Fishing 2010 - Homer

Before the highlights from Homer, I did get some pics from Jill of fish from our Seward trip.

Gary with one of many of his nice silvers.

One of the first times launching our boat in Homer.....

Wait that isn't our boat!

Someone else undid their safety chain way too early in the launching process!

Thanks to Matthew tips, this year we explored a different part of the bay for Halibut.  We caught several good size fish and the usual chickens until one trip, I ended up with an 86 lber.  We didn't have a harpoon on board so Steve had to try gaffing it several times.  Eventually Steve landed it in the boat and promptly hog-tied it for the trip in.

Nice fish!

and the work begins...

We also did our annual Kenai King charter with Paul and guess who once again caught the King!

Matthew the law abiding fisherman, claiming his fish on his license.

We had two weeks of great fishing; evidenced by the fact that I now know our maximum freezer capacity in lbs of fillets!

Fishing 2010 - Seward

This year we only did one marathon fishing trip over the last two weeks of July.  We hit Seward for a week and then on down to Homer and Kenai for the remainder.  This series of pictures is from our time in Seward on the hunt for silvers.  Our style of silver fishing involves many hours on the water trolling.

The Drivers

Steve looking happy - could it be because Gary is finally on board?!

Normally it's my job to drive as Steve is doing all the other work required -- setting up rigs, putting the lines out, getting the hook out of the fish and then the fish out of the net and into the cooler.

Driving on one very nice day. (Jill V photo.)

 

The Fishermen

Gary taking a break from watching his poles for a smile -- yes, he was watching two poles and was on the ever ready to grab the pole at the slightest movement.

I have to say Jill put me to shame.  She got right in there and learned how to put the herring on the hooks, and the whole down rigger routine.  Warning --  watch out if you are fishing with Jill as she is pretty darn quick at grabbing the pole when the fish strike!

The Wildlife

Here we are at Pony Cove on some unusally calm water.  Hopefully you can see the spray from the whale.

Gary eyeing the sea lion who spent the day on the rock looking over us.

Again, a whale between the blue boat and the rocks.

The whales right up against the rock wall.

Every day we saw whales, no matter what cove or bay we were in.

(not a great video so look hard)

The Fish......

Oops!!!  Can you believe it, I have not one picture of Gary or Jill with their fish; however, I just happen to have this picture of the King I caught.  Boy were Steve and I surprised when the fish got close to the boat and we realized it was a King!  What a wonderful surprise as we had never caught a King in Resurrection Bay before.

Michael and Michael joined us after Gary and Jill had left.  Michael with his first silver caught trolling.

At the End of the Day

Blogging Catch-Up

I can't believe I didn't post anything for months.  It's not like I wasn't thinking about it, I actually thought about "blog" material throughout the summer.  Like the time Michael was gracious enough to oblige me and took me King Salmon fishing at Ship Creek downtown Anchorage -- I was thinking about the blog material I would have with the train, trucks, tourists, and fisherman all in one area.  Or the time, when the thermometer read almost 120 degrees on our deck during one of our hot Fairbanks summer days.  But did I?  Nope and now here it is cross country running season already for both of the girls.

It's a beautiful Sunday August afternoon, Steve is on the roof finishing one area with shingles, and I am sitting on my butt relaxing after a 15 mile run this morning.  Though it's sunny, hot and bright so much so that I can barely read the screen, I am going to start posting again.  I am really I am.

The girls were in Europe basically the whole month of June with Dave but home in time for Heather's 19th birthday.

Because of the special cake Steve made for Heather and the fact that I didn't have any birthday candles -- what kind of mom am I?!-- we used a Beanpod candle for the festivity.

And the birthday girl cuts in........

Steve's special cake - chocolate, pudding with pineapple and cream cheese, topped with lots of cool whip - defnately not your dieter's cake.

One of the ideas I also had for blogging material was photos late in the evening to show off the midnight sun in Fairbanks.  But with the rest of the family in Alaska having cold, wet, windy summers, I dropped the idea as I didn't want to add onto the misery.  But here is one picture I did take one night on my way back through Goldstream Valley after 11PM from having a great dinner and visiting with Cathy.  The sun was shining brightly on the Alaska pipeline and I pulled over and played tourist for a while.

