IT'S GETTING COLD.....BUT WHO CARES!

Getting in a few last days of fishing before winter sets in.

This is my friend Luke, and this Rainbow was the fish of the trip. The fish measured about 29 inches.


This time of year the Rainbow fishing is phenominal, but you have to be pretty dedicated to be out in the cold weather all day long.

LATE SEASON FISHING BEGINS

Late fall fishing on the Kenai Peninsula is awesome. It's cold but exhilarating. The Rainbows are gorging on salmon flesh and salmon eggs, fattening up for winter. And the fisherman are fishing as much as possible before everything freezes over.

Doug caught a nice 26" Rainbow which was gently released back in to the water.

And here is a 20" fish, kind of a minnow in this river but nice none the less.

PARKS HIGHWAY RAINBOW

Here's a beautiful 19" Rainbow Trout that my buddy caught from an unnamed creek.

THE FAMOUS PRIMANTI BROTHER'S SANDWICH

This is a Pittsburgh tradition, complete with french fries, coleslaw, and a fried egg (on the sandwich). It sucked!

LET'S GET SOCKEYED!

Each July (from the 10th to the 31st) thousands of Alaskans arrive at the mouth of the Kenai River to harvest their share of millions (yes millions) of Pacific sockeye salmon. Most people are of the opinion the sockeyes, also known as red salmon are the best eating of all five species of Pacific Salmon. The Kenai River is an amazing fishery, which is very tightly managed. Alaska Fish and Game does an incredible job of protecting the runs. The river is subject to emergency closures (and openings) depending on the strength of the salmon run. They are able to count the fish that come through and on any one day it's possible that as many as 50,000 fish will pass through the fish counting weir.

We love to dipnet, and although we don't need this fish run to survive (we do have grocery stores), there's no question that it's a big part of our lives. Each year we harvest several hundred pounds of fillets that we smoke, can, and freeze. It is a tremendous amount of work, not so much the actual catching, but more in fish cleaning, preparing, vac sealing, and freezing. It's always a family effort, it makes us feel good to "live off the land" in a sense.

Dipnetting itself is done with a huge net about 5' in diameter, attached to a pole which in some cases is 20' long. The fisherman stands in about waist high water, holding the net in the river and waiting for the fish to swim in. Once your net starts bouncing around then the fisherman drags the net to the shore where an another family member is waiting to help untangle the fish. This year we harvested 81 fish which range in weight from 4 pounds to 10 pounds. The fish were then split, between my Dad, my sister's family, Uncle Mark, and our family.

For the last several years I have given up my role as the main fisherman, giving my duties to Maggie (who I love so much). I act as her support in removing the fish, killing the fish, and putting the fish in the cooler. Maggie and I are an excellent team.

Here Maggie is proudly holding a beautiful bright sockeye. I think we've already eaten this one.

There is more than just fishing on this annual pilgrimage. We set up several tents on the beach, build nice camp fires, eat lots of good food, play in the sand, ride the ATV, and for the adults of course lots of good canned Budweiser. Michele and I are actually beer snobs, but we allow for the intake of garbage beer this once as it's easier to deal cans rather than bottles. Oh the sacrifices we make. :)

Indio broke in to chocolate chip cookies, I busted him big time. :)


Casey got his hands on the camera, but it captures us sitting around the camp.

My Mom cooking and Casey keeping an eye on the situation. Notice all the camps in the background (like I said, an Alaskan tradition).

Our camp, complete with baby gates for my nephew Granite.

Jade and Granite, chillaxing while waiting for the fish to start running.

We'll all eat good this winter, and we're already excited for 2010 dipnet season.

LEARNING TO RIDE

Here's Casey learning how to ride an ATV, or at least learning the importance of wearing a helmet while Dad drives.

A GUYS WEEK

6/24--It's 10:30PM and Michele and Maggie just left for Newark, NJ. Once arriving in Newark, they catch a train to Philadelphia where Michele's brother Kirk will pick them up. There's more to their trip, but the reason for this entry is to capture the boys first time away from Mom. And my first time alone with them for an extended period of time.

Casey was still awake when they left, Indio was passed out cold. Within about 20 minutes Casey drifted off and it left me all alone at home for the first time since before we got married. It's weird, I feel like a batchlelor with 2 sleeping boys.

