conditioner and two Gatorades later I'm fine.....yup, we got a lot to learn.

And of course what happens when it won't rain and it's 100 degrees for days on end ?????  This the plume as seen from the Southern bureau of MIle 14. But you know me, old lucky lucky lucky....the prevailing wind is to the east so for us on the west of the fires we only get all the smoke from other fires and the air quality index has hovered in the dark yellow at 80 to 90 .

So what to do....leave the apple tree clean up for another day. Pack a picnic . Go to flowing water. Get in  flowing water. Sing a song ......ahhhh things are more better already.

For my friends in Mazatlan I've been working on new songs while in doors from the heat. And of course I think of the rain in Alaska and well...just Alaska....which I miss along with my and Alaska's friend Hobo Jim Varsos. This song is one of his early ones. It really speaks to mine and his path through life . Of course I worked the cannery as a kid and had not been in one for 30 years when MP and I got invited to Kenai Packers year end party with entertainment by Hobo JIm . He played this song and to this day I can hear the rhythmic drumming of the conveyor belts, I can smell the heavy protein fish smell that I've lived with my whole life . The steamy hiss of the retorts when their pressure is released . The muffled sound and yelling to talk with your ear plugs in and the longing that goes with the work to be done and $$$$$ , in the fishing industry we call it ' making your season ' ....Thanks Jim, we all miss you .

It's beautiful

 here in Montana, that's for sure . We took the camper to MP's sisters place at Moose Lake for the 4th of July and I was impressed. Snow capped mountains, flowing water and Beaver ponds everywhere and....just a few citizens. Here's the view from the front of the house.

One of the things that I've found sooo boresome here in Montana is the way the locals treat and talk about non-residents, especially Californians ruining the State. They blame people like us for being responsible for the inflated property taxes. They blame Kevin Costner for attracting more people to the Montana lifestyle....yawn....ya know if the TV show Yellowstone can ruin your State maybe it deserves to be ruined. I mean my home state of Alaska endured way more TV exposure than Yellowstone and we survived the Brown family right down to Noah and Snowbird and the rest of those clowns . So where am I going with this you're wondering ? Well, on some level I kinda get it here in Montana.

Moose Lake has this strange urban vibe. It's at the end of a dirt road but there's houses all around the lake. Typically the house started with an inexpensive log cabin which was ' added to ' until it becomes a luxury get away for...you guessed it....California . This is what you see a lot of.....and oh, they call them 'ranches ' when all they grow is dust .  

It was a wonderful weekend. Me and MPeasy canoed, I fished a bit....unsuccessfully....and we took a four wheeler trip up the mountain to an area that had burned in 2018. Mother nature is really something in this pic you can see all the trees that have reseeded themselves, when these guys get big it's going to be a jungle.

Here's a pic of our group lead by my brother-in-law Jim Weaver. I told him he looked absolutely ridiculous on that little Honda and he said to just wait until he gets the side car installed.

 We're in mourning for the Kenai River....The sonar stopped counting Early run King Salmon on June 30th and it is an absolute disaster. With absolutely no harvest at all it is the worst return ever. The problem got apparent and has been regulated (closed ) every year since 2013 which is now more than two complete life cycles for this once robust run of salmon. We're holding our breath in hopes that the second run doesn't mirror the first but they usually trend alike....I hope not . All the Kenai King salmon are wild salmon naturally spawned. The Cook Inlet Regional Planing Team years ago declared it a stock of genetic reserve. so, maybe it's time to introduce hatchery spawned fish and do egg takes from the few remaining Early run Kings before it becomes to late,

The two top lines illustrate the escapement goal range with 3,900 minimum . This year the run was 1/3 the desired minimum at only 1,365.....on June 20th the sonar only counted 12....the black line is 2024 and the other lines the previous 4 years that only one of mad e the very lowest goal.  It's horrible and I'm so very sorry for all my friends and neighbors ....and the fish . 

