King Salmon

I wanted to show a picture of myself (20 lbs lighter, of course) of myself on my little blog. This is me in 2003 with a King Salmon that I caught on the Little Susitna River. It is obviously starting to turn red; we were fishing for silvers when this guy bite my lure, but I had to keep him. My boss wieghed him and he was like 48.2 lbs.
The story is, is that I was going home after work and my boss invited me to go fishing with himself and the mechanic, Lanny. We took Lanny's flat bottomed John-boat because that works well on the Little Su. I think we stopped at the mouth of Polly Creek where it is well known that the fish congregate there.
Right off my boss, Jake, catches 3 good sized silvers and I realize that he likes to rub his success in. I was getting Nada, and Lanny caught a 4 " trout. Jake eventually stops fishing because he has had his fun; I think hours have gone by. Lanny and I listen to Jake talking about his nice silvers- 'Do you want to feel how heavy they are?' 'Do you know what silvers look like?' 'Do you remember that I have 3 already?' 'How many do you have? I have 3.'
Soon Jake and Lanny start packing up. I just fished on. Jake was starting to say: 'Well, I have my fish - I'll let you carry one.' At that moment I see a flash of movement and my lure takes off! The fish just takes off and there is nothing I could do!
It took a while to reel it in, but man was it worth it just to have Jake say 'Geez, if I knew it was that big I would have helped you!' I think that both Jake and Lanny thought that I was a wimp for taking so long to bring it in. That fish was bigger than Jake's silvers combined! Even Lanny's trout, too.
You know, even now I love recalling that fishing trip and I'm so proud of that picture. It took two hands just for me to hold that fish up! I gotta say that was one of the best work crews that I have ever worked with, I miss those guys!
So if you ever go fishing, just be patient and let other people's comments shed off like water on a duck's back. It'll be worth it.

Summer 2006

Here is a little picture of what I have been doing for part of my summer. It was only sunny for like maybe 2 non-consecutive weeks and on one of those days I had my camera. This is 3 Mile Lake, named so because it is 3 miles from Chitina, AK.