Fishing on the Tsiu, Beachcombing on the Pacific, Alaska

The next day, it threatened rain. Many had gone duck hunting. We ate breakfast, put on our gear, got into the cart, and, while I was thinking maybe I’ll stay back and read about Eddie Rickenbacker…it POURED rain. Sigh.

We got to the Big Bend where we could see LOTS of fish that had gotten past the nets. I cast my rod. Tug. Set the hook. Jumping, playing, flipping. And that was just me. Just kidding. The fish was having a heck of a time trying to get rid of my lure.

General Yeager tossed his in. Tug. Another one.

The next cast. Tug. Run, jump. Run…

Same for General Yeager.

The next one. Oops – didn’t cast where I wanted to. No tug.

Cast again. Perfect. Reel. Oops missed the one fish – reeled too hard, slow down. Tug again (same cast). GRAB it and run! This one we kept – beautiful fresh, large fish.

General Yeager cast. TUG! Jumping, running, flipping. Just as General Yeager was bringing it ashore, Adrian walked up to grab it, the fish took off. BEAR! Gen Yeager cried (that’s what the fish thought Adrian was). And of course General Yeager’s fish,  not to be outdone by his protege, was one lb bigger.

A few times, General Yeager was just holding his rod over the water thinking about where he was going to cast and a fish jumped up trying to grab the lure!

It happened once to me – it jumped, got it, and then shook it loose before I could react to the first action. What a move!

It went on like that for a while. One cast, I felt the tug, tried to set the hook, succeeded in pulling it out of his open mouth, so started reeling it in for another case, when another fish jumped on. Very accommodating.

I teased Adrian. What is the matter? I only got 15 fish out of 16 casts! I made up for it with the two fish jumping on on one case.

It was fun. And exhausting! Happily.

Such a beautiful day – blue skies, blue aqua water until farther out to sea it was cobalt blue. Bright white light. With snowcapped mountains in the background – they weren’t snowcapped a couple of days ago. What a change from Aug to Sept – overnight. Literally.

We’ve seen a few bears. And a couple of weasels have been playing around the decks. One jumped in the wood pile and kept peeking out. Darn! Where is my camera – it was so cute!  

Why do they have such a bad rap? J explained it – they bite, scratch, are nasty…and usually bigger than these two. These were curious, bouncey, cute. With funny faces. Apparently they also took care of the voles. We could use a few weasels then at our house – the cute little ones. Just kidding – no one bring any over, please. The peacocks are enough!

Coming back from fishing, we saw a bunch of seagulls waiting for some dead fish to float by. It reminded me of the painting Sunday in the Park by Seurat. All the seagulls facing one way, some sitting, some standing, some bathing (or in the water). As a friend of mine and I observed a group of birds on the Jersey Shore all walking in the same direction, and when the wave came up on the beach, they all turned in unison and avoided the wave: “I just wonder how they all MET?”

Then we saw the two swans but only 2 of their six cygnets…One adult was standing on one leg. Never did get the real answer to why they do that – just the joke – if they didn’t, they’d fall down.

Oops – a head popped up from the rushes, then another – there they were – obviously just napping – look out to see what the noise was  –  just us passing by.

J and I went beachcombing. This time more like sitting and watching the waves, the ocean, and listening to the crashing and then the silence of the lull.

c. GCYI

We found a shovel! We showed it when we got back saying – doesn’t this driftwood look like a shovel. Confused everyone. The day before, we saw a lawnmower sitting at the edge of the water. Now how did that get there – I mean if off a ship, it should have gone to the bottom of the ocean. Weird juxtaposition – someone got the photo and is sending it to me.

Actually it probably was just a great mowing job- no grass left, only sand. 

Lots of great shaped driftwood – a giraffe, a horse. I seemed to have horses on my mind because everything looked like a horse head to me.

We walked for miles, leaving piles of loot, then turned around and walked back to the ATV, picked up our loot, and headed home. A great haul!

c. GCYI