Today's high temp is forecast to be 98 and then the next few days we're gonna hit triple digits. It's a little hard to get used to when you've spent almost all your July's wearing Helly Hansens and Extra Tuff boats. But we keep the house closed up and with our ' Penguin' brand window unit it stays around 72 to 75 degrees.....no worries....at least we don't have smoke...

I hope ya'all come back....I'll try and write more and in the meantime lets all root for some excitement to write about....but only the good kind of course.....How's about a song ?

Walleye class

 That's where we're at as I type this at 5:00 a.m. from Team X and Mile 14 southern bureau here in the Big Sky .  I've been taking an on-line course from a fellow Team Xer in Minnesota . Kurt  is sooo helpful and thanks to him I have the right gear, the right baits and a sounding board for all my many questions . BUT, the on water part of this learning process just wasn't translating until I met this guy . My readers know that if I'm good at anything on this trip around the sun it's people, I seem to meet just the right people at the right times....it's a kinda Forrest Gump approach to life . If someone were to ask what the biggest thing is in attaining a modest success in life is I'd tell them that's simple, it's people, relationships.

That guy right there is Don Poole. It was like a cosmic convergence to meet him . He's about my age, he's a musician, an aviator , expert pescador and just a cooool guy.....MP had to use the Banos so we ran the boat up to the launch after fishing for 3 hours with notta. As she walked back to the boat she chatted Don up and told him that the Walleyes in the Lake weren't aware of our presence . As I watched him comfortably launch his boat we chatted and he said ' follow me ' .  A couple of the spots he stopped at I had seen people fishing and had noticed the structure on my machine but then he took us to a couple new places and instead of just saying this a good spot he went on tell me how to orient the boat to this structure for the best jig fishing. Now I'm a river / ocean guy and I'm always looking for current seams or deeper water that will hold fish but Don taught me to look for ' humps ' , shallow water that drops off to deeper water .  I had been anchoring off to the side and throwing to the structure and he says anchor right on top of it and fish it as it rises....make sense ?  So a little smaller bait and a with a little more confidence, walla , MP has the the first Wally of her life.

So, now I'm all over watching my Garmin, stupid me I had been trolling with it off instead of looking for the right stuff. I paid a lot of lettuce for that Garmin 93sv with side scan and real scope etc...what the heck was thinking . 

So we fished within sharing distance and chatted . Don worked with a guy named Frank MIller who I also did so briefly in 1972 at the ASARCO smelter and who was a real influence in my maturing...did I ever tell ya I was a little slow on that part...but...pretty soon MP was ready to go, she had actually fished a new endurance record of fishing with me of 5 full hours. We pulled the hook and said good bye to a new friend.  So Don I gotta tell ya , you're one hell of a guy and a new Team X member with emmertis status with all the membership benefits that come along with it.... unsolicited advice , connections to hundreds, mmm, well dozens  of people like us in far away places to help you if you decide to fish perhaps the Lake of the Ozarks for example . Membership also comes with fish posing picture advice, free smiles, belly laughs and Pacifico beer, Team X fuel. And Don...thank you for being you . As we headed home to our first ever Walleye feed I snapped a few pics of the scenery, gorgeous. And yes , I know the joy is in the pursuit but it is kinda fun to actually catch something now and then .

So last week I wrote about the Quilts. Well, we still are wondering what if anything they could all mean....Maybe ' this house votes for fun ' maybe ' this house stands for love '....I don't know but we figure that if it's good enough for the Grain Co-operative in White Sulphur Spring Montana it's good enough for us . Here's a couple the artist in my life put together for us. The second one is our coat of arms, a few of the things that we are about. 

As I started to type an hour ago I took this pic from out the window. I always feel fresh in the morning and for me it's a huge part of fishing, up early, new day, new adventures, new start . I enjoy a good sunset of course but if I had to choose, I'm a sun up guy. 

