Kustatan River Coho Salmon Fishing

After spending a long day, yesterday, floating the Matanuska River for work, I took the day off and went fishing on the Kustatan River. Sean Burril joined me and we left Anchorage around 1pm and arrived at the Kustatan at around 3. It took us a little while to find the airstrip, but when we did we were the only plane there. A few minutes later another plane landed. We were a little late (or early) to catch the right tide to fish but we did okay, anyway. I caught a fish within the first 30 minutes and we both limited out (three fish) by 7:30. It was a great day.


My limit of coho.


There were only two other planes, for most of the day. Then, around 6:30, three more planes showed up. We left at 8.


There were clearly some bears in the area.


The horse flies were fierce!


Sean fishing.


This bear wandered by just as we were ready to leave....really there is a bear in this picture!


On the way home. You think someone might have been nice enough to tell me that I had mud on my face!


It was pouring rain and there was a rainbow as we landed back at Lake Hood at 9pm.

4th of July in Fairbanks

For the 4th of July, I had plans to go plane camping with friends. Originally, we planned on going to Beluga Lake where Paul, Verena, and Brianna camped and saw a bear. See http://verenagill.blogspot.com/2008/06/briannas-beluga-bear.html for a description of the area and its attractions. We planned on putting Brianna on bear watch, so there would be no surprises. On the 3rd, I flew out to Beluga to practice landing at the camping spot (so I would look like a pro when I went in there with a passenger) and found it blowing near 40 miles an hour. I didn't even land.

At that point, Verena came up with plan 2. There are three dead whales washed up in Kamishak Bay (across the inlet from Homer) and lots of bears are there feeding on the whales. We could fly down, watch the bears, and then find another beach to camp. That sounded GREAT. I could get some great pictures of bears. I was on board for that trip.

That evening (the 3rd), Paul was on his way back from somewhere to the north and called Verena from Fairbanks. It was 80 degrees and sunny there. Why would we go anyplace else?, Paul asked. No one had a good answer to that question, so it was settled, on the 4th, we would meet at Paul's hanger at 11:00 and head north to Manley or Chena Hot Springs.

Michelle didn't feel up to sitting in the plane for 4 hours, so I was flying solo. A friend of Verena and Paul's (Tamara) was going to ride with them, so she opted to ride with me.



At the time, Tamara probably thought this was a good idea. After landing at Chena Hot Springs, she probably wondered why she didn't fly with Paul. We headed north, and had some great scenery on the way. At one point, we thought we would go high and direct to Chena Hot Springs, but some thunder storms got in our way, so we headed through Windy Pass. It was great for me to fly with Paul and learn about the pass and other routes. We got to Chena Hot Springs and Paul landed first. The strip is in a valley and it was pretty windy. I did one low pass and was too high and fast to land, so I went around. On the second attempt, it all came together (with a hard forward slip on short final).





Once on the ground, we headed in to the resort to do some swimming. Apparently, when I was in the restroom, Paul got chewed out for landing there (they like to have a call and give permission to land). After the guy was done with his scolding, Paul asked, "Where should we park?" "Right there is fine." And, with that, I think we had permission.

We swam in the hot springs and soaked up sun for a couple hours and then, headed to Fairbanks. We flew to Fairbanks International, tied down the planes, and Ed (a friend of Paul, Verena, and Tamara's) came by to pick us up. We headed to Ed and Nikki's, where we had a nice BBQ and conversation until 2am.





The next day, I got up around 7:30 and enjoyed coffee in the sun. As everyone began to stir, we started talking about what we might want to do that day. We discussed everything from going to Kobuk sand dunes (near Kotzebue) to going to Cordova and Lake Minchumina. In the end, we decided that we needed to have lunch, so around 2, we spent an hour trying to figure out what kind of pizza to order. After pizza, we still tried to decide where we might go but didn't come up with a new location. Around 5, we decided that we needed some ice cream. In the end, we headed back to the airport (with a short stop for ice cream). I had a mechanical issue (brake line leaked fluid) so we spent about an hour working on that. Finally, at around 8pm, we were off and headed back to Anchorage.

From Verena's camera:




We got back to Birchwood (Paul's Hanger) at about 11:30 and I dropped Tamara off. I flew on to Lake Hood and landed at about midnight. It was a great trip. We got sun and warm weather. I came back sun-burned.

Chitna Dipnetting 2008

Tuesday, after work, John, Jeff, and I loaded up my truck and headed to Chitna to dip net for salmon. We had a good trip (we caught more fish than anyone else using the charter boats that day). We came home with 46 sockeye salmon. I lost a NICE Chinook salmon and we probably lost at least another 20 fish that fell out of the nets as we tried to lift them from the water. This is truly extreme dip netting as we were tied off to trees with safety ropes and fishing from a spot about 15 - 20 feet above the water. It was a beautiful day, with clear skies and 80 degrees.


Jeff and John Fishing


In line for the charter boat at 4:30 am. The guy sitting on the trailer in the left of the picture was on his third Pabst Blue Ribbon when I took the picture.



Looking up the Copper River and the charter boats that deliver dip netters to fishing spots.



