On the quest for the wily king salmon...

[Blue_In_AK]

We were out on the river with the other boats by about 5:15 a.m.


Mike Manns, who we consider the best guide on the Kasilof, steers us down the river with our boat-mates "Hap" and Mark. No motors are allowed on this river -- it's just a nice quiet float trip down the river anchoring up at the different holes.


HullBoss waits for a strike. And, lo and behold, the sun is out!


Jonathan Livingston. It was at about this point that I hooked into the first fish of the day -- of course, when I was busy taking pictures and not paying a bit of attention. It fought and fought, we chased it back and forth, Mike rowing like mad. We almost got it in the boat, and then it just slipped away. I never got a look at it, but Mike said it was a monster, probably around 55 pounds and could have won the derby -- and we had tickets, damn it. Wouldn't you know?


A little later, though, I hooked into another one and played with it for a while, but I was so tired from fighting the other fish, and not wanting to lose this one, I let HullBoss reel it in for me. I let Mike hold it up instead of me since nobody knew how to use my camera. :)


HullBoss gets a hit!


A big fat female, full of eggs.


Hap and Mark weren't so fortunate. They fished and fished, but this seagull had better luck.


Calling it a day.

[Maestro]

1. So cool! What an adventure.

Take me and I will just take pics of the birds. ;)

[Blue_In_AK]

2. You would have loved

the young eagle that was harrassing these seagulls with the fish. It kept circling and then swooping down, a couple of feet over their heads. The seagulls would get all upset and chase it away, squawking loudly, and then a while later it would come back again, talons out. We were sure the eagle would snatch the fish away, but he never got the chance. I tried to get a shot but they were all blurry -- I don't have your skill with moving targets. It was a very young eagle though, still with the mottled feathers ... probably just practicing.

[Eurobabe]

3. Awesome! Queing up Into the Wild soundtrack by

Eddie Vedder.

I SO need to visit Alaska! And you SO need to visit Germany! ;)

[DS1]

4. What happened to the female full of eggs?

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Mike got the eggs because he uses them for bait.

We got the filets. :) The eggs are always his prize out of these trips. There's some kind of borax cure that he uses that makes them tantalizingly red, sticky and delicious (at least to the fish). He comes on board in the morning with a big bag full of bait from previous catches.

Fish and Game always assures enough escapement on these rivers so that we don't have to worry too much about all the potential little baby salmon that are aborted this way. I suppose I could feel bad about it, but it's hard to get too worked up as we're dining on the delicious fish.