The Quilts of Meagher County

 

That's one of the first ones you see when you cross into Meagher County....there's hundreds, maybe thousands to follow. When you Google ' what the hell am I looking at in Meagher County Montana ' you get this - they're called Barn Quilts and apparently the Art community in White Sulphur Springs which is small but dynamic decided that a County wide art program could be beautiful and also set them aside from the other hum drum 185 other counties in the State . Now I'm not Inspector Closeau but I'm kinda thinking that there's got to be more to the story, after all a lot of it doesn't make sense...

1. They're in the strangest seemingly random places, everywhere .

2. They're not signed .

3. You see them as in the pic above in remote places with views of some of the most beautiful scenery in the lower 48...who thinks you can improve on that ?

4. White Sulphur Springs is the County seat and the Courthouse has one but  the Hospital across the street doesn't  have one . The Police station don't have one.....mmmm....but the industry  has 3 of them....mmmm 

5. It's hard for me to believe it's such a big thing without some $$$$ involved.  To quote one of my old fishing buddies ' nobody does nothin for nothin '.

So if your mind works like mind right now you're thinking Knights Templar . Right ?  Maybe even somehow linked to the mystery of Oak Island .

I remember in school learning about the Underground Railroad during the Civil War . In southern states the people helping the effort had to stay anonymous so for the folks needing help they devised an ingenious way of identifying each other. Of course they had your everyday secret passwords and handshakes and invisible ink but they also used everyday objects displayed in just a slightly different or unusual way for the people who knew what to look for to find....see where I'm going with this ?

So I'll be in that County from time to time and I'll do some more sleuthing. I guess in the meantime we can just consider it a gift like most art and just enjoy it...beautiful things in beautiful places. 

There's one heck of a beer culture here in Montana. Our motel was full of fishing guides getting ready to launch for a trip on the Smith River, what a life . In the morning we watched them load these I.B.R.B.'s to quote Geno ( itty bitty rubber boats ) and it seems the concern they had most was room for the Pacifico's . They even know how to buy beer. 

This note is posted on the door of our room and the second pic is the note posted at the local watering hole explaining their hours....I think you can see the situation quite well.

So we celebrated MP's ssss.......th  birthday. My neck allowed me to golf a bit and I won the long drive contest. We toured a museum where they had really old stuff covered with really old dust and a sign that said do not touch, like that's what you'd want to do with a horse bridle that had spider webs on it.  MPeasy won 15 dollars as we waited for a gourmet hamburger and I got to meet the nephew of a guy who's uncle beat up a friend of mine in 1971 . We ran into our neighbor Tom at the golf course . We toured the graveyard as White Sulphur goes overboard on Memorial Day. It was beautiful and solemn, 350 full sized flags, the sound of them flapping in the Montana wind gave me pause....that was a lot of weekend .

So now I'm getting ready to fish, seriously getting it together. If any of you are wondering how I'm looking as I work into retirement here's a current picture.

It's a Biggy

 This coming weekend sure is. Of course it's memorial day and as much as much as I'd like to redo our season of fishing kick off or maybe even to get invited to Nancy Lake for a gourmet weekend with Chris and Melinda , we can't, it don't work that way. But what we will do is go out to Fort Harrison and leave flowers for both MP's and my folks. We'll hike down to the farmers market and visit with our Hutterite friends. We'll watch the Indy 500 and most likely a Mariner game . We'll barbecue and I'll go fishing, alone . We'll plant the last of the starts in our garden that MP lovingly  has nurtured . And then on Monday we'll drive to White Sulphur Springs for soaking and supper at the Stockmans to celebrate this wonderful woman's 69th birthday, Ill give her a lucky 20 to play the Lucky Leprechaun with .  We'll get up Tuesday morning and if my neck can do it we'll golf 9 and have a walk and a talk...you see we do everything together, everything .

