A Fishing Story

 Yesterday my sister and I went to the Anchor River to fish. It looked like it would be a good day and being my sister’s birthday wanted to catch a fish.

Clouds overhead shaded the river with a light rain at times. We started to cast our lures in hopes of catching some Coho Salmon.

After a while my sister hooked a, Dolly Varden, which she released.

I then hooked a Coho, it put up a great fight. As my sister attempted to net it, it got free of the hook.

A few minutes later I hooked another one. This one fought even harder, in the end I was able to bring it in and my sister got it in the net. 

It then freed itself from the net and attempted to return to the river, but it was still hooked and we got back easily. I then moved it up the bank further from the river and removed the hook, leaving it in the net. I got ready for my sister to take a picture, when she yelled that the fish had once again escaped and was headed to the river. I jumped down the bank to the edge of the water, the fish was now in the water. there was no way I was going to let it get away.

I bent over to scoop it up, as I did this I tripped on a rock, as I am falling I scoop the fish and throw it onto the bank. Then I landed on all fours in the river, I am soaked, my boots are filling with water and rocks. I am laughing, my sister is laughing so hard she can’t get her phone ready to take a picture.

Meanwhile the fish is attempting to escape, again. I turn on my hands and knees and hold the fish down with both hands. We are still both laughing hysterically, when I notice my Apple Watch is notifying me that I fell. I let go of the fish with one hand and attempt to cancel the notice. My watch is wet and has a plastic protective cover, which now has water under it, between that and my wet hands I can’t cancel the notice.

I rip the watch from my arm, it is now on a thirty second countdown to the call. I am still holding the fish down so I only have one hand to work with. Twenty seconds left, I am now attempting to remove the cover off the watch, 15 seconds left. I get the cover removed, 10 seconds to go. I am trying to dry the watch and my fingers, but I have nothing to dry them with 5 seconds left. I finally get the watch and my finger fairly dry, I am punching the cancel call button, 3,2,1,0. I end the call just as it dials 911.

We are still laughing and am holding the fish down and I get a call from 911. Am I okay, where am I, what happened, name, date of birth, etc. She is finally assured that I am okay and hangs up.

Now, we are laughing even harder, I pick the fish up and finally get a picture taken.

Though my sister did not catch a salmon, she had unforgettable birthday experience.

Coho Salmon 6.6lbs.

Greetings from Homer Alaska

 I arrived a week ago Friday and have been on the go since.

The flights up were good and my luggage arrived, yeah.

I got in around 11pm and grabbed a Lyft ride to the hotel where my sister and her friend were staying. They quickly climbed into bed after letting me in. Took me a bit to get organized and then to fall asleep. We had to get up early the next morning to take her friend to the airport, after dropping her off we started the drive from Anchorage to Homer. We made a few stops along the way, first was along the Cooks Inlet to watch the Beluga Whales. Very hard to catch them with their heads out of the water. This is the best I could do.

A plane flying over Cooks Inlet as we were watching thee whales.

My first meal was “Halibut on a stick” at the Boardwalk restaurant, ate it before I could get a picture.

On Sunday our cousins arrived, we had never met in person before. We took a hike in the Eveline State Recreation Site.

On Monday I was given a gift from my son and sister, I went All Species Fishing for the day. I caught a couple of Halibut, a Silver Salmon and a rockfish. We had the Salmon for dinner that night, along with a couple of pieces of King Salmon and a rockfish. These are all the fish I and the couple on board caught.

Tuesday and Wednesday I spent working with my sister at her store. She was just training me on her new system. Tuesday night the cousins took us to dinner at, Lands End, on the Spit. No pictures but a great meal and wonderful service. We all ate too much.

On Thursday I dropped her at the bus stop for her trip to the Anchorage Airport for her vacation. I met the cousins at the, Two Sisters Bakery, and introduced them to chocolate bread. Geert gave his name, Maya, the daughter of one of the owners, lookup and saw me and said “of course Chocolate Bread”.

She recognized me from my previous visits to Homer. My favorite bakery! The rest of the day I ran some errands.

Friday I worked at the store. Saturday I was off, it rained all morning so I did some laundry. In the afternoon I had ran some of more errands. Went to the bakery, late, figured they would be out of the Chocolate Bread, but they had a few left. Not great for my diet, but soooooo good. I then headed for the farmers market. I then went to the Spit and bought some smoked Salmon, last year they ran out before I could get some.

On my sister’s advice, I went for lunch at the Broken Oar and had their Creole with clams, scallops and shrimp. Delicious on a cold day.

Today, Sunday, I am working at the store.

These are picture from the farmers market and the Spit.

Basket Making, Bears and Salmon

 Friday, I went to a Basket Making class at the Pratt Museum in Homer. My sisters were suppose to be there but one was ill and the other went back to California early.

The funny thing is I met a women a couple of days before at the Two Sister’s Bakery, then she came into the toy store and showed up at the basket class. 

The class, as the teacher stated, was not going to involve a lot of technic, but rather our primal memories to build our own unique basket. She had collected grasses, willow and spruce branches, shells, rocks, feathers and many other natural items. She started us with the spruce and sea grass to start our baskets and gave us hints and ideas as we build them.

Mavis Muller led the class, you can see her work here.

Also google her name to see her work.

https://www.facebook.com/BurningBasketProject/

Starting to work on our baskets.

We each randomly, like pickings card from a deck, choose a base to start our project.
I picked the Swan.

The baskets created by all of us.

My basket.

Me with my basket.

On Saturday, my sister and I drave up to Copper Landing to watch the salmon run and bears. Although, we saw fresh tracks and scat, we did not see the bears, a mom and her cub by the size of the tracks.

Bear Track with sister’s shoe

We ran into a Park Ranger, Tom, at the Falls, said hello and chatted for a few minutes. He thought my sister was someone he knew. As we were walking back he was standing at path that went off into the woods. He asked if we had some time, he would take us to the salmon weir, where he counts the salmon coming upstream. We trusted he wasn’t a serial killer and off we went. The bear tracks, pictured above, were on the path he guided us on. We walked for about a mile stoppping at a few scenic places to take pictures. He explained what he did when we got to the weir. His cabin that he been calling home for 18 summers was across the river. We continues up to the Lower Russian Lake, then into the bushes to gather a few blueberries the bears had missed. We didn’t stay long as we knew the bears were nearby. It was a great side trip that we won’t forget, hopefully we will see him again.

Me, Tom and Lisa at Lower Russian Lake