Showing posts with label fishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fishing. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Back From Fishing
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Gonna go fishin'
Kenai River Reds
As the month of July gets closer my thoughts turn to fishing for Reds. During lunch today I was looking through photos that my co-workers had taken over the years. I found this one of Kate and I on a group Silver salmon fishing trip to Clear Creek about 4 years ago. No, that's not a Silver by her feet, it's a Chum. We were a little late that year and the creek was filled with Humpies and Chum. Kate and I limited out on Silvers in spite of spending all day catching and releasing the "lesser" salmon species.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Team Building
Fishing Trip
As a team building exercise, 7 of my coworkers and I went salt water fishing out of Seward on Tuesday. We caught a lot of small Halibut, large Silver Salmon and 1 Ling Cod. We also limited out on Black Bass. The seas were relatively calm, no one got seasick, and the weather was mostly cloudy with occasional sunshine. A good trip, and a nice break from the drudgery of office work.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Summer Vacation
"Reds"
Tomorrow I have to return to work for the rest of July and the month of August. My 2 week summer vacation is coming to a close. The first 5 days I spent doing projects around TrippingOverMoose Ranch. From the 15th through the 22 I drove the motor home to Sterling and fished for Reds in the Kenai River.
(note: For anyone who reads this and is not familiar with Alaska, "Reds" are Sockeye or Red Salmon.)
Fishing and timing were good and I probably put enough fish in the freezer to see me through the winter. But since my daughter and her family are staying with me I'll most likely need more. We'll hit the Silver Salmon run hard when it starts.
September is hunting season, 2 weeks in the back country chasing moose.
Tomorrow I have to return to work for the rest of July and the month of August. My 2 week summer vacation is coming to a close. The first 5 days I spent doing projects around TrippingOverMoose Ranch. From the 15th through the 22 I drove the motor home to Sterling and fished for Reds in the Kenai River.
(note: For anyone who reads this and is not familiar with Alaska, "Reds" are Sockeye or Red Salmon.)
Fishing and timing were good and I probably put enough fish in the freezer to see me through the winter. But since my daughter and her family are staying with me I'll most likely need more. We'll hit the Silver Salmon run hard when it starts.
September is hunting season, 2 weeks in the back country chasing moose.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Chitina Dipnetting
The Trail From Hell
On June 26, my middle sister's birthday, (happy birthday,) my brother, my nephews and I drove to the Copper River at Chitina. The old road downstream from Chitina to the salmon dipnetting area follows an old railroad bed perched precariously on the edge of cliff. Above the road bed rises a mountain of loose shale covered with timber and top soil. Landslides and mudslides during wet wheather are common. Below the road bed is a 50 to 250 foot steep drop off into the Copper River. The lower part varies from shale slide areas, shale slide areas covered with loose soil and trees to vertical cliffs of shale. The first 10 miles of road to OBrian Creek has been maintained and actually improved slightly in the last few years. There is no problem driving a 4X4 pickup to that point. However after multiple large mud slides a few years ago the road past OBrian creek is officially closed. Climbing on our Honda 4-wheelers we continued past the large orange signs that warned you of possible death and trekked the 8 miles back to Haley creek. That meant traversing several slide areas on sketchy 4-wheeler trails weaving between Volkswagon sized rocks that are just waiting for the next rain to destabilize the mud enough so they can continue thier slide into the Copper River below. We caught 6 fish in 10 hours. (When I say "we" I'm including all 4 of us although actually the nephews caught the fish.)
It was a fun trip anyway.
On June 26, my middle sister's birthday, (happy birthday,) my brother, my nephews and I drove to the Copper River at Chitina. The old road downstream from Chitina to the salmon dipnetting area follows an old railroad bed perched precariously on the edge of cliff. Above the road bed rises a mountain of loose shale covered with timber and top soil. Landslides and mudslides during wet wheather are common. Below the road bed is a 50 to 250 foot steep drop off into the Copper River. The lower part varies from shale slide areas, shale slide areas covered with loose soil and trees to vertical cliffs of shale. The first 10 miles of road to OBrian Creek has been maintained and actually improved slightly in the last few years. There is no problem driving a 4X4 pickup to that point. However after multiple large mud slides a few years ago the road past OBrian creek is officially closed. Climbing on our Honda 4-wheelers we continued past the large orange signs that warned you of possible death and trekked the 8 miles back to Haley creek. That meant traversing several slide areas on sketchy 4-wheeler trails weaving between Volkswagon sized rocks that are just waiting for the next rain to destabilize the mud enough so they can continue thier slide into the Copper River below. We caught 6 fish in 10 hours. (When I say "we" I'm including all 4 of us although actually the nephews caught the fish.)
It was a fun trip anyway.
Friday, June 19, 2009
First 2009 Salmon Fishing Trip
The Russian River.
