They finally came ! Word spread quickly that the Reds (Sockeyes) were in at Larson Creek. As soon as Carlisle was home from work we grabbed our gear and hurried up there in the boat. After so much rain, the Talkeetna was high with logs and other debris floating. This can be troublesome if sucked into the intake of the jet motor. Larson Creek is about a 45 minute ride upriver, maybe 7 miles. Not far beyond Larson Creek is Larson Lake where the sockeye are headed to spawn. We did our best to prevent that from happening. When we arrived, the small creek was somewhat crowded, but quickly cleared out as the charters left for dinner. Within minutes we had the place pretty much to ourselves and made fast work of getting our limit. All this wasn't without incident as a young brown bear sent Mark running and hollering for the gun. It was surprisingly bold to approach with so many people and dogs around. Finally, it retreated back to the woods with no shots fired, but the realization that we needed to have more than one person armed. Excited by such success, we were up early the next morning, in the boat shortly after 5am and fishing by 6. Again, within an hour we had our limit and Lisle and Mark were able to rush off to work, sleepy but happy to know that Bucky and I would begin processing the meat. We will begin the smoking process by soaking the fish fillets in a brine. The fish to be canned will be filleted and prepared for the pressure cooker. It's time consuming but rewarding.
