Soldotna, Alaska July 30, 2013

Sorry about no posts the last few days. Saturday morning I went fishing again. I had several salmon on, but they got away. I pulled in 2 that were foul hooked and had to turn them loose. I did manage to catch one salmon that is probably the largest I have caught. 

Saturday evening I went out fishing again and the only fish I had on were the two I caught.

Cindy is feeling better all the time but keeps trying to overdo and ends up hurting again. She is more than ready to leave here and go see more of Alaska, but we are going to stay put until the end of the week, maybe Friday.

A view of the Homer spit.

Monday I drove to Homer and went on a halibut cruse. I had found one that cost $120 less $10.00 senior discount. I didn't think that was too bad. After we got going, we went for about 2 hours to where the halibut we supposed to be. I was sure glad the sea-sick patch worked, because the ocean was a lot rougher than the cruise we took out of Seward. In spite of the patch, I still got a little woozy, and I know I wouldn't have made it without the patch.

Another view.

The tour company I went with.

The boat we went out on.

The Homer Marina.

On the way out.

When we got there and started to fish I almost immediately got a fish on my hook. We were told the bottom was about 250 feet below us. There is a 3 pound weight to get our hooks to the bottom, and it is a lot of work to get the weight up, but with a fish it really is a lot of work. Anyway the first fish I got up was a little on the small side and the deck hand asked me If I wanted to keep it. After talking to him we turned it loose. The next fish he said was kind of in between keep and set loose, so I told him I would like to keep it. The next fish I brought up wasn't hooked very well and after reeling it all the way to the surface, it managed to get off. I then thought I had about 3 fish on that got away near the bottom. They got my bait and I had to reel the weight up to get more bait.

The top of the fish I caught.

After that, I got another halibut on, and the deck hand said it was larger than the one that got off at the surface, so I kept it which was my limit. There were still more people that hadn't got their fish. I just walked around and watched for a while. It wasn't too long till everyone had their limit of 2, and we started back to Homer.

The bottom.

One of the deck hands filleting a halibut.

Here I am cutting the fillets.

The ride back was a lot smoother because we were going with the waves instead of against them like on the way out. We spent 2 hours out, fished for 2 hours, and 2 hours to return. We ended up with enough halibut to finish filling our freezer, so I have mixed feelings about going salmon fishing again. We might be able to find room for a few more, so I might go out again.

I found a place to get the truck serviced, and got it done. So at least the truck is ready to travel. I had them put in synthetic oil, had the filter changed, and lubed the truck, all for $120.00, which I didn’t think was too bad. If you’re ever in Soldotna, and need the service on your truck, the name is Johnson Tires, and I would recommend them.

Cindy has been working on a watermelon picnic quilt, and finished it today. I guess that means I’m one more quilt behind for the long-arm machine when we get home in November.

That’s about it for the day, so thanks for visiting.

Soldotna, Alaska July 26, 2013

I have included the missing pictures from last night. I hope you enjoy them.

Combat dip netters?

The dip netters live in their tents on the beach while fishing.

The private air strip from yesterday.

 

Today we decided to go for a ride to the end of Funny River Road which runs beside the RV Park we are staying in. Cindy felt a little better and wanted to get out for a while. The road is about 17 miles long and ends just past the Funny River (yes, that is its real name). There is lots of beautiful scenery. We saw several large fields filled with Fireweed.

We were trying to find a view of the river, when I saw what I thought was a moose eating by a house. There were actually two moose. We drove up to them and they started to get nervous. When I shut the truck off and we didn't get out, they settled down and went on eating. We sat there for a while watching them and taking lots of pictures. At one time they were about 20 feet from the truck. When we decided to go and started the truck, they did get nervous and went into the woods.

A face only a mother could love.

 We stopped so Cindy could get some pictures of the large fields of Fireweed. We then drove into the Funny River Campground to get Cindy a view of the Kenai River. There were some fishermen, but they said they weren't getting any fish. We also saw a mother duck with her large babies. Cindy got some good pictures.

The Kenai River is wide at this spot.

This evening I decided to try fishing again, but didn't do very well. I caught a small one by the back, but it got off. I also got one so small that if I had 20 more like it, I might have a can of sardines. I finally got my hook stuck on a rock and decided I had enough fun for one night.

Cindy is feeling better, but admits she is still not ready to travel. Thanks for viewing.

Soldotna, Alaska July 25, 2013

Yesterday I went to see the dip netters with a friend. We went to Kenai at the mouth of the river and watched how they dip net. They have a net that has to be 5 foot in diameter or less. There is a pole on it about 12 to 14 feet long. They stand the net vertical in the ocean and wait for a fish to swim into the net. Then they turn the net with a tee handle on the end of the pole so the net is now horizontal, and hurry to the shore. The limit for fish caught starts at 25 for head of household and 10 more for each additional family member. When we watched, we didn't see anyone catching any fish.