Brother Glen and I played hooky from work on Thursday and drove to the Russian River to join the stampede for our part of the record setting Red Salmon run. It being Thursday morning when we arrived the fishermen lining the bank were 10 to 15 feet apart. For Russian River combat fishing that not too crowded. The wait in line to get into the parking lot at the ferry was only 40 minutes. Considering that the Alaska Fish and Feathers Department had doubled the daily bag limit to 6 fish, we actually stayed and joined our fellow fisher folk. This is unusual because as a general rule we hate combat fishing. We fished the Russian in our youth when the population of Southcentral Alaska was a quarter of what it is today. On more than one occasion in the last decade and as recently as 2 years ago we have made the drive, taken a look at the crowds and driven home without wetting a line. After our ride across the river on the ferry we found room and began trashing the water. All around us people were constantly hooking fish. Maybe 1 in 12 of the hook ups were legal, that is hooked in the mouth not snagged in the tail, back, or belly and could be harvested instead of being released. We each landed a legal fish in the first hour. For the next 5 hours or so the ferry brought another 25 people to join us about every 10 minutes. As the new people arrived the space between fishermen slowly shrank from 12 feet to 3. I gave up when the space between people got to 6 feet. I had at least 10 tangles with someone else's line. People were starting to get hooked by flying hooks and whacked with flying sinkers. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching. My brother lasted several hours longer than I but landed no more legally hooked fish. In the early afternoon an adult Brown Bear came out of the woods across the river and walked to the rivers edge creating an otherwise empty river bank as people pulled back giving him all the room he wanted. He seem unconcerned by the hundreds of people sharing the river bank with him. After a few moment he trotted back into the woods. At which time I remembered I had packed my camera in the back pack.
P.S. I forgot to take pictures not only of the Brown Bear but of combat fishing itself . If you've never seen it check out these links for pictures...
http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Combat_Fishing_Photos.htm
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/ro/sd_notes/winter_07/russian_rv/bears_russian.shtml
http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/Management/areas.cfm/FA/kenai.russian
Brother Glen and I played hooky from work on Thursday and drove to the Russian River to join the stampede for our part of the record setting Red Salmon run. It being Thursday morning when we arrived the fishermen lining the bank were 10 to 15 feet apart. For Russian River combat fishing that not too crowded. The wait in line to get into the parking lot at the ferry was only 40 minutes. Considering that the Alaska Fish and Feathers Department had doubled the daily bag limit to 6 fish, we actually stayed and joined our fellow fisher folk. This is unusual because as a general rule we hate combat fishing. We fished the Russian in our youth when the population of Southcentral Alaska was a quarter of what it is today. On more than one occasion in the last decade and as recently as 2 years ago we have made the drive, taken a look at the crowds and driven home without wetting a line. After our ride across the river on the ferry we found room and began trashing the water. All around us people were constantly hooking fish. Maybe 1 in 12 of the hook ups were legal, that is hooked in the mouth not snagged in the tail, back, or belly and could be harvested instead of being released. We each landed a legal fish in the first hour. For the next 5 hours or so the ferry brought another 25 people to join us about every 10 minutes. As the new people arrived the space between fishermen slowly shrank from 12 feet to 3. I gave up when the space between people got to 6 feet. I had at least 10 tangles with someone else's line. People were starting to get hooked by flying hooks and whacked with flying sinkers. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching. My brother lasted several hours longer than I but landed no more legally hooked fish. In the early afternoon an adult Brown Bear came out of the woods across the river and walked to the rivers edge creating an otherwise empty river bank as people pulled back giving him all the room he wanted. He seem unconcerned by the hundreds of people sharing the river bank with him. After a few moment he trotted back into the woods. At which time I remembered I had packed my camera in the back pack.
P.S. I forgot to take pictures not only of the Brown Bear but of combat fishing itself . If you've never seen it check out these links for pictures...
http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Combat_Fishing_Photos.htm
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/ro/sd_notes/winter_07/russian_rv/bears_russian.shtml
http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/Management/areas.cfm/FA/kenai.russian
Friday, June 20, 2008
Fishless Trip To Chitina
Glen, Daniel and I made a trip to Chitina to dip net the famous Copper River Sockeye Salmon. It was a lovely 4 hour drive, this morning, during which we saw a cow moose with twin babies, a young bull moose with his anters in velvet, numerous Snowshoe hares and squirrels. We had the choice of trailering a Honda 4-wheeler or two up to Chitina and riding back to our old fishing hole on what is now an officially closed road, or having the charter boat run us in. We choose to do the charter this time. However the charter operator told us when we arrived that he'd run us it, but we'd be wasting our money. No one was catching fish today. Since they charge $100 dollars a piece we took his advice, saved our money, and drove 4 hours home. On the trip home within sight of the junction at Glennallen a young Grizzly bear ran across the road in front of us.
Pictures of the trip: no animal pictures though, they were too quick for me...
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