Friday July 23

Today marks a special day for someone who’s been, aside from my own parents, the most inspirational and influential person in my life. I’ll feel your happiness today, and enjoy it as much as I always do. I’m wishing you the very best wishes……the photo is of the state flower of Alaska, the Forget-Me-Not. As myliu tave mana draugas.

Thursday July 22

Got up and headed for the Kenai River.

The banks were lined on both sides with people fishing. Everyone was there. They have the fishing experience so dialed on the Kenai it’s ridiculous. There are paved parking lots at various spots along the river, paved walkways down to it, boardwalks alongside of it ,and fish cleaning stations at regular intervals. They make it so easy and user friendly to fish. It is completely part of the culture.

It’s just the thing to do for fun and it’s for everyone; a group of four middle aged women who

looked like they’d be going to the tennis club to play a doubles but they had rods instead of rackets, two teens on a date, little kids with their snoopy poles, groups of 10 drunken yahoos, old, young……there were all kinds.

I casted for a while, maybe an hour or so, slowly inching my way down to the spot where most people were catching fish. Once a person gets three fish they are done fishing and usually hit the road. So I was finally in the hot spot. Like everything in Alaska, the techniques used to take sockeye salmon are pretty unique. Six feet from the hook goes your weight. When you cast the weight must barely graze off the rocks on the bottom. As for the hook, you’d have best results with a bare one. However the rules say that you need to have some kind of lure, or fly , or something attached to the hook. Most people put a miniscule piece of yarn on the hook. It’s comical, because the yarn does nothing to help you catch fish, you simply need it to be in compliance with the rules.

So you sort of flip your line out there no more than 10 feet and let the whole shebang drift down with the current. When the line is directly below you (or in the knees of the guy immediately down stream from you), you sort of fling it from behind you back up stream again. The whole cycle takes maybe 8 seconds, so you’re basically flipping and flipping and flipping the thing….repeatedly all day long. The idea is that sockeye swim with their mouths open, the line between the hook and the weight or sinker sort of ends up in the crook of their mouth and slides ‘til the hook slides through and embeds in the side of their mouth. I know this seems crazy but there are so many fish in the river that after a while you do actually hook one. Better yet, if you are in a spot where the fish continuously pass, your odds go way up.

With a few pointers from a guy from Pittsburg I finally got one. The fought like the bejesus, and another guy netted it for me. I had another one on later on but he was hooked in the stomach, with the swift currents he was impossible to reel in. Eventually, after I smashed my finger in the spinning real handle, the hook broke in half and he was free to go.

I filleted the sockeye right at the very conveniently located fillet table, took it home, wrapped it in tinfoil tossed on some garlic and butter, cooked it right on my stove top, and ate it for dinner. It was…….delicious. I think I'm becoming Alaskan. Adding to the whole experience, there were two moose right near the truck when I got back after fishing.

Sorry for the hero shots of me with the fish. Also, check out the ball of line, lures, hooks, etc, that some guy fished up from the bottom of the Kenai River. Think many people fish there? After dinner caught up on the blog and called it a night.

Wednesday July 21

Wednesday July 21

Decided to head south to the sea side town of Homer. I never made it.

Saw a neat little Russian church in the town of Ninilchik. There are a few areas in Alaska where there are communities of Ruski's. It makes sense I guess with Russia so close by.

Stopped at a fly shop and, as usual, left with a mission and a map scribbled on a scrap of paper. It was another opportunity to catch a fish I have never caught, the dolly varden. I proceeded to cast in the Anchor River for about 5 hours and caught 3 dollies. They were fairly handsome for a fish, beautiful pink spots on their backs. Good enough……at least I caught one. It was a neat little stretch of river a quarter of a mile or so from the ocean at Cook Inlet. Across Cook Inlet were these giant snow capped mountains, one of which, Mt. Redoubt, is an active volcano, last erupting in 2009. They made for quite a background for the fishing.

Inspired by the fly shop owner’s enthusiasm, I decided to go back to the Kenai River and fish it tomorrow for Red salmon (also called Sockeye). Every type of fish one catches requires a specific set-up of fly, sinkers, line, etc. I got what I think I needed at Fred Meyers and slept in the parking lot ready for tomorrow.

Tuesday July 20

Shower!.....always a nice thing, $5 this time, even got a clean towel with it.

Money saving tip......If you're willing, buying your groceries at Wal-Mart will save you tons of money. The groceries in the photo are not mine in case you were wondering.

Believe it or not my shoulder and neck were still a little stiff so I tried to take it slow for one more day.

Ate lunch at these benches overlooking the place where the Kenai River empties into the ocean.

I finally bought a much needed blanket for the bed. It’s been in the 40’s every night and using blanket is cheaper than running the heat all night. Hit a sports bar type place called “Buckets”. Had some chicken fingers and pasta alfredo while watching the Sox lose to the A’s on NESN.

Here's the video on dip netting.

Monday July 19

Still raining. Sometimes In Alaska all you need to do is drive somewhere else and the weather is different. Parts of Alaska, mainly near the ocean to the south it rains very often. There are some interior locations where it barely ever rains at all. The high mountains are very capable of trapping the moisture in a specific area and keeping it there for weeks on end.

Decided to leave the rain head for the Kenai Peninsula. On the way out of Seward I stopped at Exit Glacier National Park. They had these neat little walking paths leading up to the glacier. Depending on one’s ambition, you could get a view of it from afar or if you were up for it, hike an hour or so and walk right up on it. I’d seen a bunch of ice already so I opted for the view from afar. It was good enough and, really, just like all the other glaciers I’d seen so far on the trip.

Heading south to the Kenai, Soldotna area I stopped at a fly shop and asked if it was safe to float the Upper Kenai River. They said that it would be a great idea. Ideally, if I tried it, I’d be floating down the Kenai River through Kenai National Park. That might be pretty cool…..we’ll see, I might give it a go.

Next stop was the fabled confluence of the Kenai River and the Russian River. This spot is probably the most fished area in the entire state of Alaska. When the salmon are running the banks of the river are literally lined from shoulder to shoulder (not 5ft apart, actually people’s elbows are almost touching each other) with people fishing. The river is too fast to cross on foot so they even have this shuttle that ferries people across the river. This is what’s called combat fishing in Alaska. It gets nuts. People fighting over who caught a fish, people cutting each other’s lines, 17 beers, fistfights, you name it. It’s quite a sight. It’s fun to just watch the madness of it all.

Thought it would be a good idea to have more than one key to the camper so I stopped at this locksmith place and had a copy made. When I tested the copy in the lock it wouldn’t work…..and strangely enough suddenly my original wouldn’t work either…..nice. Will I be sleeping outside tonight? The locksmith lady spoke about zero words of English and just handed me some lubricant spray which didn’t work. I was getting scared, 20 minutes went by and I still couldn’t open it. She gave me skinny little tools to fish around inside the lock with. I tried, she tried…..more time passes. Now I’m thinking…. which window in the camper would be the easiest to replace if I needed to break in. Finally after much coaxing I manage to get the key working again….mini heart attack there. Works fine now….with both keys.

Down in the actual city of Kenai another unusual phenomenon takes place. This thing they call dip netting. There are so many fish entering the river from the ocean that people can actually stand at the edge of the river and net the fish as they swim upriver. They use these 5ft wide nets attached to long handles. They wait for the fish to swim in the net, they drag it ashore, bonk it senseless on the head, and toss it in the cooler. If a family has a really good system, one person’s job is to fillet the fish right on the beach before its tossed into the cooler. Families are allowed to catch 25 plus an additional 10 for every family member present. Some families rope anyone with their same last name into coming so they can get more salmon. (Hey Gram, you wanna go to the beach?”). Some families walk out of there with 100 salmon, that’s 2 fillets for each fish. At $12 a fillet at the grocery store, that is quite a valuable cooler(s) of fish. The neatest thing about it all is that you need to be a resident of the state of Alaska to participate. So, more or less everyone you see at the beach in the photo is a hardy Alaskan. Non-residents may not participate. The beach in covered in total fish carnage, piles of fish heads as high as your knees. Entrails, blood and guts everywhere, seagulls going crazy……again, it’s pretty funny to watch. See the video on tomorrows blog.

Wal-Mart for sleeps.

Sunday July 18

Shoulder is still pretty sore. The other day the doctor suggested I get a massage so I got one. She worked my shoulder pretty good and it felt totally loose when I walked out.

In general, I took it easy today.

Got some gas and groceries, listened to the satellite radio for a while, and messed around on the Internet a little. Late in the day I took another walk around Seward.

It rained all day. Went to bed early……again, kind of boring, but I felt like I needed the rest.