Alaskan Heaps

HOWDY TO ALL FROM THE GREAT STATE OF ALASKA!!

As you can see from this photo (above), the trip

from Anchorage to Soldotna was BREATH-TAKING!!

These 3 could hardly contain their excitement!

This year (2009), Ploy joined us for the first time and

Bryson invited his best friend, Preston Frost.

We arrived in Soldotna Saturday afternoon

and by the evening, the kids were "champing at the bit"

to take the Ranger for a ride in the back country!

It was cool that evening, but at 10:10pm they departed

for their ride with instructions from Irene to just go

for a short ride, since it was so late. Well, you know kids!!

Mom & Dad watched 10:30pm come and no kids, then

11:00pm showed up and still no kids. By 11:30pm I was

getting concerned because partial darkness was going to

arrive by 12:30pm. I hopped in one of the trucks and left

in search of the "Ranger Riders". I headed to a trail where

I thought they might have gone, only to find it too muddy to

continue in the truck, so I returned to the house to get my gun,

prepared to head out on foot in search of the "foursome". By the

time I had returned to the trail head, the foursome had appeared

from the woods . . . ON FOOT of course and rather frightened I believe!

They had walked out from about one mile in. "Yes, the Ranger got stuck",

they told me. We headed back to the house and decided to return the next

morning to retrieve the Ranger. When I first saw the Ranger I told the

kids, "I didn't know you were going 'MUD BOGGING'!!!!"

I was able to pull the Ranger out the next

morning with the truck, but then, on my

way out, the truck slipped into another

deep bog and I got stuck!! We had to leave

the truck for a day until I could locate one

of those upright jacks that Dad used

on the ranch (he always had one in the old

pickup). I had to jack up both ends of the

pickup - put log trees (20 feet plus) under

the truck and then drive it out of the bog

on top of the logs!! Only took me 3 hours!!

KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!@!#*!!

-This is a view of the Kenai River. This summer

has been a welcomed change to last summer. We

have actually seen the sun more in the first 7 days

this summer than we did all of last year!!

On the first morning we fished, Ploy had a very

big King hit her line. I jumped up and helped her

pull her rod from the rod-holder and then she

began reeling. She hadn't reeled for more than

15 seconds when that king decided to "lean" on

her line. He took off downstream and her line

snapped!! The night before, I had put a 35 pound

leader on all the poles . . . MISTAKE!! Last summer

the biggest King we caught in June was 20 pounds,

so I thought we would be safe . . . .WRONG!!!

Live and learn; we stopped immediately and I

changed all leaders and line to 80 pound test. On

our next two adventures to the river we didn't get

any hits, but on the fourth return, Bryson got a hit.

I had forgotten to stick the rod-holders in the boat,

so when we got to the river and realized this, I told the

kids they would have to hold their poles with their hands.

I cautioned them not to let a King yank it from them, each

pole is worth over $100. We had just pulled into one of

our "hot spots" and Bryson was not even holding his pole

in his hands - he just had the pole laying on the palm of his

hand! He was next to me so I reached over and yanked on

the pole and said, "Hey, you better watch out - what if that

would have been a Big King!" He grinned, grabbed the pole

with both hands and not more than 5 seconds later, a King

hit his line! Lucky Boy!!!

It is virtually impossible to land a King in a river where

the current is moving at normal speed. They are too heavy

and powerful. Boats are essential because it lets you drift

downstream as the King makes his run - trying to get away

from whatever he has in his mouth! It took Bryson about

25 minutes to wear this monster out and get her close

enough to the boat so that I could net her.

Pretty Nice "Pan Fryer"!!!!

She measured 45 inches long and

weighed in at 32 pounds!

In June, there is a rule that all

Kings caught measuring 46-55 inches

must be returned to the river.

These size of Kings are the main breeders

and they want them to spawn.

Bryson was fortunate that this girl was

ONE INCH under the limit!!

Nice "BAR BELL"!!

Bryson was hollering for us

to "hurry up, she's HEAVY!!"

Another shot of Bryson's minnow!

Now THOSE are some mighty nice
STEAKS!!!

She had a healthy amount of eggs!
Interesting fact: An average "hen" - that's
the official term for a female King - has
approximately 3,000-3,500 eggs in her.

Of those eggs, only 3 will make it to
maturity and return to spawn again.

Maybe we should have thrown
her back?.........

NO WAY!!!!!! (ha!)


Ploy took this photo of a single egg.
You should make this photo larger - you
can see the veins of the egg-sack!

Nice photo!

We are having fun and working (a little) on the
cabins. I will have updated photos of the
cabins this next weekend. We'll try to
get you photos of more fish as well . . . oh, dang!!!
That means we'll have to go fishing again????
(hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!)

Don't worry . . . we'll save one or two for you
guys to catch NEXT YEAR!!!