Oh what a difference a day makes. Today is beautiful out. This has been one of the rainiest Julys on record according to the gentleman at the visitor center. But not today, the sun, so warm and penetrating. The water doesn’t even seem as cold today. It’s a busy day here on the Kenai. The sun and the high fish counts are bringing out the fishermen.
I was doing pretty good. I was catching but they were foul hooks. Four of them. You must snag the fish in the mouth. If you hook a tail or fin, it is a foul hook and must be released. Some of these foul hooks were big and were fighters. By the time you reel them in, you are as beat as the fish is. It broke m heart to have to release them. 
Tommy took a spot about a football field length away from me today along with our friend Troy and his daughter Kelly. Now Troy wears tow hearing aids and will quickly tell you he can’t hear. Tommy doesn’t hear so well either from all of those years working on helicopters. I tell you this because every time I would hook a fish I would squeal with excitement, laugh, giggle, whoop and holler. “Come on fish, come to Mama”, “Whew hew!” “Tommy! I got a fish!” Both Tommy and Troy could hear me down river and remember this is a swift river with the water making all kinds of noise running over the rocks. Tommy and Troy both said they got the biggest kick, along with the people around them, of hearing the sounds of my complete joy when I hooked an Alaskan Sockeye Salmon. And I really felt joyful.
It is the combination of being here in Alaska, standing in the frigid swift currant of the Kenai River, the scenery around you, the clean air, perfecting the Kenai flip with the best of them (I was told I had perfect form), with the sound of the flowing water acting as your background music. It is like a dance, keeping in time with the other fisherman, feeling the sinker bouncing on the bottom of the river, watching where your line is, knowing when to snap the rod back, then drawing the rod back, up and around, easing the line back into the water with the guidance of your left hand, all in one fluid motion while steadying yourself on the rocky river floor as the water tries to take you away. And when you feel that fish pull back, well what can I say? A cherry on top, icing on the cake, all that and a bag of chips? Nope. No, it’s more than that.
In total today I had four fowl hooks that were released, three fair hooks that after a fight got away, and three fine catches. 
Today was a good day of fishing.
Tommy didn’t do badly either.
Off to do the filleting. 
No comments:
Post a Comment