Video Update!!! (Mom and Dad's visit)

THIS BEAR WAS IN OUR FISHING HOLE!!!

Damn thing was fishing where we wanted to fish. I debated on wrestling him, but Danielle insisted that I shouldn't hurt a helpless creature :)



This is an underwater video of the fish congregating in a NO FISHING zone. You can see some HUGE rainbow trout in this video too.



A lot of people don't actually know how red (sockeye) salmon are caught. It's hard to explain, and definitely requires practice to perfect.... but here's the low-down. These fish stop eating once they hit the fresh water as they only have one thing on their mind... SPAWN. Because of this, it's near impossible to get them to bite on anything. To catch them, you basically have to snag them. However, the catch is, you can only snag them IN THE MOUTH!! You can see how that would be difficult. You basically use a fly on the end of your line, drag the line across the bottom, and hope that your leader finds its way across the open mouth of a salmon swimming up stream, which will eventually lodge the fly into the side of the mouth. Below is the technique.



Danielle catching a MASSIVE red salmon (while I'm trying to fillet our catch). She was determined to catch her limit of 6 and she did it.... Just in time to help me too :)



This is a shot of Danielle catching another Red salmon. You can also see what happens after the catch... WARNING - a little gruesome. What wasn't shown in the video is Danielle ripping out the gills with her hands. Something you have to do to make sure they bleed out in the water, don't mutate anymore than necessary, prevent them from pulling on your stringer, and making the fish easier to filler without spoiling the meat.



This was a scary moment. Dad hooked into a MASSIVE fish. It was likely a big King Salmon which easily get larger than 50 pounds on this stretch of the river. Anyway, the video shows him playing with the fish for a while and then the line breaking. He then looses his balance and falls in the water.... which is VERY dangerous. This is dangerous because you have waders on and once those things fill up with water, there is no getting back out of the water (many people die each year in the Kenai River and are never found because of this). Secondly, the near freezing temperatures of the water can easily cause hypothermia. Luckily we had a warm car and change of clothes waiting for him.



Here is dad reeling in the first halibut of our charter. Not too shabby!




That's all for now!

Mom and Dad Harris visit

Ok... as you will read down below, all of the pictures are outta order. I am suppose to be able to move them, but it's ridiculously difficult... This picture was added last because I wanted to zoom in. This is a pink salmon (humpy)... fun to catch but don't taste good so we throw them back.

WOW..... this update is extremely overdue!!! Jeanette and Kevin were here for two weeks at the end of July and beginning of August. We had a WONDERFUL time! While Adam was at work during the week, we worked on house projects, and then had fun playing on the weekends. Adam is enjoying regular work hours- yippee! Kevin and Jeanette helped out with the house A LOT, we have the main rooms painted and it looks awesome! I sure learned a lot about "upkeep" of a house and lawn while they were here. Unfortunately it rained every single day, their visit was during our record breaking, 30-some days of rain in a row. We did see the sun on a few days, between the rain! :)

These pictures are out of order.... I pulled some from my camera and J&K's. Well... here we go!.... I played softball this summer.... taking a grounder at 3rd base.

This is our freezer, only a week after we bought it. Full of salmon and halibut! YUM!

We found a couple good patches of blueberries and also some raspberries on a hike one day. We picked enough to bring back and freeze.

This nasty lil fella was on a window screen when we washed it and left it out to dry. EEWWW! A really good picture though... taken by Jeanette of course!

We ended an absolutely awesome weekend with a car accident. These are the skid marks left by the truck that hit us. We borrowed our friend's pop-up camper for the weekend that was TOTALED when we were rear-ended. Our hitch was jammed completely underneath the truck and the frame was twisted. Nobody was hurt but this was the biggest pain in the ass imaginable. Mainly because it totalled our buddy's camper (but they are seriously the nicest people in the world and are understanding) and it was during mom and dad's visit. ..... LONG story short, Jeanette and Kevin were a huge help in this situation, the state trooper ticketed the other truck's driver, our friend's were reimbursed for the camper, and our truck is "fixed". I say "fixed" because clearly the frame is weakened.... they fixed it by pulling on it and hammering it out. Oh.... and the driver of the truck that hit us didn't even own the truck - he was from another state and borrowed his friend's truck...... what a mess! All-in-all, the camper cushioned us from impact and probably saved us pain and hospital bills.

Beautiful pick of Cook Inlet, mountains, and fireweed.

Just pretty!
Ha... on one of our camping trips, a bug flew into my ear. Nobody believed me, but I could hear and feel the damn thing FAR into my ear. It wasn't visible by someone looking in. I laid down on the table and Jeanette/Adam tried to see it and pull it out with tweezers. We flushed it out with water and the nasty lil thing was still alive. My first words were " I TOLD YOU SO!" It was an awful feeling!

