Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 I'm well aware of the fact that I haven't posted anything for awhile. It weighs on me like a lead coat, or if I were Hillary Clinton, a lead pants suit. I don't know why, it's just something else that needs done when I feel like I don't have enough time to do all the other things that need attended to. As I've mentioned here before, in the summer, my primary interest is in fishing. Blog posts, trivia, visiting and all manner of other things don't hold the same high priority. However, that being said, I'm posting now, for better of for worse. In case you don't realize it, the thing you're looking at in the upper picture is a radar stand, which is mounted on the mast. What you don't see, and what should be on that stand, is the radar. And now for my sad tale of woe.... The beginning of the salmon season this year has been painfully slow. I don't think I even caught a king salmon until June, and then I only had a total of six, versu...

Steve and Adam baiting squid on 16/0 circle hooks Adam unhooking a hook from the ground line. It's always fun to see what's coming up  Un-hooking a big skate  Measuring the fish. The tidebook gives estimated  weights according to length   Years ago I prayed for patience, and God in all His wisdom gave me what I wanted, or at least orchestrated the circumstances so that my prayer could be answered. I had seven children, I became a commercial fisherman, and I subscribe to Hughes Net. Waiting for the pictures to download is an exercise that could try even the patience of Job. I swear, if there were a contest between a sloth and Hughes Net, the sloth would win. Actually I'm surprised that I can even get on the internet. For the better part of a week I've been unable to. Oh well, patience my son, patience.  Last week I went out halibut fishing in an effort to catch my comme...

 It's sunny and windy today, two weather events that I don't care for very much when I'm out trying to fish. They actually go hand in hand. Most sunny days around here are accompanied by the wind. It makes for a miserable day out on the water. On the one hand, if there wasn't any wind, the heat would be almost unbearable. On the other, the wind makes it so difficult to control the boat,and it almost always gets lumpy and very uncomfortable. Sooooo, I took care of some projects on the boat and I'm working on getting some stuff done around the house so that maybe tomorrow I can go out and catch a fish or two. What you see in the pictures above are almost all Pink salmon, or Humpbacks, or as they are so affectionately known by the fishermen, Humpies. They are the smallest of the salmon, averaging around three and a half pounds more or less. This year the processors are only paying a quarter a pound for them, so a lot of them aren't eve...

Last week I took my daughter Jen out fishing with me. We always have a good time, and for the most part she seems to bring me good luck. Most probably because she has such a positive attitude most of the time, as opposed to my rather gloomy outlook on life. We had to deal with those consarn horseflies again, but I got my revenge on a fair number of them. If they dare to come into the cabin and up against that side window, they're dead meat. I like to knock them down with the hose too. I just wish it  had about ten times the pressure so that when I hit them with it, it knocked their little mean heads off. I read years ago about a guy in England who liked hunting so much that he loaded his shotgun shells with dust so he could shoot butterflies. I don't like that idea so much, but blasting horseflies would be grand fun. Of course I wouldn't be getting any fishing done if I had some of those dust laden shells.   As you can see, we had a fairly good day, fi...

Finally! I was successful in getting the pictures to upload or download or whatever it is that they do. I tried to do this blog a week ago, but the pictures wouldn't cooperate. Whine, bitch, complain. Anyway, if I don't hit the wrong key with my clumsy fingers I'll get this blog done tonight. For the past few weeks I've been pretty much hanging out over at Homeshore fishing for Dog salmon or Chum salmon as they are more properly known as. I doubt many people would pick up a can of dog salmon at the grocery store. They probably wouldn't snag a jar of Humpy either. Sounds like an add for a geriatric sex product or something. However, most moms wouldn't thing twice about buying their family a nutritious can of Pink salmon. To most fishermen here though, we refer to Pinks as Humpies, a shortened version of Humback salmon. They're named that because of the pronounced hump that the males develop as they get closer to the streams where they spawn. It's been re...