it's taken me a while to get this blog done. but let me tell you a little about it before you see the pictures. don wanted so bad to go to alaska fishing this year, so he planned to go the 2nd week of august, and was trying to get things all arranged, when tiff called and said that her grandma had offered to take them on a cruise and was wondering if we had any plans for the 2nd week of august. when she found out that was the week we were planning on going to alaska, she said "oh, we don't have to go." and i told her that if someone was going to pay for something like a cruise, you don't turn it down! so we decided to push our trip to alaska up a week, then we could be home to tend. just as we were getting down to make final plans for the 1st week of august, mel and george tell us that they are expecting that week. how can i go to alaska while my daughter is home having a baby? i can't! so we wished our trip away until another year. one night gary and sharon rackman called and said that they had won a trip to alaska at a turkey banquet and wanted to know if we were interested in going with them. can i tell you... don is now in his height of glory! they were going the first week of july. everything worked out great, and we set to making plans. don decided he wanted to do a bucket list fishing trip. so he got to fish till his little heart was content (for this year). so here we gooooo..............
me and donnie at the airport, just waitin'
we got on the plane and then had to wait for over 1/2 hour while they fixed the door at the back of the cabin (good to wait).
our bed for the week. i tried to sleep on the top bunk the 1st night~ forget that!
donnie... move over!
stevie was the designated driver for the week.
first morning, we went down to talon air service, to get on a plane to do a fly out over the cook inlet to fish for salmon and watch some bears. when we got there, it was too foggy to fly out, so we had another hurry up and wait day.
we took lots of pictures, and drank a lot of hot chocolate while we waited
sharon, sally, ralph (owner of the lodge), gary, stevie, and don
dick and ralph
owners of the 'gone fishin' lodge
and also our guides for today.
inside the plane
it was too foggy to land at wolverine creek, so our pilot took us on a deluxe tour
we seen glaciers (look, there is a heart in this glacier) and we seen a few bears.
after about 30 or 40 minutes, the pilot found a pocket in the fog and was finally able to land, and we got to go fishing --- with more bears.
just leave 'em alone...
and this was the black bear that came down to join the party!
EVERYONE wanted in on the fun!!!
just as we finished fishing, it started to rain
we had to wait a while before the plane came back to get us.
we were plenty wet and miserable
it was quite a wait, and with some "older" bodies with us, they didn't have very large bladders.
this is the outhouse that was there (shared by the bears) if you dared to go up to it.
(see the bears claw marks on the side of it? how would you like to be locked in the outhouse with a bear outside waiting?) not me! i chose to wait!
yep... we were cold and wet by the time the plane got back to us.
but we did catch our limits of silvers!
next day, we got up about 3:30 a.m. so we could be down to seward by 6:30 a.m.
the guys all went out fishing and the girls went on a kenai fjords national park tour.
pretty, huh!
this was an island full of sea lions.
sharon, jacki, sally
on our way back into seward, we stopped at 'fox island' and had dinner.
yummy salmon and prime rib.
the guys getting ready to go out fishing for halibut, ling cod, salmon, rock fish and snapper.
this is one of the yellow eye fish they caught and NO! that is not a finger sticking out of it's mouth.
it is his stomach.
donnie with a big catch.
more fish waiting to be fillet
proud fishermen!!
and this...
and this...
on the boat going out for halibut. we were all beat!
we went out halibut fishing on the cook inlet on tuesday. and these are the halibut the six of us caught.
 |
| a shark that donnie caught |
 |
| don leaning on captain charly's boat wednesday we went fishing for 'king salmon' on the kenai river. this is gary our guide... not to be mistaken for our mugsy~ gary. |
 |
| gary and sharon drew the early trip on wednesday with another couple from the lodge. this is them coming in to meet us and trade us places. they got skunked this day. |
 |
| steve, sally, and donnie, waiting to get out fishin' |
 |
| gary, helping me with a great catch! he told me to NOT listen to anyone but him for help and he knew what he was talking about! |
 |
| hang on tight! |
 |
| after 45 minutes of reeling and fighting, i finally pulled her in! |
 |
| me, gary, and donnie donnies, sallys, mine and stevies |
four for four! gary said that doesn't happen very often.
 |
| don, jacki, sally and steve we are da' bomb! |
 |
| this is the king stevie caught today. he was the last to pull one in. |
 |
| donnies catch. he was the 1st one to pull one in and it was a keeper ~ about 20 lbs. and everyone that morning got skunked so he decided he'd better keep it! |
 |
| sally was the 2nd one to hook one. the girls, once again, out fished the guys. |
 |
| my fish! she weighed 50 1/2 lbs. was 49 1/2 inches long and her girth was 39 inches around. no wonder it took me so long to reel her in. |
 |
| from the front. |
 |
| she was the biggest king caught at the lodge for the time. if no one catches a bigger one before July 31st, i could win a free trip back to alaska next year. |
 |
| me and donnie showing off our catch of the day! the next day, we went back out fishing with captain charly, for halibut. |
 |
| this is one of the halibut that i caught. |
 |
| sally reeling one in |
 |
| coming in after a long day fishing |
 |
| sharon actually got a little sea sick today. |
 |
| captain charly filleting our halibut from the 2nd halibut trip, right out on the ocean |
 |
| mugsy, catching some shut eye! |
 |
| can you tell, that we really didn't get much sleep? |
 |
| sally and stevie getting a nap in, before the drive down to homer |
 |
| after our halibut trip, we headed down to homer to look around. |
 |
| donnie in the salty dawg saloon looks like he's had a few, but NOT! |
 |
| don, jacki, stevie, sally, gary, sharon |
 |
| all of us on the dock in homer the next day was back on the kenai, for kings, again. |
 |
| donnie, daydreaming about his NEXT trip to alaska! don and i drew the morning trip out with a couple of surgeons (very stiff with little personality!) we got skunked... not even a bite! |
gary and sharon, and steve and sally drew the afternoon trip. steve and sharon both caught good size fish.
 |
| sharon and stevie showing off their catch! |
 |
| sharon with her catch. it weighed about 38 lbs. i don't know who was more excited... sharon or gary... as in mugsy |
 |
| stevie showing off the eggs from his and sharon's fish |
 |
| this was our "special" ride for the week! |
 |
| sharon, gary, jacki, don, steve, and sally our last night at louie's steak and seafood in soldotna, alaska |
 |
| the fishing board in the lodge. keeping tabs on how much everyone caught by the end of the week, don and jacki had 217 lbs. steve and sally 198 lbs. gary and sharon had 176 lbs. |
 |
| mugsy, weighing his boxes, making sure the boxes weighed no more than 50 lbs for shipping. |
 |
| sally, steve, sharon, gary, jacki and donnie we had to leave and drive back up to anchorage to catch our flight home. so sad to leave... we all had a GREAT time!!! |
 |
| together we brought home 13 boxes of fish fillets. a lot more fish than the luggage we all took... |
welcome home to us!
gone fishin' lodge was a great place to spend our time. the lodge was nice, the owners were great, every thing about this trip was A~O.K. thanks mugsy and sharon for being so dang lucky and winning your trip and inviting us to tag along!
i'm sure glad that i have a few weeks to recover. this is not a vacation you go on to get rest and relaxation! but it was the BESTEST days ever!!
i'm sure glad that i have a few weeks to recover. this is not a vacation you go on to get rest and relaxation! but it was the BESTEST days ever!!
2 comments:
So fun! Wish we could've been there! Hope you win the
trip.
Hi..
Nice photographs..I would like to see such more photographs..Thanks a lot for sharing..
raymeds.com
Post a Comment