Whew! That is both a sigh of satisfaction and a release of a deep
breath. Two weeks ago I said goodbye to Shane, Eva and Kristen who were up
visiting, and a hello to my parents who were just arriving. The visit with
my friends was wonderful and timely. I was ready for some fun, after a
summer of living and working in the same place. Having my parents here
got me out and reminded me of why I love Alaska, and that there is
something so special about family, especially mine.
I have a story for this entry and it begins with a question. When you think of Alaska, what comes to mind? Vast
wilderness, mountains, maybe if you are talking with someone you'll be
mentioning the winter darkness, fishing, mosquito's and cold... So, in honor of these topics, I had hopes that a fishing adventure would pan out while my parents were here. And it did! So here is a fish tale:
In the days leading up the fishing adventure we tried to
glean as much information from friends as we could, about how and where
to fish for silvers. We acquired the gear we needed, and we were off to conquer the Kenai! The fishing started out quite humorously, whether it was loosing lures to the bottom of the river, or in midair because the fishing line was so old it couldn't handle the weight of the lure being cast. Anyway, once the lure situation was under control, we began catching spawned out
pinks, that were nasty, decaying and needed to be thrown back.
In the middle of the pink fiasco, I hooked a silver and boy was that fun! Except for my complete lack of knowledge on how to reel it in. I went all out, my pole was bowed, the fish was jumping and I was reeling in like a mad woman. My intensity was a little too extreme, and WHAM! the fish got away. I was a little bummed but mom, being the wise soul she is, consoled me with, "Audra, that's how you learn. Now you'll be able to bring in the next one."
Getting back in the water, I tried to not be dishearten by the lost fish and carried on. Since I was the only one with waders on, when a fish was caught I would
have to run down the metal grates, grab the short little net and hop
into the river. I was getting tired of passing my pole off to mom,
running down the grates with the net to throw back yet another pink. So,
by the fourth time Dad cried fish, I was a bit skeptical.
When he shouted, "Audra! Audra! The net! I've got a fish!" I
dubiously trotted over, hopped in the river and got a hold of the fish.
That was when we realized:
1. it wasn't nasty
2. it
didn't look like a pink
3. we needed pliers to get the hook out.
The
excitement danced around us as I stood in the river with the fish
in the net. Never having fished for silvers before, I had no idea
what type of fish was hooked the line. My parents not having fished in Alaska before, were even
more clueless. We threw out a few odd guesses hoping the fish would speak up and clarify our confusion. Dad ran up
to the house to get pliers and bring Penny down thinking she would know
what a silver looked like. After what seemed like hours of waiting, he
came back with pliers, and Penny. When we asked her about the fish, her
response was, "You are asking the wrong person." We
debated for awhile, then decided if nothing else it was a fish, and we
should keep it.
Then came the dispute on who would bat and bleed the
fish. Mom was automatically disqualified from the argument due to a
broken hand. That left dad and I. I lost. I sucked it up and did the job
that had to be done. It didn't come naturally, but after the
fourth fish I was beginning to catch on. We cleaned up the fish and headed back to the lodge and found out that the fish we caught were indeed silvers.
So, all in all my parents were able to get an Alaskan experience. Fishing in the cold wilderness and were even able to walk away with a few bug bites. That just leaves the winter darkness and they'll just about be Alaskans!
