Spur of the Moment

Yesterday morning while Ryan was trying to kill some time until I woke up, he decided he would like us to go drift boat fishing.  He's been hankering to learn how to fly fish and also to go drift boating.  He found a charter that did both.  We went on a half day guided fishing trip in the upper Kenai.  The layout of Kenai river is as follows.  It starts from Kenai Lake, then turns into the Kenai river, which then pours into Skilak Lake, then turns into the river again which pours into the Cook Inlet.  The river between Kenai and Skilak Lake does not allow motorized boats.  This is because that part (called the upper Kenai) is shallow and it is a spawning ground for many different fish.  It is also for conservation purposes.  If you want to take a boat into this part of the river, you have to have a drift boat.  Today our guide did all the rowing for us.

We were lucky to go on the trip with a father/daughter duo.  The daughter was a bit younger than us and it was really cute to see such a great father/daughter relationship.  I think that's a perk of growing up somewhere like Alaska.  You're surrounded by the great outdoors and in order to enjoy it, someone has to teach you.

Fly fishing was pretty cool.  We caught dolly varden trout (pictured above with Ryan and our guide, Mike), rainbow trout, and a spawning red salmon.  We also saw sooooo many spawning red salmon.  Even spawning king (chinook) salmon.  I've really wanted to see how the reds change and I got the chance to today really close up!  If you look carefully above, you can see some red blobs.  These are the same fish Laurie and I were fishing for off our dock.  The reds start to deteriorate after they spawn, turning red and green.

AMAZING, right?!  Such pretty red and green.  I caught this big guy and as soon as this was taken, he slipped out of my hand and bit me!  He got a pretty good grip on the front part of my hood, under my chin.  He was slimy and I was nervous that I would drop him on the boat.  It's so weird that this was the same fish we were catching a month and a half ago.  The dolly varden trout were more plentiful than the rainbows.  Ryan caught only 1 rainbow.

This is not Ryan's rainbow (he was actually the biggest one caught today!).  I only had him hold it because I was afraid I would lose it like this one:

 The rainbow trout are really beautiful, they have these pink cheeks that look like blush.  The dollies have orange spots and look like they have orange lipstick on.  :)

Ryan and I are really enjoying our time in Alaska.  It's such a different life up here than I've ever experienced before and I love it.  But we do miss our family (especially our little nephews) and friends.