Mary Patricia Brown is definitely the key to our modest success in life. I had some wasted years, it's a long story . But , she said she saw something in me and we went to work, together . With our future secure and the stress of self employment over it's all the things she is that still amazes me.

She talks to the flowers and the birds like they were our kids. She talks to our kids like they are leading the world.  She's a master Gardener. She's a gourmet cook . She ends every phone call with family or friends with " I love you " . She can eat a lot of crab meat .  She's an artist, as Maria DaSilva once said ' a real artist '.....I had to prod a bit to get ny chalk board personalized .

She laughs and laughs. She keeps me motivated to not get  depressed with frustration on a few health issues. She does taxes . She researches before she votes . She fishes her ' own ' way . She likes movies .  She's an avid bird watcher . She watches PBS television , anything British .......and.....she loves me !  Happy Birthday baby, I love you.

As I type this the world famous Kenai River season is kicking off. People wonder why and how we got to Montana. Most of it was because we wanted to and a lot of it was because we had to. It's a good thing when your wants and your needs collide .   ADF+G has used a sophisticated sonar to measure the salmon runs for 40 years now, they start counting on May 15th every year. So today with 6 days of data just 6 King Salmon have  crossed the sonar.  Six .   And to think that in 1985 Les caught the world record on May 17th and now.....my goodness it's terrible. We found out the hard way that you can't run a Salmon sport fishing business without Salmon. the black line is this year and the others are the past 4 years.  For all of my friends on the Kenai, we're hoping all the best for you.

With this post of Mile 14 I expect to surpass 300,000 visits.....that's really something for me and MP. About 10 years ago I wrote a blog piece that went semi viral and had 25.000 visits in just a couple days. I subtracted that from my counter as it wasn't my steady readers, my friends, you guys reading now. To be completely honest I don't know what it is that makes ya'all come back and read my stories, especially now that the thrill of the fishing chase is...well a bit slower and of course, not Alaskan.  But having said that I'm so happy that you do like the stories, the songs , the pictures and perspectives. Thank you all for making a writer out of me.

20 years ago.... my first fish story

And what makes this a fish story ? I guess it's because they all are really. You see we fish for new experiences, new friends, new tastes and new stories....new fish, new weather and the same sunsets and sun ups but through a new view, a fresh view.

It was all sooooo new to us, we were just starting our love affair with Mazatlan . I'm sure everyone knows that feeling when you first fall , it's all so new and so exciting and you can't believe that you're really there or that she really loves you and .....it's magic . These guys listening while I poach a free beer or so are still friends today. Danny " the Hatman " Lizzaraga who invited us to our first Mexican wedding where his uncle unsuccessfully tried to out drink me . Jimmy Mendoza who had us to his Casa where his wife Maria started our fixation with real Mexican Chili Relanos . Jimmy has passed but now 20 years later his son Juan is my fishing / guitar / genuine friend. Jimmy showed us so much . Then there's Mike who I don't see as much but his brother Mario and I have stayed together . And Allan there was the Mayan Palace guy who took care of us....

It was spring break for both our guys in college Sam came from Northern Arizona and Max came from U of A, Alaska .  It rained one day and we all ended up in the pool hall waiting for the sun to return . As I commented to Sam about his 8-ball skills I had to ask the obvious question " you are going to class aren't you " ?  The four of us had a wonderful week , we called a cab and got them both on the way to the airport and me and MP went shopping to get the makings of a celebration. Getting back to the Mayan Palace with a couple steaks and a bottle of Chardonnay we run into Sam.....yikes,' what are you doing here ' ? Well we had all put our passports in a pile and he ended up with the wrong one. It was a bittersweet ,  we got another day with Sam but the steaks had to wait.  There's my crew on rocks on the rocks of Playa Olas Altas.

