SILVER SALMON FISHING - VALDEZ 2001
You put in around 5,
you smell nothing but the cool salt air you check the shore line the
tide is coming in, good you think as you idle wake less along side the 130
foot netters and tenders you feel small, almost non-existent as you near the
entrance of the port you look out into the vastness of the never ending ocean
to the left you see the mighty oil tankers, 14 stories tall and a quarter
mile long, you turn your neck just to see the top of them to the right you
see the city dock, soon to be crowded with the old timers from the lower 48 and
the migrated Orientals wanting to snag some herring or anything from the
bounties of the sea you come up on throttle, the old mercury gasps for air
and starts her run the fog is just lifting from the turquoise water you
glance back to the right and see a bald eagle perched on top of a old aspen
tree, watching your every move- Up on plane now, your really moving, about 35
knots your boat starts to chine and bounce as you gracefully adjust the trim
and your line to fall into rhythm with the wide three foot rollers - as you pass
gold stream inlet, you line her nose up with middle rock just to the left of
entrance island in the narrows you see a few silvers shoot straight up from
the water and dance on their tails as you near the spot some 12 miles ahead
All concept of time and reality just seems to stop and only two things come to
mind, the ocean and the fishing your Coho salmon fishing in Alaska and
you think to yourself, does it get any better than this?
I think not
Prince William Sound
Valdez, Alaska