Part 2
Sunday - Day 3 - the routine was same, on the river early, breakfast, fish, snack, fish, and dinner. I landed one fish, Gary limited, Jim and Rulon got two fish. We worked on the pavers during the day when we needed a break from casting.
Monday - Day 4 - the routine was the same. We landed 3 limits and I got skunked!! The beginner luck had worn off!
Tuesday - Day 5 - was a hard day only two fish were caught for the day. The Fish and Game allowed the boats and netters set up at the mouth of the river on Monday and not many fish made their way upstream to us. We worked hard and long on the pavers today and got the whole project complete laying over 400 pavers.
Wednesday - Day 6 - we were all extremely tired from the paver project but we managed to get on the river by 6 am and the fish we were in. Jim and Gary had limits before breakfast, Rulon had two and I had one. Rulon and I fished the rest of the day and I managed to land one more and Rulon ended with two on the bank. After breakfast we went to Homer and did some sightseeing. Homer is a port town with many charters taking people out for Halibut and Cod. We thought about chartering a boat until we seen the catches coming for the day. We went to the Salty Dawg Saloon and walked around the "spit" for most of the afternoon. Gary was fishing the lagoon where the silvers were stacked up. That was a sight to see, these fish were jumping all over the lagoon. The tide was out however and the fish weren't actively feeding, so Gary didn't catch anything. We learned that the show "Alaska the Last Frontier" is filmed just a few miles outside of Homer.
Processing the fish, we filleted the fish on the bank of the river on the deck that Will had put on the bank with a cleaning station. After filleting the fish they were taken to the garage where they were de-boned and packaged each day. This process took a couple hours each day depending on the number fish caught that day. The processing station was awesome! Sink with counter tops stainless steel tables and vacuum packing machines at the end. They have four full size freezers to store the fish in until it was time for us to leave.
Thursday - Day 7 - We each limited out pretty early with 3 fish each. This was an epic day on the river according to Jim and the others. Will joined us for few minutes and got one banked as well and we ate his fish for dinner that night. Not much better than Salmon fresh out of the water to the plate. We worked on the paver project to level and sand it.
Friday - Day 8 - What a day! Jim and Gary limited out before breakfast at 10 am and Rulon limited out right after breakfast. I on the other hand hadn't had a hit. They worked on the rain gutters another thing that was always done during the stay at Will and Jane's. Service for others is great especially when those you are serving are such great people. Back to the river I was casting for hours before I had a hook up. Landed my first fish about 1 pm and I started at 7:30 am. My second hooked up about an hour later, figuring I cast 12 times per minute, we figured I was casting near 800 times an hour. My third sockeye came into the bank foul hooked and was released. About 4 pm I finally landed my third sockeye and had my final limit of the trip!! You figure the math for how many cast I made for the day.
Saturday - Day 9 - Heading home. We cleaned and disinfected the fish processing station and the floors of the garages, cleaned our apartment and had breakfast. Gary and Jim went to river early in the morning and landed a couple more sockeye to give to Will and Jane for their freezer. Rulon and I stayed at the house and cleaned up and packed. After the day yesterday I was cast out and didn't hit the river. We left the Madison's around 2 pm and headed for Anchorage. Stopped for ice cream again at Wildman's in Cooper's Landing. Along Highway 1 we came to what we thought was an accident, but no it was a bear and her cub in a tree alongside the road, just like we were in Yellowstone. Making to Anchorage we stopped at the Anchorage Temple. We then went to the river and watched the combat fishing along the banks. That was crazy. We ate and went to the airport met a few others from Utah waiting for our red eye flight that left at 1:00 am Sunday morning.
What an experience!! I hope to get to go again with the party had so much fun and never worked so hard for a limit of 3 fish. It was definitely different style of fishing and until you do it, you won't understand.
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