The Last Frontier - Part 4

On the clear days, we saw the mountains on the other side of Cook's Inlet.  A beautiful view.

Thursday morning was a scheduled fishing day. I was invited to "come out and play." Start time was 6am. This is my view from the old loading deck, up on the deck. We had nice weather once again and it was a relatively slow day, which meant that a lot of attention was given to our experience.

The crew was ready to roll at 6:00 low tide. (They were too kind in posing for their touristy friend - me)

I am unskilled at the picking of fish from the nets, but I quickly learned that I am highly skilled at pulling rope and nets, so that is where I put my energy.

Ryan's Journal:

Well, today is a new day!  I ate some Cheerios for breakfast.  Then mom took Audra to swim lessons while I was going FISHING!  It was like one of the best days of my life.  It was soooooooooooooo fun. Like we caught some 3 pounders, some 12 pounders. We caught a lot of sockeye salmon, we caught some silvers, we caught some humpies, we caught a jack (little king salmon), we caught some dog fish, we even caught a little sand shark.

Ryan was really intrigued by the sand shark's green eyes, so he let him live and threw him back (go Celtics!)

OK, guess what my job in the boat was.  So Brent, Nichol, and Dad would pull up the net and shake all the fish out, and I would get all the fish and throw them into the sack, but a couple would be alive and try to escape, and they got slime all over me, but I took care of it.

Ryan really got after it in the boat.  He was a fish-pickin' maniac.  Brent commissioned him to make sure all the fish were off the boat floor and into the basket in the back of the boat.  He was unafraid to get under the net and grab whatever fish were there.  He was slimy from head to toe.  He was so fun for us all to work with because he was impressed and amazed with every fish that was pulled into the boat.

Fishers of fish

Lisa took pictures of the process from the bluff.

The kids had fun helping with the fish.

We fished a number of shifts that day and had great fun hanging out with our friends, knowing we had a unique experience and had a chance to contribute. 

We made great memories that day.  With such great weather, a river full of fish, and time together with friends we could not have planned a better day for ourselves.