Watch for Creatures in the Pool

Viewers beware, you too could find the following in an abandoned pool near you.  This blog is especially for Riley and Christopher, I couldn't help thinking of you while I was getting these photos.

I am spending this week with Steve's mom in Pennsylvania, and due to various reasons her pool has been not used the past three years.  Instead it was covered and unfortunately this past winter the cover was ripped during a windstorm.

Well now it is the home to many tadpoles and frogs.   These tadpoles are big! not the little ones I remember seeing somewhere in my life.

Now for the scary/prehistoric in-between tadpole and frog stage picture -- the froglet stage?  (according to my internet research frogs have four stages; egg, tadpole, froglet, frog.)  Personally, I think they look creepy and there are a lot of them in the pool.  It's amazing to see how fast they skirt around in the water.

and finally the frogs in the pool....

I tried to determine what species these particular frogs may be and narrowed it down to either green frogs or bull frogs?  Maybe my nephews or Poppop can make the final determination?  Surely, someone who used to give sermons on frogs should be able to help determine which species this is?   Anyway, these frogs make a noise that sounds like a really loose guitar string being plucked.  Besides the noise of the "pool" frogs, the frogs in the woods make quite the racket as well at night.  Take it from a light sleeper, a chorus of frogs can be VERY LOUD!!!

Yesterday, besides me being fascinated with frogs, we also saw one kit fox and four deer in the backyard.  Though no visual sightings, I even heard the wild turkeys gobbling in the woods.

and yes, Mom, the lightening bugs are out..........

At State

Last weekend was sunny and hot - getting up into the high 70's and possibly warmer.  On Friday, Megan raced in the 3200 meters and ended up not having one of her best races --  a side ache and feeling tired.  Saturday again a sunny and hot day, Megan ran the first leg for her 4X800 meter relay team and ended up coming in first -- overall the team finished 3rd!  In the afternoon she ran the 1600 meters and came in 7th with a time of 5:23:93.

Here are a few pictures of her relay team getting their 3rd place medal.

I planted a pot of asparaghus last year and two stalks came up quite fast in all of the heat (70's to mid-80's) we are getting.  I guess I am supposed to let them seed this year and see what happens next summer.

2-1-1-2

Regional championships started May 14 with Megan in the 3200 meter run.  Megan came in 2nd with a personal best time of 11.41.30.

On Saturday, May 15, Megan started her race day with the 4X800 meter relay.  Her team finished first in a time of 10:03.22.

Next up was the 1600 meter race....

Megan on the final lap making her move......

and she wins it!  though not her personal best still a great time of 5:24.78!

and here she is running the "open" 800 meter on the final lap and ends up in 2nd.

Megan qualified for the State Championships - 4A Schools in the 3200 meters (seeded 6th), the 4X800 relay race (seeded 4th) and the 1600 meters (seeded 3rd.)  State is this coming weekend.  For qualifying seeds and times refer to http://www.asaa.org/, results can also be found with some searching on http://www.athletic.net/.

Stayed tuned!

Wise Bottling and A "Split Decision"

This past week I was in Anchorage and got to spend time with the Anchorage Wises.  (Michael and Michael and I even got to go running together or should I say the younger Michael went on a leisurely "stride" towing his elders behind on the Coastal trail.)  Tuesday night, after our run and then a wonderful dinner of salmon tacos, Michael A and I proceeded to bottle his two wine varieties; sauvignon blanc and then an apple.  Here is the sauvignon blanc with siphon ready to go.  (And, oh of course, tasting is involved.  Blackberry also at the ever ready, just in case.)

Filling up the bottles.....

Getting ready to cork........  (mapp gas not needed, just background material)

and ready to pull the handle.......

Look Mom.....a whole case! (this batch yielded 30 bottles to be exact.)

And as a bonus, here is Megan's picture titled "Split Decision" from the High School State Championships.  She took 2nd place in the category of Drawing with this charcoal/chalk pastel artwork.