A view of our fishing spot.



Jeff



John fishing



Some of our salmon (we caught 46).



The boat comes to pick us up at 5:00 pm.



By 7:00 pm, we had all the fish filleted, packed the truck, and started driving back to Anchorage. We stopped in Glennallen for dinner. At about midnight, we were just outside Eagle River and I made the comment that I should be extra careful as it seems most moose collisions that I hear about happen as someone is making a late night trip back from dip netting. Just then, I see a moose and calf cross the highway in front of us...no big deal. Luckily, I was watching the right, rather than looking at the moose..as calf number 2 darts out right in front of us. I was able to swerve and we didn't hit the calf.

We had a great trip. I will probably make this an annual trip.

Kwethluk River Field Camp

I just got back from 9 days in the field. I was on the Kwethluk River, where we have a project to estimate the abundance of juvenile chum salmon migrating from the river. I wasn't supposed to come home for another couple days, but the fish counts were winding down, so we decided to end the project for the year.

We work out of a camp that is established for the Kwethluk River weir (where they count adult fish going upstream). That crew came in as we were leaving. We had a cook tent and several sleeping tents, so it was pretty comfortable. We even had a phone (regular...not sat phone) with a Kwethluk phone number.

I was in camp with Wilson, Sean, and John. Wilson and I were the day crew and Sean and John were the night crew.







We had a mix of weather. One day was as good as it gets...sunny, just warm enough to wear short sleeves, and a slight breeze to keep the bugs down. Sunset was after midnight (see proof below).





The mosquitos were bad on a couple of occasions.











Here is a panorama of the river in front of camp (Click to see it on my flickr page and look at the large version).




I was dreading going in the field for this trip. I don't really like to count fish but I had a good time and I'm looking forward to going out again, next year!

Day 2

Today, I finished demolishing the old shed.

Began work on shop

Day 1: Deconstructing the old shed

Flight of 4 to Tuxedni Bay

On Sunday, I flew down to Tuxedni Bay with Paul, Heather, Don, and Jody in 4 planes: Super Cub, Family Cruiser, Champ, and Citabria. I made my first landing on a beach (with alot of coaching from Paul and Don). On the way down, I even saw a walrus at the mouth of the Drift River.


My first beach landing.


The beach where we landed.


Line-up on the beach.



Don's plane.


Looking to the east (into Cook Inlet).

Lake Tahoe

On thursday, I flew to Lake Tahoe (via Reno) to present a paper at the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. I took a few pictures of the lake as I drove to and from the meeting. I even had a Prius as a rental car.






When I got home, there was about 5 inches of new snow. Here is a movie I made of me shoveling snow. I have a new controller for my camera to do time lapse photography. This is my first attempt and I can see a few things I need to do differently.

Flight to Kenai and Hilltop Skiing

Had a great day, yesterday. I got a call at noon from a friend who needed to drop his plane off in Kenai and needed a ride back to Anchorage. I flew down to pick him up. This was the first time I have landed at Kenai. As I arrived, it was pretty windy but the winds were not too far off the runway heading. It took about an hour to get to Kenai and a little over an hour to get back to Lake Hood.



Taking off from Kenai.

Then, in the evening, John S. and I skied at Hilltop. The sun was going down across the inlet and the mountains above us were lit up. The snow wasn't great but still okay. I wish we had been skiing up here before!

Iditarod 2008

Unfortunately, I didn't get the skis installed on my plane so I was left looking at the Iditarod Trail and race from the air. Next year, I will be on skis and will land on the river to watch the race go by. I did see a couple teams.

Michelle's Birthday

Michelle's Birthday was last week. On her birthday, we went to Fairbanks so I could give a seminar at the University. That evening we had a great dinner with Mark Wipfli at a Thai restaurant. Then, on Saturday, JoAnn, Yvette, Heather, and Jolynne had a party for Michelle. First, we skied out to an overlook at Kincaid Park and decorated with bird treats. You can see a movie here:

http://www.vimeo.com/723408

Sunday's movie

Flying with Paul

I was feeling MUCH BETTER, today. I was tired of being around the house and it was a beautiful sunny day (but cold). Paul called at about noon and we decided to make a day of flying in his plane. I flew from Lake Hood to Birchwood. We put my plane in his hangar and headed out. We flew to the north and west and landed a few places. We got back to Birchwood at about 5:30 and I headed straight to Lake Hood arriving just before dark. It was a great day to fly and we didn't see many other planes out there.

I will post a movie, tomorrow.

Australia Hates Me!

I'm not sure what I did to Australia to deserve this, but they are getting back at me hard! I had a flu shot this year and was happily cruising along with no colds or flu. Then, last week, I got hit hard. Apparently, there is a flu strain that originated in Australia that emerged too late to make it into this years flu shot. I got it. And, I didn't know that there were drugs that could have nipped this in the bud, if I had gotten to the doctor in the first 48 hours. Damn...

On Sunday, Michelle did the ski for woman. I thought I was feeling better so I went along and took some photos and video. I should have stayed home. The photos are on my flickr page at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimak

and the video is right here: