I Finally Did It!!!!!!!

Well, not much has been happening the last few days other than fishing. Susan has been feeding us and Bob has been my taxi when needed. Mark has been having great luck and has been catching his limit of 3 salmon each day. Alas, poor me…nothing.

But…tada…today the heavens opened and a miracle occurred. Susan and Bob had driven in to the river where we were fishing, along with 800 other people. Mark had hooked a fish and it broke his rod so Susan was bringing his fly rod in. I decided I need a…you know one of those breaks…so Susan put the hip boots on and got into the water with the fly rod…it turned out it was not rigged properly. She does not have a fishing license yet but Mark said she wasn’t fishing because all she did was get hung up. Anyway, he had caught his limit when Bob and I returned so Mark and Susan took off to the RV to clean his fish. Long story short, I ended up hooking one and actually got it in…one of the guys was yelling instructions and another got it in the net. I was sooooo excited I was shaking. You have to hit them in the head with a rock or whatever to kill them…Mr. Instruction Guy did that and I put it on the stringer. I fished another hour or so but was not able to bring the one I snagged in and I was tired…we left the RV at 7:00 am and it was now 2:45 PM…so we made tracks to get for home. Mark was waiting and he cleaned it and I put it in the freezer for Bob as I don’t eat fish.

Did I tell you I caught a salmon today?

Oh…did you want to see my fish?

Fish…did someone say fish?

Okay, that’s my story and I am sticking to it. Thank goodness Susan is making dinner…gumbo. Friends, Chuck & Lorraine, Tom & Dorothy and Rob and Norma are coming out. They arrived in Soldotna yesterday coming in from Homer. We are all going fishing with Chuck and Lorraine’s son tomorrow…actually at the lodge he works out of on the Kenai. Life is good.

Moving on.

Tuesday, July 14

We are still in Kasilof on the Kenai peninsula.  Yesterday, Monday,  Mark and I fished the Kasilof river for about 5 hours but with no luck.  Oops, Mark caught a nice Dolly Varden…it is kin to a trout.  But, since we were fishing for salmon he returned it to the river.  Bob was our net man and stayed with us the whole time we fished.  It was very cool and overcast for most of the day.  The river was fast and cold but my feet did not turn to ice cubes.  We had to walk a ways from our parking area through some fairly dense growth but there was a bit of a trail.  It was much easier getting to the river than it was coming back.  My legs did not want to move.  Again, the flowers were so pretty.

We were very tired last night but not too tired to eat shrimp gumbo that Susan made for everyone.   Being from Louisiana, she knows just how to do it.  It was early to bed.

Today, Tuesday, Mark and I drove into Soldotna to fish the Kenai River.  I guess we got there around 10:00 am.  My feet got cold shortly after we got into the river…maybe because I was in a little deeper water.  There were more people fishing as the Kenai is the main river to fish for salmon.  Mark had caught 2 nice ones by the time Bob came in and took me to lunch about 1:00.  It was nice to sit for a few minutes.  Back to the river but no luck for me.  Well, that is not entirely true…I hooked a little fish that was about 5-6 inches long.  Poor little guy, I felt so bad.  People were catching fish all up and down from where we were but I was fishless.  Then we were getting ready to leave when Wham!!!!  my line took off.  Unfortunately, the drag was not set properly on my reel and that sucker was gone.  He had a good run before the line broke and he was history.  Mark came over and was trying to help me and one of the guys around us had run to get a net.  Too bad…maybe tomorrow.  But it was a learning experience.  Truthfully I am not sure I am strong enough to even land one of these babies.  We will see but it sure was exciting.  Tomorrow is another day.

Moving on.

Sunday July12, 2009

Yesterday Bob and I walked thru a small area in Soldotna where people were selling their wares.  We stumbled upon it around midday so most everything was gone.  We watched this lady spinning her wool to make yarn.  There was a young man there who was playing his violin asking for donations to be able to go on his school trip…to Japan!!!!  I told him our kids got to go to the beach on their school trips.  And this kid was probably in elementary school.  After leaving the market we went to the local “all-in-one” store for me to get outfitted with my fishing gear.  I have decided to try my luck at salmon fishing.  Vanessa, one of the young ladies that worked there, was so helpful.  She is very knowledgeable and knew just what I needed.  The little bag in my hand is my version of a tackle box. 

Today we got an early start.  We left our park a little after 8:00 am headed to Homer which is about 62 miles south of us.  We were going to meet with our friends, Chuck and Lorraine, Tom and Dorothy and Rob and Norma.  We had all travelled together earlier in our trip. Here are Loretta, Susan and Lorraine chatting while Chuck and Lorraine’s little Misty got a nap in her dad’s lap.

Chuck and Lorraine, et al, took us down on the Homer spit where we visited The Salty Dawg…a local bar.  As you can see, it is tradition to leave a dollar bill with your name and whatever.  Chuck found a good place for ours. Norma, Lorraine, Joe and Susan (in her kuspuk) are trying to catch a cab???? No, probably not.  Then it was time for lunch…Loretta had the halibut sandwich…she said it was veryyyy good.

Upon leaving Homer we drove up into the hills looking for a Russian village.  We finally found the school and the church.    

What a view from the school and church.

We left Homer hoping to see our friends at some later time.  They are headed for Seward the middle of this week. 

We stopped in Ninilchik on our way home.  Meg and Terry, does this look familiar to you?  They “sat” on this school for the summer in 2005…I think this is right.

Ninilchik is another Russian community.  We had driven by this church on our way to Homer but it was so foggy we did not get any pictures so we made a stop on our way back. 

The cemetery next to the church was something else.  The flowers were beautiful, growing wild.  Many of the graves could not even be seen because the flowers were so thick and so tall.                

We then drove down the hill to small village of Ninilchik.

There are lots of fishing boats at the marina and a fish processing plants.  Not sure when the boats will go out but they have to leave at the same time or most of them will not even be able to get out.

It was a good day.

Moving on.