Salmon Fishing in the Kenai River

some more of our fish
dan kept saying how beautiful the fish were. they actually are quite amazing. silver and shiny, and SOOO strong. although the fish we caught would have been like 10 pounds, they were very hard to control, nothing but muscle!!! amazing creatures.
when we left it was 9:30 outside , and it was raining. it was pretty, we were glad to be going though, because while we were there it didnt rain!
tom and his fish
me and my fish (those are different fish)

Dan and his fish

Tom has a fish on!
michelle and tom
david netting toms fish.
toms fish

my brother tom, ready to go!
the dark pics are from the other night.
dan walking up to our fishing spot, its kind of a hike. and then you have to walk down to the bank, its way steep, there is a rope someone put tied to some trees that REALLY helps.
dan is in the yellow poncho, and tom and michelle are right above his head, and david is holding the big net.
david going to net a fish, i think, although i dont see one on the line.
So my parents don't live to far from the world famous Kenai River, and it has great salmon fishing! we went to a spot called Bings Landing, one of many many spots to fish from, and the night before last we were out until 3 am, and it was cold and drizzling, and the fish were not on, so i said we ought to just leave, the fish definititly were not running at the time. it took so long to warm up, i layed in bed for probably an hour and was still freezing, so i finally got up and put on dans sweatshirt. but it was fun to go out on the river, its so quiet and peaceful and pretty. it was somewhat dark, not pitch black, but i couldnt see the line on my pole. so we packed it on up and went home, and then we went back out the next afternoon, me and dan got there about 4:30 i think, and tom and michelle and david had been there since like 1, and they had limited out so they went home. but they had a GREAT spot saved for us, that we took over when we got there, so that was nice. and the people on the sides of us were very friendly (unusual, most of the time they try to muscle you out of a good spot). but one side was 2 older men, and they were very friendly, when i would lose one, the one old man would say "oh man!" and smile. and on the other side was a father/ son, with the son being a grown man. i think the son had fished a lot more than the father, because he was giving pointers and helping out a lot. he also helped us out a lot, i kept snagging my line (there were tons of snags in the water, probably anything from dead branches to extra fishing lines stuck), and the son was able to get mine out every time! so then he said "do you mind if i give you a few pointers?" and i said , SURE! you're catching fish and i'm not! so he told me i needed to turn with the river, and kind of pull on my line as i turn to hook the fish. that did help, as he showed me, he got one on , and then i brought it all the way in, and then we lost it getting it into the net. these reds are fighters! they are so fun to catch. but then we were still having trouble, although that did help a little. so after the father son left, and the two old men, another man came over, and he caught fish after fish, while we sat just throwing our line out time after time... (we're fly fishing). so he offered a pointer, and i said SURE. he said i needed the weight about 4 ft up from the hook, we had ours about 2 ft. after we did that, we had it! we limited out on our fish within probably and hour, and that includes the time we have to spend netting, killing (by sticking our hand in its gills and pulling them until they break, its really actually hard for me to do. i feel so bad killing a fish by hand! i mean i don't care if i eat fish, i believe its here for our benefit, but i dont really like being involved in the actual death by my own hand!). anyways, so after you gill them, rinse them off, and get the hook out, and put them on a string, by putting the string thru the gills and it comes out the mouth, and tying it up with your other fish. i am so sore today! its a lot of work to fish! but its so fun to reel one in. anyways, this is pretty long, but i thought i ought to share what we did. if you didn't enjoy my commentary, at least i will have it for my own records. enjoy some pictures!