Delicious Trout

Friday, June 17th

Lori casting on a calm Chikoot Lkae

WOW, what a great day!! We started our Sunday by getting up early, driving to the lake and casting into glass. We were the only people on the lake as we baited our lines. Today was going to be the day after getting skunked last weekend. We were ready with "real" salmon eggs (not those balls-o-fire in a jar) cause that is what the guy next to us last week was killing them with.

Fish...its what's for dinner

We started slow but after an hour I had our first Dolly Varden (trout family) landed, a nice 18" supper. Lori caught the next one with Spaz standing right there watching in amazement, licking her chops.

Of course, the BIG one got away, no really. I hooked what felt and looked like the biggest dolly of the day but as I was fighting him in, a bald eagle (really) started swooping in with claws stretched out, ready to snatch my whooper as it thrashed the surface. He made several passes and came very close so I panicked, tightened the drag and started reeling so I could land it before the eagle could grab it. I got the monster close enough to shore that I could see him just as he ran and snapped my 8 lb. test line.If you look closely at the photo Lori shot of the battle, in the red circle below you can see the eagle tucked and zooming away after his failed attempt. If I knew I was going to lose the fish, I would have let the eagle take him. Now that would have been a fight and I could have landed a bald eagle and a dolly on one cast!

Bald eagle missile theif circled in red

We ended the fishing trip with 3 nice Dolly Varden and a few mosquito bites. We left earlier than we planned because we got worried about Spaz. She must have found something bad (rotted fish guts from the nearby cleaning table??) to eat when we weren't looking and she began doggie barfing. She also got very wobbly when walking and would almost fall over :-( We have never seen her act like that before and keep in mind there is no vet in Haines. She recovered later and is fine now but it was scary.

     On the way home from the lake we saw BMJ (Big Mama Jama) and the 3 little bears. We have seen these bears every time we have gone to the lake in the past 3 weeks. We have learned BMJ is 26 years old and has been hanging out here most of her life and has raised many cubs in this area. This set is 2 or 3 years old and were feeling especially rowdy today. We watched for 45 minutes as they wrestled, ran and ate grass until we remembered we had a sick dog in the back seat.
     Later, we left Spaz sleeping in the MLS and rode our bikes out to check on Lori's garden. It is a 7 mile round trip ride along the roadway that hugs the coast of the Lynn Canal and a beautiful place to ride. We saw a whale spouting in the bay and scheming bald eagles soared overhead. We were happy to see tiny broccoli sprouts as we watered. The long days of sunlight makes things grow fast in the short summers. Gary had warned us there has been a bear snooping around the garden for the past 2 days but we didn't see her.

This is the delicious trout I made us for dinner...rolled in panko bread crumbs and fried in butter and garlic. Lori wasn't sure and had no faith in the non fishy taste of fresh trout or my ability to cook them. She was pleasantly surprised by both and said that indeed, it was a delicious trout. Thanks dad for teaching me how to catch fish, clean em and most important, how to cook trout, I miss you.

Since I cleaned the fish...I guess that makes me an

ALASKAN

cause I gutted em.