For Bob C. and any others who may be interested:

Fishing in Alaska June 20 through 24. How's this for an itinerary? Get to Anchorage June 17 after 2 hours sleep (another story). Pick up the RV on June 18. Stock it with our stuff and hit the road. June 19, Skilak Lake to mid Kenai River for guided Rainbow Trout fishing (photos 1 and 2). Alaska's Angling Addiction as our guides. Photo is of Paul Tornow, co-owner of AAA with Steve's 25 inch Rainbow Trout.




Drive to Kasilof River and sleep overnight. King Salmon fishing with a different guide outfit starting at 4 AM. Steve hooked 2 native King's. Monday's you may only harvest hatchery fish. I caught a 3" Sculpin. I fall asleep with the fishing rod in my holder about 6 times. Sorry, I forgot to resize photos. Drive back to Russian River campgrounds and sleep overnight.

June 21, Catch the first Russian River Ferry over at 6 AM. Yeah right. Steve limits with Sockeye Salmon. Richard, zilch. Drive to Homer, arrive late, eat dinner. Take photos at midnight while it's still light. June 22, 1:30 AM, the eagle has landed on top of the RV. Nothing around, so it must have been an eagle landing on top of the RV, right?

June 22, Halibut fishing on Cook Inlet on Captain Bligh's boat. Not the name of the boat or charter company, but the charter captain is just a bit difficult. Everyone limits out. Largest fish (mine!), around 40 pounds. I brought up at least 10 halibut and threw back 7. OK, before you turn me in to ADFG, I gave one to another fisherman in the hopes of catching a larger one. Didn't happen. Photo is of my 2nd halibut being fileted. The other photo is cod taken aboard. I cook some fresh halibut and a large slab of Russian River Sockeye for dinner. I get compliments on dinner and it was nothing more than fish. No side dishes. Sleep over on Homer Spit again. June 23, in the morning Steve says "check this out!" An eagle is standing 20 feet from the RV. He thinks it is a juvenile bald eagle. Another one pulls up. After pondering this for a moment, he says they must be golden eagles and a mating pair. We spend an hour taking mass quantities of photos and learning to use our cameras.

Drive back to Kasilof for another guided trip with AAA (see above) for King Salmon.




June 23, meet up with Paul Tornow from Alaska's Angling Addiction for a drift boat down Kasilof River for Kings. Meet Paul at 1 PM. I forgot to buy a King stamp. Run to store and get one. Not a bite. We did fly fish for Sockeye. Steve gets 2, Richard 1. We end the charter at 10 PM. I fall asleep watching the pole in the holder a few more times. They call me on it and I deny sleeping. We stay over at Kasilof for the night.






June 24, we drive back to the Russian River Ferry and fish from 10 AM until 8 PM. Weatherwise, it was a beautiful day. I wore short below the waders. We saw a bear sow and 2 cubs on the highway side of the Kenai River. More photos, but not resized yet. Check out the Anchorage Daily News front page for Friday June 25 for their bear photo from the previous day. Steve limits out again. I must suck at this because I got none, except for one which he hooked and I pulled it in. Run, Forest Run. < inside joke. We drive back to Anchorage and get home late.

Today, turn in the RV. Anyone want to help vacuum pack the fish? I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow, but we intend to hit the Russian River again on Monday. I fly home after midnight and have an Angels game on Tuesday night. Let's start a pool to bet on my state of awakefulness at the game.

Richard Elgenson, out.