Fish Story

After just spending a week in blissful ignorance on what is happening in the world, we are now back to the rude awareness of all that has been happening across our country. Unbelievable of what can happen in such a short time: Galveston destroyed by Hurricane Ike, the Financial Institutions failing, and the Stock Market taking a nose dive. Although now, it looks like with the Federal Reserve ready to bail out the lending companies, the market is kinda rallying.

We had a great time in Yakutat, AK fishing with Ken’s brother Dick and his friend Bob (from Boise)…..sorry no pictures, we didn’t even take the camera this trip. Good thing, because all but two days were pouring rain with lots of wind. Temps were in the low 50s during the day and mid 40s at night.

Our flight out of SeaTac (Seattle) was to leave at 7 am on Sept. 9. However, as soon as we boarded and were ready to taxi out, we hear from the captain that there was a mechanical problem, and they were waiting for clearance to leave. After sitting on the ground for an hour, we were finally cleared for takeoff with no explanation of what had been wrong.

The flight was just over 2 hours to Juneau where we stopped for a short time, but we couldn’t get off the plane because they were so far behind schedule. Once we got back in the air, it was just a short hop across the mountains to Yakutat. We had clear skies and gorgeous views until we left Juneau, but naturally, it was raining when we landed at Yak, and it continued to rain for the rest of that day and most of the next week. We had a few hours before Dick and Bob were due in, so we got ourselves settled in our room and Ken got the boat motor (we had shipped it up from Portland earlier) ready for the river. At 6 pm, we picked the guys up and got them settled in their room. After dinner (and some drinks) we proceeded to map out our strategy for finding fish (grin).

Our daily routine was very basic: up at 5:30, eat breakfast at 6, and to the river by 7:30. Fish along the river until 4 (usually just after high tide), then back to the lodge to clean fish and vacuum pack them. Dinner was usually at 7 (after a happy hour session) and we were asleep by 9. The river we fish is a tidal river and we were catching fish that came up river with the tide, so they were still fresh and bright silver.

This year’s fishing was harder than in years past because the fish weren’t biting much, but when they did bite it was quite a ride. They were much larger than in the past and fought more. Don’t know if it was because of all the rain or the extremely high tides, but we had to really entice the fish to take our lures (no bait). Sometimes by just bouncing the lure off of their heads, they would get mad and bite at it, then we had them (grin). Our first day out, everyone got their limit, but after that it was hit and miss on who got what. We lost two lures in the seven days of fishing and several fish. Dick and Bob had their share of woes and some nice catches, but the end line was, we all did get fish and had a great time doing it. Ken and I brought home 120 lbs of Salmon filets (yea). I think I was the most fortunate of all because I had three handsome guys to fish with and they did all the work in moving the boat (to and from the water) and hauling all the gear. How lucky can a girl get??

We were due to leave Yakutat at 6:40 pm Sept 17. All was going well; we were told the plane was on time coming down from Anchorage (it’s not always). Anyhow, the plane landed, and we were in line getting ready for screening when we got notice the plane had a “bird strike” and they were holding off boarding until they could figure out an alternate plan. Seems when the plane landed and was heading for the gate, it ran into a flock of Seagulls or Ducks, and it messed up one engine and the air intake system. The passengers on the plane said all they saw was flying pieces of birds coming out of the engine and many parts on the ground with some limping away (ugh). The air intake system was affected and they said the smell was atrocious.

After a half hour of waiting for news, the airline spokesperson told us the plane was not able to fly, and they were dispatching another plane from Anchorage. Since it was going to take 4 hours for the plane to arrive, the four of us went next door to the airport lodge and grabbed a table where we had drinks and dinner. We were comfortable, and I even got free WiFi on my iPhone, so was able to check email.

Finally, the plane arrived, and we left Yak at 11 pm. The flight back to SeaTac was just over three hours (with a short stop in Juneau) so we all were able to get a little sleep. Once on the ground in Seattle at 3:25 am (1 hour time change), we said good bye to Dick and Bob who had to catch an early morning flight to Boise, ID. We then found an airline kiosk and cajoled them to put our fish boxes in their freezer until 9am so we could go to our hotel room and get some sleep before heading back to Salem. We got our sleep, picked up our fish and made the drive to Salem where we are now getting ready for the Monaco Come Home Rally.

That my friends, is the end of our fish story!