This is the lil sucka. (zoomed in of course)

Looking out over upper Kenai

Ha... just read the signs. In Homer, AK

While mom and dad were here, our furniture arrived. (we bought it from the lower 48 and had it barged up, because it was cheaper than buying it straight from a store in AK) We borrowed a friends trailer and picked up all the furniture. This couch fit through the door, but once we got it inside, we realized it wouldn't fit down the hallway and into the office where we planned for it. We tried taking it apart and evvvvvvvvvvverything. It wouldn't work.... so renting a UHAUL and shoving it through the window was the only option unless we left it in the living room. HAHA... funny huh!?!? I had no part of the UHAUL/window event as it made me extremly nervous!! (but I came home and it was sitting in the office, it worked!)

This lil griz was fishing in OUR fishing spot! This is the same spot we were fishing in when a mama black bear and her cub came down behind us. This bear sat exactly where we stood to fish. It was adorable... it would dunk it's head under and look around, pull up sticks, etc. He didn't catch anything though. He wasn't at all weary of us and once he started walking toward us, we started walking back up the trail. The gun was drawn the whole time. Could've been a very bad situation taking into account where the trail comes out to the water and the possibility of spooking it, but we were making plenty of noise so it heard us coming. #1 angler's rule.... always give up your fishing spot to a bear!

This is how close we were. Adam took video... hopefully we'll get that posted too.

I CAUGHT THE BIGGEST!! (it's a "tradition" with the Harris family)

Lots o fish.. caught by all 4 of us. Day 2 of fishing in this spot.

Kevin and Jeanette fishin.... pretty fast flowing water. Kevin actually slipped on a rock and fell in, luckily his waders didn't start filling up with water- he had the belt tied tight!

Day 1 of fishing in this spot.

Taking in the beauty

Cooper landing down below

On the hike up

This is the Homer "spit"... glacial silt built up and jetting out from land. It is a very popular place, lots of cute shops, places to eat, camping, fishing, etc.. etc... From where we were standing to take this picture there are 3 volcanoes and a glacier in view.... but it was obviously cloudy so we couldn't see much :(

I was extremely jealous.... some day!

Remarkable sight.... Mother eagle and her baby sitting in the MASSIVE nest. I'm lucky I got this picture because she flew off right after!

The face of a halibut... ugly huh!?!? Their eyes start out on either side of their head and as they grow, it "moves" so they're on one side.

The boat, our captain, and his dog. Halibut fishing out of Homer.

I caught the biggest again!!! This is actually a really small one, 28lbs. They can get up to 400 lbs. However... this size is best eating! I can't imagine pulling up anything bigger... they are on the bottom=== 150 feet down, it takes forever to reel them up!

Our catch for the 12 hour day... limited out!

Cute lil puffin

Adam with the captain's dog, Penny. She was a sneaky thief....while we were fishing off the back of the boat, she managed to unzip the backpack, got out the bagels and ate the entire bag (6)!!! We didn't have lunch that day!

Yummy chicken and veggie kabobs over the fire.

The small boat dock off the Homer spit. There was a seal swimming around and checking things out but it disappeared before I got my camera out.

The guards of the fish cleaning station. These are seriously the largest seagulls I have ever seen!!!.... very well fed

Practicing for the airforce airshow. Notice the sign.. "Flight tours here!" hehe Unfortunately, there was a crash the night before the show during a practice flight, 4 men died. We have had 19 deaths this summer due to plane crashes... pretty odd and sad.

Adam came home from work one day and told us Ronda was making a weird noise on the last 2 blocks. We found this large piece of metal stuck in the tire, it was picked up from the construction site 3 blocks away (we were NOT very happy with them!). Luckily it didn't puncture, but we have to keep an eye on the tread.

25 salmon!!

Jeanette taking a picture of a mooser (cow) we saw just off the road. The calf is in the trees behind her.

Oh my goodness.... I have had to type and retype to this particular post at least 4 times..... our internet isn't working well and I keep forgetting to check it and save before I move on. UUHHHHHH!!! So... short and sweet now....

Adam is going on a dall sheep hunt with a friend in September. It is one of the most challenging hunts so we have been working out every night to get him in shape (intense workouts too... we'll be starting the P90-X program soon) We also put in for 2nd round caribou tags up north near Denali, hopefully at least one of us will draw a tag. Shawn just got a caribou, it was pretty exciting and got us pumped up.

I can't remember what else I wrote...and I'm annoyed with this entry, soooooo...

until next time!!

Next update coming soon with pics from the girls fishing weekend! Also... look for Adam's video of the griz