Ron's gym
We open our gym on the deck this morning…Alaska style, using rocks for dumbbells and parking lot bumpers for heavier resistance. While we jump rope, squat and shadow box, we hope that we get no visitors.
Jenn, our Ranger friend, loans us her kayak. We pull it onto the calm waters of Paradise Cove in this great Fiord of Southeast Alaska. Perhaps we’ll invest in a crab pot, since we now have use of a kayak to check it. Alas, we have no fish heads for bait…yet.
After casting my lure into the Chilkoot River for several hours yesterday, I catch nothing. Mare catches a Dolly Vardon – an Arctic Char that looks and tastes like a trout. Actually, Chilkoot Bob gave the fish to her. I clean the thing and the fish has more meat on it than I expect…so now I call it a “Dolly Parton.”
Ron kayaks on Paradise Cove while Rainbow Glacier looms over head
On a whim, I go fishing at a time when nobody else goes. “They only hit two-hours before high tide.” Well, it’s one o’clock in the afternoon and I feel like getting a line wet, come high or low tide. Mare plays with Alaska Jack down river, past the bridge and around the corner. I fish alone…Wham!
“Mare!” I yell. The sockeye pulls the line upstream. I reel-in and hear the drag sing. The drag is set way too low. I try to tighten it, letting go of the reel handle, and instead, loosen the drag more. Too excited. Sockeye charges the shoreline. Mare shows up with our twenty-year-old net which is much too small. Sockeye heads back out and up-stream. I tug some more, knuckles bleeding from banging against the reel. Finally I grab the fishing line with my hand, and walk backwards, pulling sockeye ashore. I’m out of breath. Alaska Jack barks frantically. Sockeye flops around while Mare tries to fit a big fish into a small net.
Ron and his 8 pound sockeye
Fishermen crack sockeyes on the head to stop the flopping. I deploy my expandable baton…whap sockeye but hit him on the nose. Whap again, and hit behind the gill. Finally, I pick up a rock and crack him on the head, sorry for the beating before the mercy kill. I’m still learning…Then I cut his guts into the stream, in order not attract the numerous Grizzlies who hang out here. If a bear shows up, we must walk away from the fish…as hard as that would be to do.
“Oh yeah,” a fly fisherman says. He walks down with his daughter. I watched her catch one yesterday.
“Is it male or female?” daughter asks.
“I guess male, since I didn’t see any eggs.” I have no clue, but that must have been the right answer.
“He’s at least an eight-pounder,” fly fisherman says. “They’re not supposed to be hitting this time of day. I guess nobody told that to the fish.” We laugh.
Alaska Jack likes to fish too
Mare and I crack celebratory beers like two excited teenagers, then head up to Chilkoot Bob’s campground to clean the fish and show him off a bit. Chilkoot Bob tells us where the cleaning table is…right in the lake. Cannot leave any remains on shore, as the Grizzlies will come for the tasty morsels even if you are standing there.
Chilkoot Bob's fish cleaning table
We find Richard and Mary Jane, our new camp host friends. They are painting a picnic table. “Have a slab of fresh caught sockeye,” Mare says to them.
Looking for left-overs
Fun to fish, great to share, Ron and Mare and Alaska Jack on the first day of summer in Haines, Alaska.
Tip from dad regarding crab:
I heard that if you tie a whole chicken to a rope and weight it down so the chicken is at the bottom of the lake, the crabs will adhere to the chicken then, you pull the rope up slowly. Before it reaches the top and you can see the chicken, place a net under the chickie and completely remove……. the chickie…..
Great catch Ron!! Job well done!!!!!
p.s. you should hear him bragging about this
Use a live chicken? Just kidding…the cost of a chicken in these parts may justify buying a crab at store! If I can catch a couple more sockeye, it would pay for my fishing license. But…the next few days are full of weed-eating and volunteer stuff like watching Mare clean 14 outhouse commodes. Can’t think of a better setting.
What do those Alaskans now about fishin’ anyway… way to go! Wendy and I are having a great time in Oregon. Managed to get in a little rafting, trip to Bend, and tomorrow its off to the nations largest organic beer festival (not sure if I’ve ever had organic beer, but I’m sure its good). All the cousins start arriving soon, should be an… interesting 4th.
Jay
The locals get to use nets…and I understand why, as they tend with high prices and…high prices. Sounds like an awesome rafting adventure. The 4th with the Windust Clan truly sounds like a blast. Organic beer may be a gimmick…never met a beer I could not resist. Take care, have fun, Jay.
GREAT looking fish… but…then again…it’s a taste that I never got aquired to…unless it’s grilled swordfish with butter/lemon!
Great workout gear, too.
Ron…get rid of that expandable and get a good “side-handle”…
enjoying the stories.. great writing
Skip
Hey Skip, old habits die hard I suppose.
I’m so glad Jack is Back! Great shot of him, too. Yea, I finally found Jack and had to leave him AK! Anyway, ’twas a wonderful visit, and I wish I could sleep as well at home as I did in the cabin loft while the thrushes trill and the wind rustles the trees outside.
Also, the sockeye was WONDERFUL! Tried to buy some local king salmon today at the farmer’s market and it was $22/lb, with no piece smaller than a couple pounds. Too much for just me!
Ciao! jill
oh meant to comment on the july 3 post??? oh well.
hey ron, I did get a comment from you on the mt. riley post, thanks! just posted about eating well in haines…check out your photo!