Back Blogging

Bucky and I have seen some sights since we last visited. Our computer is down and as we wait to have it looked at here in Homer, I'm able to use a computer lab hooked to the shop. We have just reached the southern end of the Kenai Penninsula, after having spent 3 days camped at the Russian River Ferry on the Kenai river and a day on Cook Inlet. The Russian River Ferry parking area is a popular spot from which to access and fish the famous Kenai River at its confluence with the Russian River. As Dave Vickaryous, our trusty Alaskan tour guide, put it, "here you will see all types of craziness." It's called combat style fishing which basically means standing as close as you dare to your fishing neighbor and lobbing out a heavily weighted fly trying to snag the sockeye as they move past in schools swimming upstream. You're only to keep fish which are hooked in the mouth which provides another element of interest. When you're lucky enough to hook a fish, it takes off like a scalded cat downstream, usually dragging your line across your neighbor's and perhaps several people's lines in the neighborhood. While you're drag is screaming and your hanging on so as not to be pulled into the river, from which there is no recovery, the fish can break-off sending your weights and fly rapidly back at your face or the face of someone in the neighborhood. Thank you Dave for telling us to always keep our sunglasses on! Fortunately, we have found Alaskans to be very friendly. Add to this the occassional gunshot as someone either scares off a bear or actually kills it on the river bank. Bucky and I were continually pestered by a black bear while standing in the stream which caused an uneasy feeling. The bear, human relationship on the Kenai River is the opposite of that on the Brooks River. At Brooks, the humans were subservient to the bears, moving aside to make it possible for the bears to feed on salmon. Here, the people defend the stream and their catch from the bears. As the river is lined with fishermen on both sides for miles and miles, the bears points of entry are limited. The Russian Ferry is a cable ferry which operates using the extreme current of the Kenai River for power. Fisherman pay to use it to access the far bank. As the current is very strong, my fishing was limited, but Bucky was able to obtain his limit of 3 fish per day most of the days he fished. We now have a freezer full and plan to smoke them when we return to Palmer and our home away from home with Dave and Amber Vickaryous. The Kenai Penninsula is totally about fishing Cook Inlet and any river reaching it from the interior. There are large commercial fishing operations, dip netting by Alaskan residents, fishing from all sizes of boats and wading to fish from shore. Silver salmon should be here any day as Carlisle says they are hammering them in the Mat-Su drainage where she is located. Although Homer is the Halibut fishing capital of the world, Bucky thinks he'll forego. For all those who know his tolerance for the open ocean, it's a wise choice. Instead we'll camp out on Homer Spit and look at the mountains while trying our luck for flounder and such from shore. On our way back up the penninsula, we'll clam in or near Ninilchik on the minus tide, a tide lower than low. These are razor clams. Hopefully, we'll be able to write again at least from a situation like this.