THE PATH

Let me introduce you to Captain Sky Leman. I had the privilege of fishing on Sky's boat on the salt water of Cook's Inlet three days. Sky is 29 years old, married and the father of 2 little girls. Sky is a Marine, he served our country two tours in Iraq from 2003 to 2007. If I ever got into a mess I (and you) would want Sky Leman on hand. This is the last Halibut of the day on Monday, our first day. I was fortunate to get the "bite" and it took me about 20 minutes to reel the fish in. This fish weighs right at 100 pounds. My thanks to Sky as he worked hard all day to make for a grand day on the water for all of us on the boat. The picture on the right is of Sky and me on the last evening at the lodge where he was all dressed up as his cousin was getting married the next day and I assume he was going to the rehearsal dinner. Sky lives in Oregon and for the past two years he has worked for Deep Creek as a Captain and guide during the summer. It is a long hard day. It is...

This is the 13 pound Silver Salmon that I mentioned in the previous post. There will be plenty of fish dinners to come at the Uselton house in the upcoming weeks and months, that is for sure.

This is a 59 pound Ling Cod that Jordan caught on Friday our last day on the water. I have not been able to post anything until now due to travel and Internet access. We were on separate boats Friday and the boat that I was on got in to a school of Silver Salmon of which I caught 8 in about an hour and a half's time. My largest fish was a 13 pounder which is a very good size for Silver Salmon. Saturday morning we packed up and headed for Anchorage. It is roughly a 4 hour or so ride and the scenery is beautiful. Our plane left at 5pm and we flew to Seattle where we stopped for a layover and then on to the Newark, NJ airport where we arrived at 6am. Needless to say we spent Sunday recuperating and our bodies were trying to figure out what to do when and where etc. After a good night's sleep I think that I am close to being back on track. We will see how today goes! Later today I fly back to Nashville, can't say that I am looking forward to another 2 hours plus on an airplane....

We were back on the Kasilof River today. It is still slow fishing but we didn't get skunked this time. Jordan caught a nice Silver Salmon as you can see above. I managed to catch a King Salmon which we have no picture of. Reason why? King's are now officially out of season, yet they are in the same river and you will catch them. The rule is that should you bring the King in to the net that you are to unhook the fish and then release the fish from the net. So that is what we did. Catching fish in the river is a lot of fun and even though we only caught 2 we saw Bald Eagles, a young Moose and some incredible scenery. It was a full day and Jordan and I had a great time together. Couldn't ask for anything more. Later I will post another picture of our hosts and tell you some things about them and others that are here with us. It is a very enjoyable group of people to fish with, eat with, and have lots of fun with.

There is no picture to post today. We caught 10 Halibut and a few Silver Kings and it was nothing spectacular. BUT, it was very much a lesson as to how life works and what life is all about. As you see from a previous post and picture, Monday was a spectacular day. We caught lots of large fish and had a wonderful time at it. The water was calm and we stayed in the same place all day and caught the last big one just at closing time. What a day. Today? We did catch our limit - BUT - it was more like what we all experience on a day to day basis, real life in other words. We moved around a lot, we spent a lot of time catching junk fish and then moving to another location (takes time) and setting back up and going at it again only to see marginal results. Sound familiar? And when we did get on the "bite" we were catching small fish. You know how it works, eventually you run out of time (although it doesn't get dark until mid-night but when you have been out there for over 11 h...

Today we went up the river fishing for Silver Salmon. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So, what does this picture tell you? Quite a different story from yesterday's fishing. This is why they call it fishing - not catching. Even though the Silver Salmon beat us really bad and down right skunked us, we still had a grand time together, floating down the river with our guide Todd Malone and spending over 6 hours fishing in the pouring rain. No complaints. As they say, a bad day fishing is better than a good day at the office. Yes, this is a tried, true and trustworthy saying. We will talk more soon.