THE DETAILS:
THE WEATHER: It has been pretty steady other than we have seen the sun more often these days. Cool, cloudy, rainy in the morning and then sun in the afternoon.
THE DISTANCE: We left Cooper’s Landing today at 10:00 and arrived in Soldatna,the River Terrace RV Park, around 8 pm. Read on....
Well, the last few days have been restful, to say the least. We spent 2 days on the Kenai River hoping for a run of salmon but have seen nothing. The woman at the office said it’s been the worst year in 26 years. We enjoyed our stay by the river with an almost empty campground. We would fish a little, walk a little but mostly just read and Gary tied a bunch of flies. It is interesting how everything looks like a ghost town, there is no one in the restaurants or fishing shops. but I know, if word got out that the salmon were in the river, this place would come alive like New York…. The city that never sleeps! The second run of salmon typically come in around July 20th and later. So we have a few weeks to wait it out. We’ll see.
Okay, that was written on July 6th and it's now July 7th.... what a difference a day makes. Thanks for those of you who prayed for fish! Does God really care about our unimportant details of life? I guess so, because the salmon are in the river. Well, at least in the Moose River in Sterling. We were on our way from Cooper's Landing to Soldatna and happened to go into an auto parts store for some fuses and a guy approached us. "Where in NH are you from?" (We get that a lot). Come to find out, he's from NH... in the winter months! Go figure, have you ever heard of wintering in New Hampshire!! So he knew all the hot spots and told us where to go. The Moose River turned out to be a river popping like popcorn. These large fish were jumping out of the water, twisting and turning and running up river. Brad, the guy from NH, told us this was just the beginning of the BIG run of salmon. So we spent the next 6 hours fishing there.... well, to be completely honest... GARY spent 6 hours fishing. I spent a total of maybe 2 hours in the water and the rest watching him and others along the shore fish. There was a guy who was absolutely histarical to watch. His name was Curly and every time he would snag a fish his father, with a very western drawl, would say stuff like, "there ya' go again Curly, reel him in here, don't loose him now.." and he would go on and on until Curly brought in fish after fish after fish. 25 total. He was like watching a riverside rodeo show. To his credit, he didn't keep any except for the last one because they were all foul hooked. Other's on the river, however, were not so ethical and kept every illegal fish they caught. There was an old gentleman to my left that caught a huge rainbow which he couldn't keep because it was over 18 inches long and a dolly varden that was beautiful but he decided to let go. There was a young teenage girl that was a an absolute pro at yanking in the fish, and hid every one of them in the bushes before the fish & game came by.
Gary got into 2 of them but lost both before landing them. I never even got a hit but couldn't really cast far enough to get into deep water. Brad eventually came down to the river and let me reel in his fish that was foul hooked. What a blast! They are so big and so strong that my arms actually hurt after landing him. I don't know how Curly brought in 25 in 6 hours! Ridiculous.
Problem #4. On our way out of the Moose River we headed south on Rte. 1 and the engine died about a mile away. Gary got it got it going but before we could get 10 miles to the RV camp, it happened 2 more times. He's not sure what it could be, and will be looking into it tomorrow. Our campground is right on the Kenai River and the Reds are beginning to move up stream through here also. Should be interesting. There is actually a Safeway here, so I'll stock up on some food items.
Heather: Seems familiar, Youth Group at the Bishops! Either at our house or on our blog! Love it!
Geoff: I'll work on remedying that situation. It's hard to get pictures of both of us unless there are people around. I guess the profile picture will have to do.
Dan: high of 70 today, dry, cool.... yes, I'm enjoying it.
Deb,
ReplyDeleteIt was 106 degrees on Tuesday! That's the actual temp, not the heat index!!!
OK, I had to look up "foul hooking" and here's the definition for those of us that are not into fishing:
Definition:
hook fish other than in mouth: to hook a fish by any part of its body other than the mouth
Thanks for the definition, Dan. I was thinking about looking that up, too.
ReplyDeleteDan, Dan the Answer Man. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDeb, you'll be glad to know that the Byrd boys are home safe and sound. They had an absolutely awesome time and Trevor, in particular, wants to be a missionary and is rededicating his life. Very exciting. This may include college deferrment, more time in Costa Rica and possibly India this fall. More stories to follow.
I was praying for the fish so glad the Lord delivered. Just remember, Gary, where there are salmon, there are bears!
Okay, sorry about the "angler talk". Foul hooked fish is a way of fishing when the river is literally brimming with fish. A fiserman can cast a line as far across the river as possible and then yank it as hard as he can back towards himself until he has retrieved the line and throws it back across again. Because there are so many fish, the chances of "foul hooking" or hooking the fish in the side, tail or top fin is pretty good. If you can pull him to shore, the regulations tell you to throw it back.... if you're caught keeping it by fish & game it can be a hefty fine. These fish that run up river are there for the sole purpose of spawning NOT to eat, so to legally hook the fish, which would be in the mouth, is pretty rare.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures above are as followed:
1) A view as we drove from Cooper's Landing to Sildotna.
2) Gary fighting a red (salmon) with Curly looking on. (he's squatting down)
3) Gary fighting his red on Moose River
4) reflection in our RV window of what we could see at Cooper's Landing
Martie; Soooo good to hear about both of your guys. God is faithful to deliver men.... and fish! Yes, yesterday when there were fish carcassuses laying by the river edge, people cleaning 6 fish at a time and whole fish being thrown into the bushes behind us, I was a little nervous. There had been a grizzly in the campground behind us just that morning.
Hello Gary & Debbie!
ReplyDeleteWhat a trip. The blog is great!
I have one question. . . Did Gary B. land that cracker-fish that he was fighting on the Moose river?
M.O.
Mark, sorry to say, no retrieved fish yet. He's out now, I'll let you know in tomorrow's !ost (7-9). You should see the monster's coming out of this river though! Gary would like to call one his own!
ReplyDelete