Moving on From Homer

I had fun writing that last post. Many of you know the characters I wrote about. Know them enough to know that there is a little bit of truth and a whole lot of fiction in what I wrote, and I am thankful I have friends with thick skin who can take a little ribbing! In fact, we received this photo from Steve (Officer Colibaba) and Dianne the next day saying “Here’s a selfie for ya!” I thought for sure as it was loading I was going to see a picture of a middle finger, but no, it was of Steve and Dianne doing what they like best; out on a hike. Then there is Dino who usually takes the brunt of my abuse. I got a message from him asking if I did not love him anymore. Just wait Dino, the tales of Detective Olivieri are not done, there will be a sequel!

 

Now, on with this week….

Back in ’16 when we were selling our camper after our last Alaska adventure, we came in contact with a couple from Texas; Ron and Mary. They were looking for a rig to take to Alaska the following year. In the end, they decided on another rig. Over the years, we have kept in contact and had even come close to meeting in 2022 when we were both in Nova Scotia, but our paths never did cross. Well, this year we are both in Alaska and our paths did cross!

 We were both in Ninilchik and made arrangements to meet in Homer. Great to meet them after so many years! We walked The Spit and the marina looking at boats. Man, there are some beautiful boats down there! And some very unusual ones!

 

We eventually made our way to The Salty Dog where we had a brew. Those of you who have been here as tourists certainly stopped by the Salty Dog to leave your dollar. It’s like the Sign Forest in Watson Lake, but with dollar bills. I took some pictures of the inside, but the lighting was so bad they did not turn out. I have a feeling we will be back again so I will have another chance.

 

Ron bought us each a beer, we sat, chatted and put up our own dollar bills.

 

Then it was off to Harbor Grill for lunch. A mediocre lunch that was a little high priced. But we were there for the company, not the food, so it was a pleasant lunch. After that, we said our goodbyes. We were both going to be in the area for a few more days so knew we would meet up again.

 Then it was back to fishing! Back to the Kenai across from the airport. Back to my same spot if it was available. With the fish counts now in the 30,000-50,000 per day, there was bound to be a lot more people.

The biggest difference between this time and the previous times is that Barb would be joining me. So, away we went! Arriving at the river, we saw a river all right, a river of people! Lined up along the river 10’ apart for several hundred yards. But….. I think we can squeeze in between those two people right there. So squeeze in we did. Once you have your spot, you keep it. There are only so many. Hungry? You better just eat your sandwich in place. Want to check your phone? You better check it in place. Have to go to the bathroom? Well, you should probably give up your spot and head to the portapotty. It is not uncommon for someone to stand on shore for over an hour waiting for a spot to open up.

There is an unspoken etiquette on the river; stand just far enough apart so you do not hook each other (although it does happen), stop fishing when the guy directly upriver from you hooks a fish, help whoever is upriver from you net their fish if they need help. As you are flossing, you are sweeping your rod across the water, your hook comes within 6-12” of the person downriver from you. That is how tight it is on the river. When someone hooks a fish, you yell “fish on” then the person downriver from you (usually) stops fishing and steps back while you fight your fish. They will often net it as well should you need help.

 Over the next hour, I had yelled “Fish on” 4 times. Barb netted two of four that I was able to get into shore. Both of them were big hook-jawed males and put up quite the fight. I swear one spent more time dancing out of the water than in it! Barb, ready with the net, waited while I tried to get the fish close to shore. It would come in shallow, go out deep, come in shallow, go out deep. Finally she got her opportunity to net it and dang if that thing did not jump up right in front of her slapping her in the face a couple of times with its tail. You may think, “yeah right”, but I sh#t you not, that thing slapped her right in the face! She was waving the net around trying to catch that thing in the air like a mad woman trying to hit a bee with a rolled up newspaper! She eventually netted it when it was back in the water again and everyone around was laughing.

 Two fish for Jim, none for Barb. When her upriver neighbor called “fish on”, Barb would slide down to my spot and I would net her neighbors fish . Everyone seemed to be catching fish except Barb who was using her flyrod with flyline on it. Several times I offered to switch rods with her. “I’m fine”, “I’m fine”, she would keep saying. Finally I switched over my handle to the other side (cuz she’s a lefty) and handed her my rod. Within a minute of fishing with her rod I knew what the problem was. The current was taking her line down river too fast compared to the monofilament line everyone else was using.