This was the era in my life where I was winging just about everything. Why  buy expensive tackle and gear when I had tons of it in Alaska, surely I had things in the garage that would catch these new fish. I met Daniel the lifeguard and we were immediate friends. Now Daniel and I also shared a common trait, neither of us had one single iota of the other persons language. I had a little battery powered translator that didn't survive my 1st swim in the ocean so me and Danny used sign language and laughing to get things done. He showed me how to wiggle your feet at the surf zone to feel for the little cochita's  (sand crabs ) that make excellent bait. He showed me that if you can't feel for them so well all you really have to do is watch the shore birds who pluck at them as the surf raises and falls right at the water. Danny took me to the rocks and showed me how to chisel off the oysters with a rock and butter knife and now 20 years later I'm a pretty good water man, maybe an expert.

So there I am with my first ever Mazatlan fish. All my Mazatlateco friends will notice the view north from the Mayan there, looking to Playa Bruja. The only big building on the beach is the one you see, Quintas Del Mar. If that pic were taken today, my goodness, maybe 15 high risers would be in view including the sprawling Riu property that Jimmy Buffet would characterize like this ' it's ugly and square , it don't belong there ' . 

So I'm fishing with sand crab bait with the rod in the holder when I see a disturbance in the water that was new to me. I had a trout sized green Krocidile on a Kenai Special and a casting reel which I wound up and got out maybe 25 ft.....Bang, instantly I've got him on and I'm astonished by the power . I told people on the Kenai that if you tied that fish to a Silver Salmon he'd pull it backwards. I was pumped. Daniel showed me how to bleed him and how to fillet my first Tuna. Yup, I had decided he was a Tuna family and when the four us sat down for our first fresh Mexican pescado we all admitted it was the best darn Tuna we'd ever eaten . Allan asked about the carcass and the Mayan staff used it for soup base. 

So on that Spring fishing trip 20 years ago I caught lotsa new stuff here's a list .

1. My first digital pics. I had bought my Minolta at Costco for a pretty good chunk of lettuce. I use the camera to this day and have taken thousands of pics with it . I learned how to succeed as a good photographer with no talent . ' If you can't take a good shot, take a lot of shots '

2. My first ' Cubrito ' hangover . Cubrito's are what they call the small 7 ounce Pacifico bottles. At Danny's daughters wedding they had Dozens of cases and it was sooooo festive. Danny's uncle would come to me and lock elbows as we'd both chug a Cubrito . He was a small guy and after a half dozen or so he got tired and took a nap.

3. New Stars...It's funny , you might not think you know the night sky but you do , you've lived with it your entire life. Me and MP would lie on the beach, it was so dark....the Dippers were way to the north. The north star was about midship and the  Southern Cross was new to us.  We'd hold hands with wonder.

4. Our first real Chili Relanos. Jimmy Mendoza's wife Maria is known for them. It was a hot evening on a dusty road and she grilled as we ate and.....oh baby they were good....and spicy ! I was puddling ! But like a good gringo should I was determined to eat all she gave me . The next time we had the Chili Relanos Maria fried them in a hub cap on the beach for us.  Love those guys .

5. My first Busking....although I've played music since I got my first guitar in 7th grade I never really considered myself a musician until about this era. Mazatlan made me a musician. The culture is so musical the locals welcome all and hold a special place for good ol American Rock and Roll.  I used to say ' I ain't good but I am loud "......now I say ' I'm good and loud " .

6. My first  first Class....My buddy  Chris was doing tons of flying in the day and would treat us to First Class upgrades with Alaska Airlines and yup, it's a better way to go. I even played music for the airplane one time...so thank's Chris, from you I learned the way .

7. My first Tuna....mmmmm.....well,,,a...

8. So there's a few firsts. If I could do it all again I'd do everything exactly the same....except sooner.

How's about one last first ? The first song I ever recorded on my U Tube station , hope it doesn't make your dog bark.

Oh Deer...

