Thursday, June 28, 2007

Salmon on the Ice

Just got back from the beach. My old fishing partner, Sid, and I caught our year supply of salmon in 5 days. We could have been done sooner, but we were having so much fun that we dragged it out as long as possible.
Our limit was 70 salmon. We had it down to an art. We used a wench to pull the net in from the bay. I had my pressurized water hose to wash the fillets. I had my generator and small freezer set up and used my ATV to haul the fish in from the beach. The salmon went from the salt water to the vacuum sealer and into the freezer in about 20 minutes. Can't get much fresher than that.
Everyone stopped by our camp to admire our set up. The camp was a big 10X20 feet tent complete with microwave oven , nice bunks, and running water. The sand on the beach was deep enough to keep our campers home, but our tent camp was as comfortable as home. The surf and sunsets were spectacular.
I did manage to get a nice tan, along with a fine sun burn. Other than that, it was one more adventure added to our long list of fun things we do up here in Alaska.
Early next week we will be halibut fishing out of Seward. We will be going out for an over night trip to Prince William Sound. We will bring back rock bass, halibut and some 60 pound ling cod. Maybe even a bear.
It is only a couple of months until moose camp.The big Caribou Hills fire has burned off a hundred square miles of my hunting range, but it has only driven the moose closer to my second moose hunting grounds. The moose should be concentrated in my camping area.Sigh...all the work will soon begin. I did build a boom with a wench on the back of my ATV, so I won't have to pick up those 200 pound moose hind quarters. Other than Lin and I, I haven't invented anything to eat all of that fine moose meat.
Tis a dirty job, but someone has to do it!
I have noticed my comments section has been a bit bleak lately. Anyone still out there??

Saturday, June 09, 2007

A Sad State of Affairs

Summer is here in Alaska. We wait all year for this kool time. The only bad part is the sun. It is 10 PM and it won't set for two more hours. Then it comes up almost where it went down. Picture this.. the sun sets in the north, across the Kenai River. It doesn't get dark because the sun doesn't stay down for more than an hour. So it is kind of sundown for a while. Then it comes up almost where it went down, and is shining in my eyes while I'm trying to get some sleep.
The sun doesn't go overhead. It kind of circles the sky and then dips below the horizon. It actually shines on all sides of the house during it's circle. It takes a bit of getting use to. I don't sleep well when the sun is shining. Most of the time I get back up and get busy. I guess what this all means is I can fish 24 hours a day. Tough deal huh??
I can hear the wheels grinding. You are thinking how dark it is in the winter. Most outsiders think of six months of darkness. Not here! In the shortest days of December, the sun comes up at about 10 AM, and sets around 3 PM.Not a long day by no means, but still a day.
Up north where I spent 2 years in the oil fields of the arctic, things do get dark. I can remember only too well that the sun set in October and didn't come up till March. That much darkness makes folks weird. I may have stayed up there too long from the looks of things??
The sun will be going down a little earlier by August. Then I'll be able to get some sleep. Until then, you'll probably be getting some strange blogs from a "spun" old fisherman. Also watch out for the lies. I will be telling a lot of them the squirrelier I get. Dang!! I may have already gotten off to an earlier start than normal.
I guess I'm just scratching for someone to feel sorry for me. A sad state of affairs to say the least!!

Friday, June 08, 2007

One More Bad Thing

Yesterday, when I was complaining about bad things, I forgot to share one of the worse.It happened when I was dumping briquettes into the barbecue pit. I had forgotten that I had dropped the 25 pound bag of briquettes and caused a 6 inch rip in the side of the bag.While I was pouring out the briquettes, I was holding the bag under my right arm, and digging out the briquettes with my left hand. So far everything is kool. The rip in the bag was dumping a cup of black briquette dust out of the rip.The dumping of the dust was nothing much except it was dumping down my right leg. That should have been fairly easy to just dust off my leg. The real problem came because I was wearing my favorite Carhart bibs that are open on each side just a little. That "little" was just enough to catch that cup of dust, sending it careening down the inside of my Carharts. The sad results were a black leg, along with everything else. I wound up with most of the dust in my shoe.Little "Precious" found the incident quite humorous to say the least. I just can't wait until she tells everyone she knows. It will be twice as bad as it was, and it was bad enough!!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you

I don't know if I'm the only one that has days of bad stuff happening to me, but it does. This week has been special.I don't go around looking to get into bad situations, but those ill-fated circumstances have been on my trail like an old biting dog.
It started when I failed to drag my dirty clothes down the stairs to the laundry room.My darling little Owner dashed to the rail and flang my skivvies at me as I was cutting across the front room heading for the kitchen. All I could think of was the hot espresso I was about to create. Some how she made a ringer on the top of my head. I don't know how she was able to pull that off, but she did.The incident was followed by a round of malicious belly laughs. followed by one of those warnings about picking up after myself.
The other remarkable thing happened as I finished eating a banana down by the barbecue pit. I usually just toss the peel over the bank where the squirrels can eat the thing.Picture this... old Bubba sitting with his back to the drop-off, tossing the banana peel over his shoulder, thirty feet to it's intended destination. Sounds easy huh? Well, I had strung a clothes line at the edge also. Don't ask how I managed to hang the banana peel on the clothes line, but there is where it was hanging.She asked, in a sincere tone, if I was drying banana peels on the line.I just answered that I was aggravating those squirrels.
Yesterday, I convinced her to go trolling at the lake. Normally I skunk most of my fishing partners, but yesterday was once again special.She caught ALL of the fish. Not only all of them, but she even let me use her pole with the big flashers, while she read her book. I made a couple of passes through my favorite hole, and still didn't catch anything. She took the pole back and had a fish on in 30 seconds. I baited up and dropped my line back into the water. I told her that it was "ON"! ( the big fish derby)I was about to catch the next fish! No sooner than "ON" was out of my mouth, she smiled and said, "Yep it IS on", as she began reeling in another fish.
Worse yet, we had more than enough fish caught, so there was no point in catching any more. I tried in vain to get her to release fish so I could at least take one home that I had caught. She would have no part in releasing anything. Once she has the upper hand, she keeps on baring down until I'm reduced to ashes.I was totally skunked!!The rest of the day all she would say was the number fish she caught. No matter what I said, she would just blurt out the number.
No, I'm not going to tell how many she caught. It is painful enough already.
I suppose I shouldn't tell this part, but I had agreed to help her clean all of the rooms in the downstairs, if she beat me fishing.
My hands are sore! Not from fishing, but scrubbing. Sometimes I learn slow, but I "do" learn.I have at least one more day of cleaning, and then I may go fishing again.Before you ask, she is not going!