Fishing and More Fishing

 Tuesday July 19, 2022 - Gail & Brian's neighbor Jim, said that we could use their dock to fish from.  It was so nice to have the quick walk over and to be able to fish any time of day we want to.  We caught 4 after dinner and stayed out until midnight.  We put the fish in a cooler overnight for processing tomorrow 

This morning Mama moose and her twins walked through Gail & Brian's yard

Mama was happy to stop and eat some of Brian's grass

The twins were interested in watching Brian standing next to the garage

Brian added a fence around their picnic table area, where we often eat.  He said that the moose would eat the flowers if the fence wasn't there.

The twins played for a bit

and then one lay down for a quick rest

Evening fishing on Jim's dock

It's a lot of work to get the fish in with the net

the dock is pretty high off the water

It's getting a little dark for fishing

Wednesday July 20, 2022 - More fishing!  The salmon counts from yesterday were 75,000 so it was a great day of fishing.  We each caught our limit for the day, 3 each.

Mama and the twins walked through again

Another day of fishing

Kev catching on a little rod

Uncle Gene on the net

that's a lot of fish

pulling our haul home for processing

poacher's cove across the river

Uncle Gene and Kev filleted all 13 of our fish from the last two days.  It took all afternoon.  Aunt Gerry and I packaged the fillets and vacuum sealed them

Beautiful!!

a little evening fishing

with a nice view

Thursday, July 21, 2022 - Today was our last day of fishing.  The counts from yesterday were 189,000, but for some reason we didn't catch as many today.  The neighbor had a native Alaskan process the fish they were catching.  It was fun to watch her fillet their salmon with an ulu.  

we didn't need the wagon today

Brian's dipnet.  He caught 20 today at the mouth of the Kenai

Friday, July 22, 2022 - Today we stopped by the Soldotna Visitor Center while we were out running errands.  Next to the visitor center there is another access point to the boardwalk, Janet & I had walked the boardwalk from Soldotna Creek Park on the other side of the river.  No surprise, the boardwalk was crowded with fishermen.

I've been eyeing this great bench every time we drive by

The walk down to the boardwalk

People fishing in the water and on the boardwalk

There are LOTS of seagulls around the river, since the fish are running.  Lots of fishermen process their fish on the bank and throw what they don't want back into the river, so the seagulls have lots to choose from.

Saturday/Sunday July 23/24, 2022 - I didn't take many pics over the weekend.  Kev and I spent quite a bit of time, trying to figure out how to ship our fish home.  We processed about 22 fish, which gave us 51 pounds of meat to ship home.  We decided to overnight the fish to Gerry's friend in Springfield and we'll drive to their house on our way home and get our half home, which was cheaper than two 25 pound boxes.  It ended up costing $360 for the overnight shipping and $28 for the insulated box for a total of $388 for 50 pounds, which comes out to $7.76/pound.

packing into the UPS 50 pound box

I had to take a pic of this truck we sat behind that was so cracked I don't know how she could see through it.  

Mirabelle likes our rug for napping