The "king salmon week end" ended last night at midnight. Will have those pictures later. I will post those later. Friends from Minnesota have been up here, have been here since Friday. We spent so much time talking, visiting and fishing and watching fishing that there was no time for the blog. They left this am; we are at the Maintenance barn for refreshing showers....especially after D fell into the lake last night....and then to travel across Hatcher Pass. There's nothing to do at the campground today because everybody has left. So, following are the King week end pics.
Everyone was patiently waiting for the stroke of midnight for the “king week end” to begin. This crowd was really not as it had been in past years. The ranger told us that there would have been a whole line of fishermen in chest waders way out in the water, then a line of fishermen in hip boots closer to the shore, and then a final line of folks on the shore casting over them. When one person hooks a fish another one steps in. Kind of like the lines of soldiers in the Civil War? Tempers could flare, and lines tangled, and lines cut. Not this time. It seemed to me to be very good natured; kind of like one big family picnic; everybody helping each other; rooting for each other, even a stranger; landing another fisherman’s fish with a big net, etc.
Chris and our friend, Ron, did not go to fish at midnight. We all went down to the water, but took chairs with us: we wanted to sit back and watch the “show”, seeing if we even wanted to venture into the melee. After 1.5 hours of watching and discussing, they decided that in the morning they could, indeed, get into the fray. Ron even went down about 3 to see if it was remaining the same. All in all, lots of fish came out of the water on opening day. (About 200 someone guessed)Ranger John said that in former years perhaps 5,000 fish were caught opening day. Not this time. Nevertheless, to us, it looked like lots of fish were caught.
Horsing around before midnight, Dawson got himself “nabbed” by the Law. (Truth be told…he asked for it.)
Yup, those are the “real thing”. Ranger John called Dawson "Boo Boo" because of the BoBo on the back of his sweat shirt.
Conveniently, when Ranger John started removing the cuffs, he just hooked him to my chair! What a good way for me to keep track of the busy 12 yr. old!
A gorgeous picture after sunset. Saw this lots.....only problem is, ya gotta stay up after midnight to see it. That's Alaska!
The young man did stay fishing much of the day.
D asked Papa to change his lure…thinking that would increase his chances of catching “his fish”. Opening day came and went…but no fish for Dawson.
Chris had done this before….but not like this time….
This time: 1) it didn’t break the line, 2) it didn’t slip off of the hook.
Using the handy-dandy fish scale that Dean & Steph gave him for Christmas…it weighed 18#. Chris has been offering to weigh lots of folks fishes…and found out that they over-estimate most of their fishes’ weights. Then they say: “oh, that scale’s wrong…” This was a lot of fish. 70# fish have come out of here. You can just imagine the size of them!
Anglers are allowed 5 king salmon per year, and 1 per day. They have to mark on the bag of their special “king tag” each fish they catch. And ya better not get caught catching too many fish, or not marking down the landed ones. We all watched some young guys catch fish, give one away, then keep fishing all day. Finally that evening I called the Ranger to report something a-miss. Some kids got written warning tickets, and the older one got a real ticket and fine: he didn’t have a fishing license. He got off lucky because he could have lost his pole, tackle, box, car, camping stuff….everything he had. The ranger really doesn’t like being a “bad guy”.
Everyone was patiently waiting for the stroke of midnight for the “king week end” to begin. This crowd was really not as it had been in past years. The ranger told us that there would have been a whole line of fishermen in chest waders way out in the water, then a line of fishermen in hip boots closer to the shore, and then a final line of folks on the shore casting over them. When one person hooks a fish another one steps in. Kind of like the lines of soldiers in the Civil War? Tempers could flare, and lines tangled, and lines cut. Not this time. It seemed to me to be very good natured; kind of like one big family picnic; everybody helping each other; rooting for each other, even a stranger; landing another fisherman’s fish with a big net, etc.
Chris and our friend, Ron, did not go to fish at midnight. We all went down to the water, but took chairs with us: we wanted to sit back and watch the “show”, seeing if we even wanted to venture into the melee. After 1.5 hours of watching and discussing, they decided that in the morning they could, indeed, get into the fray. Ron even went down about 3 to see if it was remaining the same. All in all, lots of fish came out of the water on opening day. (About 200 someone guessed)Ranger John said that in former years perhaps 5,000 fish were caught opening day. Not this time. Nevertheless, to us, it looked like lots of fish were caught.
Horsing around before midnight, Dawson got himself “nabbed” by the Law. (Truth be told…he asked for it.)
Yup, those are the “real thing”. Ranger John called Dawson "Boo Boo" because of the BoBo on the back of his sweat shirt.
Conveniently, when Ranger John started removing the cuffs, he just hooked him to my chair! What a good way for me to keep track of the busy 12 yr. old!
A gorgeous picture after sunset. Saw this lots.....only problem is, ya gotta stay up after midnight to see it. That's Alaska!
The young man did stay fishing much of the day. 
D asked Papa to change his lure…thinking that would increase his chances of catching “his fish”. Opening day came and went…but no fish for Dawson.
Chris had done this before….but not like this time….
This time: 1) it didn’t break the line, 2) it didn’t slip off of the hook.
Using the handy-dandy fish scale that Dean & Steph gave him for Christmas…it weighed 18#. Chris has been offering to weigh lots of folks fishes…and found out that they over-estimate most of their fishes’ weights. Then they say: “oh, that scale’s wrong…” This was a lot of fish. 70# fish have come out of here. You can just imagine the size of them!
Anglers are allowed 5 king salmon per year, and 1 per day. They have to mark on the bag of their special “king tag” each fish they catch. And ya better not get caught catching too many fish, or not marking down the landed ones. We all watched some young guys catch fish, give one away, then keep fishing all day. Finally that evening I called the Ranger to report something a-miss. Some kids got written warning tickets, and the older one got a real ticket and fine: he didn’t have a fishing license. He got off lucky because he could have lost his pole, tackle, box, car, camping stuff….everything he had. The ranger really doesn’t like being a “bad guy”. That's all for now folks, until we "connect" again....
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