So the first thing I did was take all the laundry downstairs, moved the drying racks up stairs, picked up some toys, and opened a bottle of wine (only because I didn't have any beer). I called in to work already and left a message that I'd be a couple hours late. I'm going to let the boys sleep in and myself too (it may be needed depending on how much of this bottle I drink!)

Michele (and the kids of course) hooked me up with the new iPhone for Father's Day. I got it tonight so now it's time to figure it out. I'm pretty pumped about that. I'm laying down my Blackberry to rest. Wine, iPhone, house fiddling, etc. that is night #1 with no Mom or big Sister! Tomorrow nght I'll give the boys an education! It's Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagual, Arnie, Sly, and Eastwood movies, maybe a little UFC thrown in the mix. It's time to grow these boys up! More later.

KISKA THE WHWT

We have two of these things.

LONG LAKE FLOAT TUBING

This was my first fishing outing of the summer (not including the early hike in to the Kenai River). I paddled around in my float tube for about 3 hours. Long Lake is strictly a catch and release fishery, because of that there are some nice fish in there. It takes about an hour to get there from our house.

I didn't really catch to many fish but 2 of them were over 18". Not to bad for a lake.

This guy was the smallest fish of the day, but his colors were beautiful. He was gently released back in to the depths.

AS GOOD AS THE PRESENT ITSELF

The vacuum gun hasn't made it outside yet, but the bubble wrap provided at least 20 minutes worth of entertainment. Good job Jen!

ONE LAST PRESENT!

Casey just turned 4. If he could read and write, he'd say a special thanks to Auntie Jen and Uncle Paul. Since he can't, Dad will say it for him, thanks Jen thanks Paul! That's going to be a fun toy! How can we torture Mom with it? :)

AN EARLY SUMMER FLOAT.

This day marked the maiden voyage for the new blue boat.

Mark came along with us. The red boat is about 3 years old. Its new home is going to be in Dillingham, Alaska. I will store it there for years to come that way I won't have to ship it back and forth from Anchorage. Having a boat and other gear in Western Alaska will make the great wilderness and fishing much more attainable. Stay posted.

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON PICNIC

We took a nice Sunday drive up to near the headwaters of Willow Creek. This is the only picture I managed to take. You can't turn your back on Indie for a second.

CLOWNING WITH GRANDPA'S GLASSES

Indio and Grandpa playing per usual.

THE END OF THE STORY!

and

Last couch picture I promise.

AN EARLY SPRING FISH

Doug and I hiked down to the mouth of the Kenai River where it empties in to Skilak Lake. The Hidden Creek trail is accessed via the Skilak Loop road. The trail to the river is about 2 miles. This time of year it's mostly frozen mud, snow patches, and bog holes.

Here is Doug crouching down under an ice shelf along the banks of the river. As you might imagine it's not to difficult to keep a beer cold!

We didn't actually catch any fish today. We think the fish are still in the lake, they haven't started moving up in the river yet. This will undoubtedly be the first of many trips to the river until Mother Nature shuts us down sometime in November.

WOW, SHARING!

I consider it amazing when a 3-year old shares anything, but especially strawberry ice cream!

DESSERT!

This is Michele's handy work. Very creative I might add. It's always something with that woman.

Ostrich Eggs (peaches)................

and toast (angel food cake).

THE LAST GOODBYE

And so the story ends. It's been with Michele for almost 15 years. Our boys finally wore it out. This is the last time it will appear in one of our photos......in the back of a truck on it's way to the dump. Kinda sad but it's been a good life, history was made......children were probably conceived on it! Goodbye old couch.

TIS THE SEASON!

I'm leaving Anchorage right now, and it's 9PM from the Anchorage airport. Lots of daylight for the next 6 months! We're so happy!

COPY CAT

Casey has been doing a lot of swimming lately. Indio is chomping at the bit!

WRESTLING MATCH

It's pretty evenly matched.

CLOWN BOY!

Casey is quite creative when it comes to dressing himself.

MY NEW LOOK!

Rollin' with the 70's stache!

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY

There's not really anything exciting to blog about right at this moment, but here's what I taught Casey this afternoon.

I can't take credit for this one, he learned that from his Mom!

BROTHERLY LOVE

Casey came up on the wrong of a bite wound.

But eventually he got over it.

After a search we finally tracked down the perpetrator. It's been 4 or 5 days since the bite and the mark is still pretty evident on Casey's chest.