 We got neighbors that think they're beautiful, and feed them . But mostly what we have is a public that's tired of the pests and a government that doesn't know how to solve a really pretty easy problem, if you can set a aside human emotion.  These urban Deer have habituated themselves not only to town but specific houses and green area where they feel protected. They eat everything, new budding tulips, perennials of all kinds and stomp down paths through wonderfully manicured landscaped yards . AND...I'm of the opinion that it's just a matter of time before us human types realize they carry the wasting disease or the Burcelosis type of thing that could be passed on to our kind and at the very least our pets . So what's to be done ? Here's a pic of the enemy, shot on yesterday mornings walk .

The woman who lets me live here has been calling me Carl lately, surely you remember Carl Spackler from the movie Caddy Shack. I haven't resorted to middle of the night black opps....yet...but I am armoring the perimeter and trying to Deer proof our back yard that has 42" chain link all around that that these hybrid urban Deer bound over like it was a steeping stone.  Now MPeasy and a few of our friends have questioned if I really could be successful.....mmmmm....it's junior varsity insulting if they think we can't out smart these cuties who are ruining the yard. Here's the plan.

So that's what Carl is doing. Now what's the City of Helena doing ? mmmmmm.....Well, the first thing you do is form a committee while forgetting a basic tenant of politics is that if you want to slow something down or even do nothing the best thing is to form a committee. Then you set an ' acceptable ' number of deer per neighborhood and then decide how many of the vermin to execute to get to that number. I'd say the urban deer 'acceptable ' number should be zero, 0 , none , notta...then when the g-men go to work you end up with 1/2  of your goal . Makes sense eh ? So, while we lounged around Mexico this winter the animal control people here set traps to cull 250 or so deer of which I think I saw they got  38. 

So, here's a suggestion from the new guy, don't ya just hate that ? But a lot can be learned from your more 'hands on ' neighbors to the north where they deal with this stuff routinely.  Back in the day Alaska had a Governor who we all loved who could make sense of problems and said famously " you can't just let nature run wild ". 

Dear Mayor Collins : Have you ever heard of Hagermeister Island ?  Let's assume you haven't . It's near the north shore of Bristol Bay in the Alaska Maritine National Wildlife Refuge. Years ago an entrepreneur decided that this uninhabited island would be the perfect place to raise reindeer and then harvest them for meat. Well it worked real good until the harvesting part came around. There's no port, there's a big ol dangerous ocean surrounding it and the closest butcher shop is only 2,000 miles away. So the g-men put out a proposal that anybody who wanted could go to Hagermeister Island and harvest the animals in hopes of achieving and ' acceptable ' number.  This place is a reserve and the herd was stomping down the habitat and destroying the bird rookeries and eating all the kelp on the beach and jeeez, what a mess. So, after many years of little or no harvest it was time to cull the herd....with the Air National Guard , now these guys know how to get it done. They come in with Helicopters and mini-guns and Walla, no problema. 

Just last year after watching the Mulchatna Caribou herd decline to the lowest levels ever it was decided that predation by Grizzly Bears was a huge factor . So, turn the problem over to the ADF+G and they arm a Super Cub with a good shot and an AR-15 and couple days later 100 of them are eliminated. nothing to it.

Does that guy look like he could stomp s*^# out of you ?  ( that's a real pic of one of many ) Well that's what the  cowboys who were coincidentally from Montana found out when they  were hired to round hundreds of those guys up on another Alaska Island with the same problem. Chirikof Island was over run with cattle that nobody could, for lack of a better term 'handle'. The government wanted them gone so a barge was brought in and the cowboys saddled up and....were back in the Anchorage Airport a few days later after being unsuccessful for many reasons one of which was that after years of neglect the animals are basically wild .

So Mr. Mayor, I know , enough anecdotel stories however interesting they may be. You wanna know why I tell these stories. Well it's simple .  When faced with way more challenging situations than urban deer these folks went to work . Don't ya suppose we could do at least a bit more to make our city just a little more people friendly and little less deer friendly ? After all.....you can't just let nature run wild .