It rained like crazy last night and neither of us slept that great. Despite last night, today looks dry with a high just under 60 deg F. Our trip today is a half day fishing tour for King Salmon. The tour leaves at 11:30am. On the drive to the river we see a Moose with two very young calves on the side of the road. We arrived at the river, met our guide Michael, and loaded up. There was supposed to be another party of two on our tour and we waited over 30 minutes before the other party was rescheduled. The good news is that it’s just Donna and I now. Fishing for King Salmon involves using Drift Boats. A drift boat is a deep, very stable, row boat. The river is a wide, and very fast moving. The guide uses oars to steer us down the river until you get to a good fishing spot and then drop anchor.
Our guide seems somewhat pessimistic on catching one King Salmon. At any one time we can usually see 5 to 10 other drift boats. Michael says there are probably 50 boats on our route. A little way into the trip we see a Bald Eagle soaring above the river and a short time later we saw a pair of Bald Eagles in a nearby tree. About 50 minutes into the trip, a boat next to us got a bite but it got away. Ten minutes later Donna gets a hard hit. After quite a fight she lands a 12lb King Salmon. We are ecstatic and the guide seems genuinely excited and surprised. This is the first time ever Donna has attempted fishing and lands a big King Salmon on her first try. To us, the fish seems huge. Based on everything we hear we are VERY lucky to get a King Salmon and it seems unlikely we will get another. Donna has used her Stamp so now she can set the rod but can’t touch it if a fish takes the bait. We all figure our luck is used up. We settle in to enjoy the rest of our cruise on the water. About 3 hours in, I fall asleep in the warm sunlight. Suddenly Michael yells and I start grabbing for my rod and reel. Michael is beyond excited and yelling about how hard the fish just hit the bait. I’ve got a big fish on the line! The fish puts up quite a fight and I follow Michael’s instructions to tire the fish and maneuver the line. Finally Michael snags the fish in the net. We are all amazed, I just landed a 30lb King Salmon. Donna and I are thrilled and Michael seems just as excited as we are. Despite 3 hours on the water near many boats we haven’t seen anyone else catch a fish. I credit both luck and the skill of our young, 25 year old, guide. Once the fish is subdued and pictures are taken, our tour is done. We have caught our limit. We head down river to the boat recovery ramp. I feel somewhat guilty knowing there are so many fisher men and women who long to catch anything while the two old non-fishers take the day. Once the boat is recovered Michael gives us an expert demonstration of how to fillet King Salmon. Donna’s is a male and mine is a female filled with eggs. Michael is thrilled because those eggs are one of the main baits they use on these trips. By the way, Michael shared AFTER I caught my fish that it typically takes a tourist 36 hours of fishing to catch any kind of Salmon when with a guide and 40 hours of fishing without a guide. We caught our two fish limit in 3 hours. Maybe we should play the lottery.
We head back to the coach to rescue Maverick from his isolation and allow him a much needed bathroom break. Boy is Maverick excited by the bag full of Salmon I bring in. I cut off a 1lb piece of Salmon because Donna has offered to attempt Salmon cooking tonight. I jump in the Jeep and take the rest of the bag to the nearby fish processing store. They measure our fish meat at 19lbs. This is ONLY the fillet meat and none of the waste already discarded. What a haul. It will cost about $30 to have it vacuum packed and flash frozen in about 1lbs packages. It will take one or two days before the fish is ready for pick-up.
When I return from the store Donna has completed cooking our Salmon. I should point out that neither of us have a clue how to prepare Salmon. Based on advice from friends and our guide the results were excellent. We each had a tasty Salmon steak. Maverick was extremely pleased with tonight’s meal and thoroughly enjoyed small samples of raw and cooked salmon. What a day. We had great fun in great weather.