July 11
I must be making up for lost sleep because I slept in until 10 this morning. Didn't have any real plans for the day so it was fine.
I wandered around the campsite for a bit after I got cleaned up for the day. Made some lunch and just sat outside the camper for a bit and wrote about yesterday.
Heidi, Libby and I decided to walk the trail behind the house. It went down to a stream. It was a nice little hike and ended at a clearing next to the creek. There is a chair to just sit and relax. Directly across was a similar clearing that the person that lives on the other side made. He had a fire pit as well which I thought would be nice. Might be overrun by mosquitos at night though.
I decided to blaze my own trail to see what was around the bend as it sounded like maybe a rocky section was stirring up the water a bit. Sadly it was not as impressive as it sounded.
When we got back I had to turn the air on in the camper. The sun was out and it was warming up along with being very humid.
At some point I talked to Patrick about doing some salmon fishing. I rounded up the girls to see if they wanted to go. They said they did, but not that night. They were having to much fun on the trampoline. They were fine fending for themselves for dinner so Heidi and I packed up and we left around 4:30.
The area Patrick goes is about a half hour away near Soldatna. We put in and then it was a boat ride to his spot. Lot's of people were fishing as the Red's were just starting to run. Every now and then we would see a bunch jump out of the water.
Patrick gave us a quick lesson on how to fish for salmon and let us to it. I caught on immediately but Heidi had a little trouble getting the hang of it. It's totally unlike any fishing I have ever done. We used fly poles but you don't use them like you typically see in movies or video's when they cast out for trout. Instead you have a short length of line out and you just plop it in just upstream of yourself and you let the current take it. Once it's fully past you, lift it out and plop it in again.
My second cast got me on a fish, but spit it out almost immediately. Patrick did get one some time later. There was an eagles next about hundred feet away so it was pretty cool watching it roost and fly above our heads.
There was a group up a few hundred feet on the opposite side of the bank so we decided to cross over. That side was a lot more productive. I caught one pretty quickly. In the time we were there I had three more on the line, but they all got off. You have to really set the hook hard as a salmon's mouth is really tough. I'm used to the softer flesh of a freshwater fish where a single tug will set the hook and the majority of the time you can get it to shore or on the boat.
We were about to call it quits when the group down stream of us started hitting. Salmon are schooling fish so they enter the river as a group. So since they hit downstream we should hit them as well not to long after. Unfortunately that did not happen.
We decided to pack up the salmon poles and turn to traditional open faced poles and try for some rainbow trout. It didn't take long for Heidi to get one on the line. She did loose that one. Not long after she got another on the line and this time she successfully landed a rainbow. We didn't measure but it was a good sized fish. Absolutely beautiful. The only experience I have with trout is stocked lakes in Iowa. The DNR does a great job raising trout and then stocking specific lakes several times a year. They don't do alot of rainbow though but the few I've seen were tiny in comparison.
I finally got one on the line. It was also nice sized but I think Heidi's was larger. I'm glad she beat me on the trout since she got skunked on the salmon. We tossed both trout back as river trout does not taste as good.
I caught mine just in time as there is a clearly defined no fish zone that we crossed just after I released mine. Alaska takes fish conservation very seriously with no fish zones on the river banks and a line where you can no longer fish any part of the river.
Since we passed the no fish zone we headed back. It was really late anyways. We got loaded up and headed home. I don't remember the exact time we got home but it was well after midnight.
Heidi and I were both starving as we did not get any dinner. We make a box of mini taco's in the air frier, had a drink and just relaxed and ate in front of the fireplace.
We have done some really awesome things on our trip so far. Many memories have been made, but I think today was one of my favorite days. They girl's played with our friends grandkids all day. We had a nice little hike, just hung out, relaxing while we sat overlooking a beautiful sight. Words cannot describe how peaceful it is here. I don't think it would ever get old waking up the the views around here,
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