Charlie caught his limit today!

July 13, 2012

Charlie has figured it out!  He lost more fish than he caught, and they were snapping 14 pound line - but within an hour of going down to fish, he had caught his limit of 3 salmon!  They were huge and beautiful - and we were both very excited.  We got about 10 pounds of meat off them and froze most of it.

I made salmon burgers for lunch and they turned out well - it was certainly the freshest salmon either of us had ever eaten.

Went back down to the river this afternoon so I could try - I had 7 on the hook, 2 jumped out of the water while I had them hooked, on made it to the bank - but I did not make it out with any of them. - But I had a blast and felt like I had an idea of what I was doing.  It certainly helps to be able to see them.

We also saw a mother grizzly and her two 2 year old cubs - they ran us off the river twice, and walked right through our fishing spot.  They were amazing to watch, and when mama bear would feed them a fish, they would start growling at each other, their growls were very scary - but still awesome. : )

After the last time they came through, we decided it was time to go - and I had fallen in the river so I was also a bit wet: )  but all was good and it was a wonderful day.

Nice slow day

July 12, 2012

Charlie left to fish at 6:45.  When he got to his fishing hole, (about 15 minutes later) there were already 5 people there.  So no good fishing this morning.  He did snag a fish, and it broke his line.  He did see a grouse this morning and a vole, we have not seen a grouse yet, so we will add that to the list.

It rained most of the day, and it was pretty chilly, so we ran the heater some and decided to cook dinner in the oven so it would heat up the RV.  We are having boneless chicken thighs, baked potatoes, and corn for dinner.  I think we will have fresh peaches for dessert. 

Sort of a slow, but a nice day.  Tomorrow, we will most likely have to change campgrounds or move to overflow. 

Arkansans know how to fish!

July 11, 2012

Charlie was up and at fishing again early this morning.  I walked down around 8:00 and he said he was able to see the fish!  Things are looking up - that is such a big deal.  Before now, we had just been fishing blind, hoping there were fish there and that the line was near their mouths.  Now he can see them, and try to line the hook up.  He saw several in his favorite fishing hole, and got three hooked and one broke his line!  That is much better than he has been doing before.   

The "red sweatshirt guy" was back at the river -- and if he can see a fish, he lands it!  It is rather amazing to watch.  When I walked up, Charlie said, “there is the Wynne Arkansas girl" – and the dude looked up and said, “Wynne Yellowjackets”!  I was quite impressed.  He is from Arkansas!!! and the red sweatshirt is a Razorback sweatshirt.  : )  He had just retired and this was a gift to himself – to come back to Alaska.  He turned out to be very nice, and it is obvious he enjoys fishing.  He literally walks up and down the river looking for fish, sees one, and snags it.  He doesn’t even eat it, he gives it to a friend, he said he thinks he has given him about 200 pounds since the end of June.  

He showed Charlie how he was lining up the line, and was more than willing to teach us whatever he knows – just liked doing it I think.  Charlie said he has learned more from watching this guy than anything else since he has been here.  Makes me happy he was from Arkansas.  : )

After lunch we found out we could stay here for another two days, so we didn’t have to break camp, and decided to drive back to Soldotna, and the hardware/fishing store. Charlie wanted to buy a rain suit he saw there so he does not ruin his good one on the river.  While we were at the visitor center,  the lady working there noticed Charlie’s VT sweatshirt and said she knew the area because her Aunt lived in Floyd VA!  Amazing what a small world we live in, that someone 5000 miles from the NRV, would have visited Floyd VA on several occasions…..  

When we left we drove down to Kenia and Captain Cook Recreational area, where once again -the road just stops.  We walked out to Cook’s Inlet and the tide was out for at least 175 yards or more.  The beach is covered with rocks, but it was too cold to stay and look for very  long.  I did find a green rock that looked like a robin egg, a golden one, and Charlie found me two small red ones. 

 

Next -  Crooked creek campground.  Some men that were fishing there gave us a good lead on a charter in Homer if we decide to go out on a Halibut charter. 

For dinner we stopped and split a “big burger” at Harry’s restaurant in Soldotna.  It had a little bit over everything on it, but we had them hold the jalapenos…. There was a couple there that we had seen at the Inlet earlier in the day…. I am still surprised when that happens….

Raining when we got home so no fire tonight, just hot chocolate and reading.

We can see! Polaroids are the bomb!

July 10, 2012

Charlie got up very early today and was back out fishing.  I walked down after I woke up, and saw someone snag 5 during the time I was watching.  It was obvious he could see them in the water – but we could not.  I asked a Ranger that walked up what was the deal with that, and he said we needed a pair of Polaroid glasses, and could get them at Fred Myer for around 10.00.  Needless to say, after lunch, we drove to Soldotna and bought each of us a pair.  

 After finding the glasses we needed, we drove on down to the Kasilof River to check out the fish there, only a few people were fishing there, so we did not stay to fish. We then went to Bing’s Slip Recreational Area and tried out our new glasses.  We could definitely see better – in many places I could see the bottom of the river. 

