July 18, 2012

Good evening from Scenic View RV Park about 7 miles north of Ninilchik.  We arrived here June 15th and plan to be here until August 5th.  The park has been full the last 2 nights and the weather has been absoulutely wonderful with temps in the low 60's during the day and 40's at night. 

The red "sockeye" salmon started running over the weekend and business on the Kenai has picked up threefold.  There are people everywhere, some with dip nets and others with poles.  Our new friend Bill "from Georgia" and I went to the Kenai River near Soldotna on Monday nad each caught 2 nice reds.  Once we got back to camp and shortly after cleaning our fish the set netters came in and dropped off red for those of us who ordered them.  We got 13, just to make sure we put some fish in our new freezer.  I cleaned and shrink packaged them, they sure look nice.  Tuesday Bill and I left camp at 4am and got fishing around 5, Bill got and kept 2, but I had to let the one I landed go as it was snagged.  Today Bill and I started fishing around 1:30pm, I left at 6pm and didn't land a single fish.  Bill had 2 on, but had not landed any either, but elected to stay and fish.  The fishing scene is something totally different than you would expect from the Alaska wilderness, it is very crowded and referred to by many as combat fishing.  Fisherman stand 15 feet apart and "flip" there "fly" about 15' out into the river and drag it back hoping to "floss" a fish.  Flossing is when the line gets in the fishes mouth as they swim up river, when they feel the line they take off and if all goes well you "good hook" them in the mouth.  Some times you just "snag" a fish on their body and it must be released.  And you can bet that all on-lookers will be sure to announce if you have a "good hook" or a "foul hooked" fish.   I am not impressed with the fishing etiquette, but it is a thrill when you get "one on" hooked.  Some people seem to catch many more than others, I am one of the others.

Tomorrow Rosie and I are going to drive to Soldotna to look into financing and spend some time together as I have been gone a lot lately.  We continue to take the dogs to the beach almost every day, they really love running free there.

Although it hasn't been long since the summer soltice we can tell a difference in the length of the days and we even have a short time of almost dark now.

Sunset 07/16/2012

Sunset 07/16/2012