King Fishing on the Kenai River

OH MAN, OH MAN, OH MAN!!! This is what I yelled the whole time I was reeling in my 50 pound king salmon. I also yelled it when I was trying to pick it up for pictures and the teeth were cutting my fingers and it wiggled on me. I exclaimed it once again when I ate some for dinner! Here's my story.

Jacob has been bugging our friend Ryan about taking him out fishing with him. On Wednesday, just two nights before the end of king fishing season, Ryan and Gina invited us to go out on a double date on their boat with them. What a fabulous time we had. As soon as Ryan and Jacob started putting the boat in the water, I started snapping pictures; I was just ecstatic about being there. I loved the big green truck easing the boat into the water. I loved that so many fisherman knew and greeted each other. I loved that people congratulated each other on their catches. I loved the beauty (we couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous night to be out). I loved the camaraderie on the boat. And of course, I loved that we caught some really big fish!

We'd been in the water for just about 20 minutes and had just pulled out our dinner (bean burritos and salsa, Martha style) when Ryan saw a hit on my pole. He helped me get it out of the rod holder and then started giving me instructions. Talk about exhilarating! I fought and fought, reeled and reeled and while my arms turned to jello, the fish kept getting farther and farther away. He made us chase him into the midst of a bunch of other boats (they weren't too happy about this). We got tangled up with other fishermens' lines. My line also got tangled up with the net. This truly was a miracle fish... we should have lost him several times. After about a 10 minute fight, we (I saw we, because it was definitely a group effort) finally managed to get the monster onto the boat. WOW! I was literally in shock. This is the kind of thing you see in the paper and in magazines... but there it was, right at my feet - a 50 pound king salmon.

About 2 hours later, Jacob caught a 55 pounder. His was also a fight. At one point, Jacob was holding his pole up as high as he could and it was bent almost all the way down to the water. Thank goodness for the added strength of adrenalin while all this was going on.

As if this wasn't enough excitement for one night, Gina got a bite on her pole. She was disappointed when this fish got away... but it wasn't long before she was shouting, "FISH ON!" again. This 35-pound king wasn't so lucky. He turned out to be her second king in two nights.

We took the fish back to their friend’s house to gut and fillet them. These fillets are amazingly huge! The following day, I spent the morning with Gina cutting two of the fish into pieces and vacuum packing them for the freezer. Her girls had a fun time “labeling” the packets for us. Ammon and Abraham also had fun when we pulled a surprise out of the freezer for them – one of the heads! Ewwwww! Our neighbor smoked the third fish for us in exchange for some of the meat. We've already had some grilled king and some of the smoked king with crackers and cream cheese. It just doesn't get any better.

Oh man, oh man, oh man! What an experience we will never forget! Thanks a million, Ryan and Gina!