Came home and heated up leftovers and fried a few more potatoes.  Charlie made another fire and we sat out there again tonight. It is always so relaxing sitting by a fire and just messing with it.    

We may have to change campsites tomorrow if someone has this reserved, hopefully we will be able to stay here another 3 days or so.  It is so convenient for fishing, Charlie can go early, and I can walk down about an hour later.  Works out perfectly!

It is cold outside, so made hot chocolate and read before going to sleep.  It is so relaxing being here, I think I am going to love this retirement gig.  I know Charlie does. 

(Happy Birthday Jan!  Hope you had a wonderful day.)

Heard from Molly – she is in Anchorage now, so we are going to find a time to get together.  It will be fun seeing her.

Campfires and cooler weather

July 9, 2012

Still at the Russian River.  Charlie went fishing early this morning, and I stayed and took care of our internet connection.  I was able to update the data pass and get connection well enough to enter a few blogs, but too slow for many pictures.  I did get the one of Charlie talking to Santa uploaded though- which was an important one. : )

We have decided to take the ferry over to Kodiak Island – I called and made the reservations.  We leave Homer on the 22^nd, and come back the 28^th.  We will be taking Didi over there and hope to leave Bessie in overflow parking here at the park.  It is one of those things we both decided we needed to take advantage of while we are here.  They have the world’s largest brown bears (due to their being well fed by the salmon there) and the wildlife and fishing is supposed to be very good.  We are excited about going.

We gathered some wood for our fire tonight, we even have our awning up!  It is the first place we have stayed long enough to do that.  It rained again, so Charlie went out and washed off Didi and Bessie – Didi is actually shining – she badly needed a bath.  

Cooked most of dinner over the campfire tonight.  We had fried potatoes and grilled corn on the cob, and salmon patties.  I did cook the salmon patties over the camp stove, everything else was over the wonderful fire that Charlie built.  I even roasted marshmallows.  It was all delicious, the potatoes were a bit smoky from the fire, but it made them even better and the corn we had purchased at IGA was fresh and sweet, and perfectly done.  Probably not as good as "Curtis corn" we both hate we will be missing that this summer....

We sat by the fire for a long time tonight, Charlie  made another great fire, which was a good thing , because it was pretty cool out there when the wind started blowing.I think it has been in the 50's during the day and 40's at night.  But the bugs do not like the cold and have virtually gone into hiding! 

Charlie said he saw someone catch 5 fish today, (dude in red sweatshirt) - we have got to figure this out- and start catching some too1

Back to the Russian River by way of Whittier and Hope

July 8, 2012

Up early today – around 3:30 a.m. – couldn’t sleep, so got up and read and watch the sun rise at 4:00.  Actually turned on the furnace – it was quite chilly down in that valley.

  Charlie got up around 5:30 so we were on the road by 6:15.  It was so still and quiet – I drove Didi separately due to the rather large mountains we were going up and down, and thoroughly enjoyed driving through them as the morning broke.  There were hardly any other cars, so we had the highway to ourselves.   Charlie saw two black rabbits, but I missed them. 

Filled back up at Palmer and loaded Didi up at Sutton.  We got to see another moose on the side of the road --a male with a few antlers, but not a full rack yet.  I am still holding out for a big bull moose!

 

Drove to Whittier – To get to Whittier, we had to go thru a 2 ½ mile tunnel that is one lane and is shared with traffic and trains going both ways.  So you pay 20.00 and line up and every 45 minutes or so you get to go through.  It is a pretty place to wait so time passes pretty quickly. We made lunch and and it worked out great.  

We had stopped at the visitor center just prior to the tunnel and there was a huge piece of glacier ice floating in the river!  AWESOME!  At first we thought they may have just made an ice sculpture and put it there, but nope, it was the real thing.

Whittier is not much – it is a tiny town, and is a true working harbor.  When I say these towns are small, I really mean small, there are probably 10 streets - maybe?  I also read that most of the town folks live in a building built during WWII – we saw it and did not know what it was.  It is 14 stories, and just plain concrete on the outside, we thought it was deserted. 

It rained the entire time we were there, but we had on our rain gear so we stayed nice and dry.  We had a chance to walk all over the town and got to see the ferry pulling out and several glaciers – made some coffee to warm up and then headed back to the tunnel. 

Some facts about Whittier:

They get 20 FEET of rain a year, 16 feet of snow, temperature tonight was supposed to be in the 30-40’s, and there are 150 glaciers you can see on a 5 hour boat ride around here. Cruise ships do stop here, but I cannot imagine what the people do when they get off the boat.  

Drove down to  the town of Hope on the way back to the Russian river.  The road just stops there - kinda cool.  (We are trying to drive on any blacktopped road we can find, but staying away from the gravel ones....  )There were some great views of Cooks Inlet though – so it was a pretty ride.  Stopped and mailed some postcards at the post office there and then headed to the Russian.

We actually got a camping site at the Russian River campground!  We will be able to stay for three nights, which is great for us, but definitely means there are not many salmon running right now… 

On the way here we saw more traffic than we have on the entire trip, mostly headed back up toward Anchorage – guessing it was folks leaving Seward or Valdez after the July 4^th week.