Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

I know that it's been a while since I posted anything, but as I mentioned in the last entry, it's the busy time of year here with maintanence on the boat and fishing and all the other spring/summer things that have to be done while the weather cooperates. Spring has been beautiful this year thus far, with lots of sun and a little too much heat. I hope we don't have another hot, dry summer again. We really need the rain to keep everything in balance. I was trolling for King Salmon the other day with relatively little success. I'm like the vitamins so far- one a day, which isn't a very good average. At this moment I'm going in the hole fishing, but hopefully that will turn around soon. I ran across Icy Straits to fish Homeshore last week. Historically the kings run up that side of the Straits on their way to the Taku or Chilkoot or Chilkat Rivers. I'm not sure how well the wild runs are doing. I know a lot of the fish we catch now are hatchery fish. The commer...

For all you mothers who may be reading this - Happy Mothers Day! For those of you who aren't mothers, I hope you have a good day too. I had a rather interesting situation happen today. Fortunately it's not very common place, but I start to wonder if I'm not suffering from Brother Gary Syndrome. He's the fellow on the farm who had the most unfortunate luck when it came to boats. As I mentioned in the book, one time I came out to the point and his skiff was perched squarely on top of a reef. Another time he ran his boat up onto a log raft. His misadventures at the farm were legendary. We awoke every day wondering what new mishap he would be involved in. In all fairness to myself, I have to say that what happened today was totally out of my hands. Those of you who know me know that I was in a plane accident in 2000 involving crashing into the water. I had nothing to do with that either. As I mentioned in the last blog, I had the boat hauled out of the water to do routine m...

The busy season is upon us here in Alaska so it's going to be increasingly difficult to be able to keep up on the blog entries for awhile. The only reason I'm able to do it now is because it's raining outside. I've got the boat out of the water to do my annual maintanence and I've been painting it while the weather was good. It wasn't supposed to rain today- only a 20% chance of rain according to the forecast, but we do live in a rain forest and of course I'm using latex paint which is water soluble- go figure. If I wasn't trying to paint it would probably be sunny and dry as a desert. I can't really complain too much though. It has been pretty good weather-wise up until today, and so far no bugs. Hallelujah! Usually when I'm trying to paint it's either cloudy without a breath of wind and the gnats are swarming me like flies on crap or it's sunny and the horseflies are buzzing me looking for an opening so they can swoop in and take a ch...

This past weekend I took my sons out to pursue my halibut quota. I usually don't fish for them this early in the year- finding them can be a little spotty and the weather is still a bit gnarly at times, but I guess the same thing can be said about the fishing and the weather whenever you go out. Anyway, both boys like to long line and since I needed the money I decided to go. In order to get a mor e accurate idea of the process, for anyone who might be reading this and may be unfamiliar with commercial halibut fishing, you need to look at the bottom picture first. It shows the boat under the ice chute at the cold storage dock. The guys are directing the ice into the bins which will be covered with thin foam ice blankets to try to keep it from melting too fast. In order to keep the fish fresh we have to have an ample supply of ice. My fish hold can carry six tons of ice/fish. Of course I've never caught that much fish in one trip, but it would sure be fun to try. The next pict...

This past Sunday Jan and I decided to pry ourselves from the couch and go out to join several of our kids and grandkids for a picnic out at Long Island. The weather was uncommonly warm and sunny that day and it was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine. Jennifer and her family are regular visitors to this sand spit and by the time we arrived on the scene, Ben had a fire going and all the food was layed out on a blanket. That's just the way I like it. I show up just in time to eat and have fun and leave before the mess needs to be cleaned up. Jen is the master weenie- roaster today. She wisely chose to purchase a commercial hot dog roasting implement for just such occasions. It has a long steel rod with two spears on the one end and a wooden handle on the other. While it's better than most sticks that I've used, I think it should be more solidly built- perhaps out of stainless steel and another foot longer with an insulated glove built into the handle so you don't h...

I dropped down to the harbor yesterday to do a little work on the boat and I was amazed at the number of cockle shells that littered the loading ramp area. On minus tides, like the ones we're experiencing, the mud flats are exposed and the cockles that lay just under the suface are easy prey for the birds. Crows are the only ones I've seen probing the mud. Once they've located and dislodged one of the mollusks, they fly into the air and drop it on the concrete or pavement, thus breaking the shell and exposing the meat inside. Of course they don't bother cleaning up after themselves and it's almost impossible to keep from running over the shells. Several years ago I was pushing one of the two wheeled carts that the harbor keeps for the patrons to use. I wasn't paying too much attention I guess until I heard the familiar crunch of a shell being crushed and heard a Pssssssss as the air when whooshing out of the tire. I can't remember what I was hauling - pro...

Well, it's happened again. My daughter Camille called and let me know that she wasn't happy with my last blog entry. Apparently it wasn't entertaining enough for her. So now, I have to provide entertaining blogs on a frequent enough basis to satisfy her or I will be getting an unfavorable review. Oh, the pressure. I explained that there are only so many things to write about and she suggested I do a blog on cheese and crackers, one of my favorite snacks. Of course throwing a little Pace Picante Sauce into the mix livens it up considerably. As you can see, I have the large economy size. Several years ago I asked an artist friend of mine to paint a picture of me in my rainpants holding a king salmon in one hand and a bottle of Pace in the other. I love this stuff. I wanted it painted on the top house of the boat. Unfortunately, she left before she could get around to it. Bummer. Jan keeps telling me all the cheese I eat will clog my arteries. She's probably right. I'l...