Three generations of my family (dad, me, and my son) went down to Valdez to do some fishing with Dave("inthebush"). Here's the unvarnished truth in pics.
Wednesday evening my son, Chad, and my dad each caught their first salmon. Here's a pic of dad with his Pink Salmon...all the sweeter after getting skunked on two salmon charters. Just a little about the kind of fella Dave-inthebush is...he had the first "fish on" and immediately handed the rod to my 10-year-old son. He also filletted all the salmon and refused my offer of help (which would've looked like butchery, I admit). That's a gentleman.
The next morning it was off to a place not far from Valdez to catch some more Pinks. The action was hot and heavy and we ended up one shy of our 4-man limit, only because it was time to do some looking around -- 23 Pink Salmon in about 4 hours. This pic is my son with one of his Pinks. What a gorgeous backdrop. It was drizzling most of the morning but the water was as smooth as glass.
Dave let Chad drive the boat after a bit of instruction on headings and RPMs and you couldn't have wiped the grin off my boy's face with sandpaper. The pic below is Chad's best effort at being a serious boat captain. He drove for an hour or so until he just couldn't keep his eyelids open. That night Chad called mom and sounded more excited than a kid at Christmas.
After a quick detour to look at Sawmill Bay we were watching the sea lions on a bouy. Earlier we watched a sea lion "playing" with his food, a Pink Salmon, while seagulls tried to pester him into dropping it. Awesome. Did I forget to mention the Bald Eagle?
Oops. I almost forgot. Here's a pic of the famous, though seldom seen, Captain Dave-in-the-bush at the stern of his boat. The backdrop looks like something out of 'Jurassic Park.'
Dave took us to his shrimp pots and let Chad pull them aboard...well almost all the way. Take a look at this monster shrimp!!! I've eaten brook trout this size. BTW -- we just finished a meal of Pink Salmon (in butter and lemon pepper) on the grill and boiled shrimp -- AWESOME!!!
My son has made it amply clear that this was the "best day of my (his) life." He slept all the way home from Valdez. When we got back to 'Los Anchorage' dad and I vacuum sealed the salmon and Chad was nowhere to be found. Why? He told me it was his "job" to tell mom and 'Grammy' all about the fishing trip. It was our ob to take care of the fish.
Dave -- thanks. You made Alaska come alive. See you soon when the Silvers come in. Marian (incredibly patient wife) and Kara (teenage daughter) are ready -- Marian's found that there's a quilt store in Valdez and Kara is ready to best her brother. I'll "unscrew" the prop folks this weekend or early next week and send the new prop down.