 So I waddled over to the shore directly behind me (risking giving up my spot) and stripped her fly line off her reel and started putting 25lb mono on. As I am in the process of doing that I see someone has their sights on my spot and starts wading down to slide in next to Barb! “I am right there” pointing to the open hole. Luckily, he turns around and heads off in another direction. As I am spooling new line on her reel, I hear; “Fish on!”. I turn around and it is Barb! I dropped everything, netted her fish and go back to spooling. Just as I am finishing up and tying the hook on; “Fish on!”, Barb again. Another one on the stringer 2-2.

 I get back into my spot and start fishing with her now monofilament filled flyrod. To no avail. Soon enough Barb yells’ “Fish on!” and we had a 5^th salmon to the stringer. 2-3 Barb. By now we had fished 4 hours and we were ready to head back to the camper. After fileting the fish, we do just that.

 

The next day was similar. We started fishing around noon, finished around 4 with three fish on the stringer, 2 for me, one for Barb. So over the past two days it was a 4-4 tie. I would have had 3 if Barb had not knocked the last one of mine off the hook as she was trying to net it. She said it was an accident, but was it? Was it really? We again fileted and vac sealed the fish; ¼ of a fish per bag, 4 bags per fish 32 total packages of fish. Here’s the thing we learned; you put that many unfrozen packages in an RV freezer, it thaws everything in there. That freezer just cannot keep up! So, the next morning we headed down to Rich and Susan’s to put them in one of their chest freezers. We now have so much fish I had to move things around just to get the door closed. You could not fit one more package into that freezer!

 

Mission accomplished, we set out for meet up with Ron and Mary again who were still in the area for one more day. They found a really nice site on Boondockers Welcome right on Deep Creek. We visited with them for a couple hours before heading off again.

 

We spent both Saturday and Sunday nights in Rich and Susan’s driveway enjoying the company and camaraderie. We left there early Monday morning headed to the FedEx terminal at the Homer Airport with 100lbs a fish destined for South Dakota. As we were driving to Homer we got to talking about our trip so far, while the scenery is second to none, but what really makes this trip special is people like Rich and Susan. Our trip would just not have been the same without them. Who would have thought a chance meeting on a boat ramp in 2016 would turn into a friendship that I am sure will last a lifetime. Sure, we would have still had a great time had we not met them, but now, looking back at how they opened their home and lives to us, it just would not have been the same. Truly special people.

 Arriving at the Fed Ex terminal the clerk was super helpful. $400 later, we had 100lbs of fish headed to South Dakota using two-day air!

 Then we were off to The Spit to meet up with Steve, Deb, Rick and Angie one last time. My head still hurts. We found three sites right on the water!

 

After getting set up we walked down to the Salty Dawg for a cocktail. Well, three cocktails. The girls each had Longliners, then Steve bought us a round of Duck Farts. Sounds appealing right? They are Kulhua, Cream and Crown. Actually very good!

 

Then it was off to the Harbor Grill again for lunch (sound familiar?). This time, lunch was much better. Why is it both times we got together with this group, it is cold and rainy? We made the most of it and sat outside under an awning in the light drizzle. Debbie made some kind of Upside Down Pineapple drink that were very good, Barb experimented with some new huckleberry syrup that she had bought. It is still a work in progress. 

And Steve and I kept each other supplied with a couple of whiskeys. Angie was the first to tap out when she disappeared into their camper. Barb should have been the second one to tap out, but being stubborn, she powered on. Then she got the hiccups and could not stop! Steve gave her a shot of bourbon and said “Here, this should fix it”. Oh, it fixed it all right. Stopped this hiccups but started something else! Oh boy. An hour later I guided Barb back to the trailer where she hit the bed and did not move for the next 9 hours.

 Our time on the peninsula was now over, time to move one. The next morning, we said our goodbyes to the gang and drove up to Ninilchik to pick up our remaining fish and say goodbye to Rich and Susan. Bittersweet for sure, for the first time on this trip we left an area with a pit in our stomach. We wish we could have stayed longer.

 But now we are headed north to Fairbanks to see Barb’s cousin Lori; another adventure awaits!