Fishing in Alaska by Helicopter

We had a great week fishing. Sunday I met General Yeager in Seattle – he had been fishing with his friends in the inland waterways near Craig.

Our good friends, J & T, in Alaska picked us up in Anchorage. We met some of their family from the lower 48. J has 8 brothers and sisters, 3 of whom had been visiting and were leaving the next day.

Monday we went fishing transported by helicopter -in some rivers nearby. It was a wet day but as General Yeager said: The fish are already wet so they don’t care.

We took a break from fishing to eat lunch and the rain stopped to let us. J makes the best sandwiches – salmon. Delicious. Eventually, we caught our limit and headed back in. T’s grandson, C came along. Nice young man – on the football team as a sophomore. We’ve known him since he was about 9 or younger.

For dinner we had a great fresh halibut dish and fresh corn on the cob.

The next day we headed out – some clouds. By late morning, the sun was peaking out. All Anchorage natives were thrilled – they had had 30 straight days of rain – a record for summer.

We didn’t catch much, but the halibut sandwiches and the beautiful weather, snowcap mountains, red flowers, eagles, moose, made for a beautiful day. While flying, I spotted two wolves. We circled around and weren’t sure if they might be coyotes. Definitely young-ish as they were playfully running around.  We also saw an eagle’s nest with young ones. We also saw a momma bear and her young-un. We had seen her on the same road (from the air) three times in a row. With us was another of T’s grandsons, B, whom we’ve known since he was a toddler (me since he was about 14). He’s in medical school and a wonderful, well-mannered, talented, bright young man.

And then Wednesday. Fishing and the outdoors doesn’t get any better than that. We were catching fish, the sun was bright, the mountains visible, and some of the fish were jumping (and the cotton is high….oops just had to break into song) – putting on a nice show.

I caught the first fish – rare when I’m with General Yeager. I also caught the biggest fish….until 3pm. J And the coolest was I watched the fish follow my fly, so I changed the pace of my stripping, and then the fish…snatched it and hooked himself. I set the hook a couple of times though just to make sure. It took awhile to tire this big boy out. My arm got a bit tired but I was loving it. He was a jumper. Each time he jumped, I held my breath while trying to keep the line taught…and he never got off till we bled him and took him off.

I danced the victory dance, teasing that I had to enjoy the moment because someone might catch a bigger one for the day and my “biggest” record would be short-lived.

We tried to take photos which felt like Keystone Cops. By the time J got the camera out and figured out how to shoot it, while holding our phone with camera…T dropped the fish. He picked it up, she took the photo but the fish was muddy. So T washed the fish which took some doing, the mud was pretty darn sticky. And we all posed again – Gen Yeager pointing to himself even though this one was MY fish J And we got the photo.

A few hours later, at 3 or so, Gen Yeager caught a fish probably bigger than mine…It was a beauty!

Thursday our friends had appointments so we decided to go to some museums. The first one was only open Mon-Wed, contrary to the website. So we stopped for lunch with a view of the sound. Beautiful day. Then we tried another museum – the Russian one. But it’s been closed for over a year – the building now sells Steinway pianos.

We gave up and went to a used bookstore and found some great books. Then visited an old friend Gen Yeager had not seen in over 10 years, Mike. I started to ask the receptionist – the man standing there turned and did a double take. Gen Y and Mike greeted each other warmly. We went back into one of the appointment rooms and chatted for a while. Mike is a doctor, who also used to own a lodge where Gen Yeager had fished a lot. He introduced us to his very attractive, all female staff.

He had patients waiting so we left.

Friday, we came home and our friends, who picked us up at the airport, took us to, of all places: a fish restaurant. Funny.

Beautiful days.

 

c. GCYI