After dinner I wanted to try fishing, and ended up catching one salmon. We had part of it for dinner tonight. It was very good.

Cindy is slowly improving and wanted to go for a ride this morning. She hadn't seen any fields of Fireweed, so I took her to a field I had seen yesterday. She got quite a few pictures of the blooming Fireweed. We also went to a small lake that was near the field of Fireweed. Cindy got quite a few pictures of the lake and a float plane that was parked on the lake.

We then went to the Cook Inlet by the mouth of the Kenai River where the dip netters were fishing. She thought it was interesting to see how they had tents and stayed on the beach while they are fishing. Today we saw quite a lot of fish being caught. One fish got caught in two nets and the fishermen had an argument about whose fish it was. The fisherman that let the other have it turned around and caught a bigger fish, so he was happy. One of the fishermen showed us his catch. He had about 10 fish and told us that residents of Alaska harvested about 500,000 salmon with dip nets per year. They all seemed to be pretty serious about it.

Before Cindy got too tired, we went and saw a private airport, which was a long field with the grass cut.

She was able to ride in the truck, but if I hit any bumps, she was in quite a bit of pain. She may be getting better, but she still is not ready to travel yet.

With the dip netters catching fish, I thought that the fishing on the river might get a little better, so I went out after dinner to see if I could catch any. I ended up catching 2 more salmon. I also had 2 more on, but they got away. I didn't see any others caught. Maybe it will be better tomorrow. I’m thinking of going out again in the morning.

Cindy had more pictures to put on the blog, but the internet is so slow that I will have to post the rest later. Sorry.

That’s it for today, thanks for visiting.

Soldotna, Alaska July 23, 2013

The fishing has slowed down somewhat. There are not near as many fish going up the river. Last night I went fishing and caught 2, had several on the hook, and finally lost my hook. At that point I decided to quit for the night.

This morning I went again, and ended up catching 3 nice fish. I also hooked two by the belly which I had to turn loose. After 2 ½ hours of fishing, one broke my line and I quit fishing for the morning to go help Cindy.

I went back fishing this evening. I had two on the line but they got away. The only one I got in was only about 10 inches long, which I turned loose. It was pretty slow fishing and I didn't see anyone bring in any fish, so I quit early.

 Cindy is doing better and went for a little walk to get some pictures of the Fireweed. We have included a few pictures of the blossoms. Although she is doing better, she is nowhere near ready to travel. We are staying at this campground until at least the end of next week, after that we will see how she’s doing.

That’s all for now, thanks for visiting.

Soldotna, Alaska July 21, 2013

Today has been a nice warm day. I went to church this morning. Cindy’s back seems to be a lot better.

She went outside by herself this afternoon to bring me some clothes hangers while I did wash. I am doing a lot of the things I have come to rely on her to get done. She seems to be able to get up and down easier, so it seems that time will help her get better, as long as she doesn't try to overdo. Cindy has been sitting up the last two days. She says it is easier than trying to get in and out of bed. She is thinking of trying to do some sewing tomorrow.

Friday night I went fishing with our neighbors in the tent next to us. They live in Wyoming and come here quite often. They seem to know where to catch fish. We went about 10:30 at night to try to catch our Friday limit before midnight. Ray, our neighbor, told me I made it with 5 minutes to spare.

Quite a pile of fish!

  At midnight the limit went to 6 fish with 12 in possession, so we tried to catch our Saturday limit. It took until about 3:30 in the morning, but all three of us got our limits. As you can see from the picture I was happy about it.

 

Cindy took some pictures of us finishing up filleting the fish.The real work begins after you catch them. As you can see, I had quite a pile of fish. I estimate that I had about 40 pounds of fillets from this one trip. I don’t know how much more fishing I will get to do before we run out of room in the freezer. We may even have to start eating fresh salmon. Wouldn’t that be too bad? LOL We haven’t cooked any yet because of Cindy’s back but she thinks she will be able to do it and is looking forward to doing so.

 

I went down last evening to watch the fishermen and the combat fishing is getting worse. People had to wait more than a half an hour to get a spot in the river before they could even try fishing. It looked like the catching had slowed down some, and the numbers of fish coming up the river are down from the last few days. There were 123,000 on the 18^th to about 61,000 on the 20^th, according to the State Fish and Game. The people here say that this is normal. I have decided that if we have to be in one place for so long, it’s not too bad to be here where I can go fishing some of the time.

I guess That’s all I have to report for now. Please wish me luck on tonight’s fishing. Thanks for visiting.