Day 33- Kasilof

 July 14

We finally got to see the sun today!  Most of our stay has been cloudy and rainy.  It was windy though.

We planned to have an early fish fry and then some more salmon fishing in the evening.  Libby and I ran into town to get breading.  Of course we ended up getting a bunch of other stuff as well.   All the girls were wanting fruit so we stocked up.  This particular store had yellow watermelon.  We had gotten it earlier in the week so the girls have been begging for it.  

Patrick and Kelly took their grandkids out to the beach to see the dip netters.  Since I had some free time I grabbed a pole and went out to the river again.  Since it was a weekend and the weather decent the shoreline was a bit busy but still plenty of room for everyone.  I once again came back empty handed.

After dinner Patrick and I got packed up to leave.  Summer wanted to go this time but I couldn't get anyone else to go.  Heidi wanted to but she had fishing elbow.  Lots of repetitive motion in salmon fishing.

On the way to the river access lot started raining pretty hard.  I was a bit worried about Summer because she only wanted to go if there was no rain.  Luckily when we got to the launch, it had not rained.  

After a short boat ride we got to Patrick's preferred spot.  As we were beaching another boat landed downstream from us.  As soon as the boat landed everyone jumped out and ran for a spot.  Of course it was right where Patrick wanted to stand,  It's a small point one the outside curve of the river so the fish coming up stream along that side kind of get bunched up there like a traffic jam.   Because they stole that spot from us we were on the backside.

I started fishing while Patrick got Summer set up.  She was a natural and was casting like a pro in no time!  Unfortunately Summer has a short attention span for fishing if she's not catching anything.  She fished for about 20 minutes and then started checking out rocks and plants and whatever caught her eye.  Eventually she ended up back in the boat playing on her phone.

After being at our spot for about 40 minutes or so the girl standing next to me started catching salmon like crazy.  Every few casts she had one on the line.  She didn't actually land any.  She had some kind of weird jerking motion at the end of the drift.  She did actually get a few to shore though but she must have had over a dozen or more on the line.

Patrick did get one, but as I was getting the net in place the salmon made a run angled right towards where the net was.  The line hit it and snapped.

We finally got tired of watching the girl catch so many fish so we were going to try the spot we were at the first night.  Summer hung out with me there.  It didn't take long for her to start complaining about wanting to go back.  After a bit she played the bathroom card.  My girls do not have any interest in using natures bathroom.  I asked if we could try one more place and if we don't get anything we would leave.

We crossed back over to the other side and gave that a try.  Patrick was able to land a fish.  I was getting nothing.  Summer kept insisting she needed to go.  I don't think she really needed to, but it's a good excuse to get me to go.  I was getting mad that I could still see the people downstream from us catching fish.  I could also see them jumping a few hundred feet down from us.  I finally got tired of listening to Summer so I told Patrick we could go.  He still had to clean his fish so I kept fishing.  

Patrick is really good with kids.  He was able to stall Summer for quite a while.  First talking to her, then slowly filleting the fish, showing her the insides and then throwing out pieces of the waste to the seagulls.  

The closer we got to having to go the more pissed I was getting.  I didn't want to get skunked again, and we could have hit our limit if those other people wouldn't have snuck in under us.  

Patrick was doing all he could to keep Summer occupied.  She finally realized she still wanted to leave.  She called over to go and I told her a couple more casts.  Finally I felt a dead weight.  I knew it was a fish instantly.  I set the hook super hard because I did not want to loose it this time.  I started reeling in and then it all of a sudden realized that it was caught.  Catching a salmon is so much fun.  They will jump high out of the water, hit it and run only to repeat again.  You pretty much do this over and over until they get tired.  Sometimes they get some energy back right as you're about to net them and you start all over.  It's a blast.  

We got it on shore and Patrick told me to get back out there while he cleans it.  Since they swim in school and we had seen so many jumping he knew there was a lot out there.   It only took two casts and I had another on the line.  Summer complained when I waded back out into the river.  I told her that I was going to keep fishing while Patrick cleaned the fish.  She wisely whined that if I did that I would catch more and more and we would still be out there.  I did not catch anymore however and as soon as Patrick was done we left.  

I talked Summer into drifting for some rainbow trout.  Summer had lots of good bites but she was not much into it and was not really doing a good job at setting the hook.  We were out there for close to 5 hours so I can't complain much.   She was a trooper.   She finally started reeling in, saying she was done.  At some point we had crossed lines so neither of us were properly feeling them.  Summer had a fingerling on her hook and the second we got them unhooked from each other, my line went tight and a good sized rainbow jumped out of the water.  They are also fun to catch.  Almost like a bass.  They don't run quite as much but they do like to jump.  It's only until they see the boat that they try to run a bit.  

Since Summer was done, done, we packed up and sped back to the dock.  We loaded up and got back home about 12:30 am

.  I was pretty proud of Summer.  She stuck it out and I think she had fun overall.