Bishops Adventures

 July 20th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Weather: could not be more perfect. Sunny, dry, 76. Cool nights 0 distance Soldotna  It was the ladies day to fish today. After a late start and breakfast at our camper we headed for the river. Gary was Gayle’s personal trainer for all things fishing. He was by her side for hours while she learned how to cast, hook, play the fish until ultimately she got her first sockeye!!! We were all so proud of her. Even others along the boardwalk cheered her on. She proceeded to catch another 3 for a total of four and her husband completed her stringer of 6 for her limit.  I was also catching my limit though it was a slow start. Gerry was my designated netter and did a superb job. We enjoyed our successful day on the Kenai.  After a dinner of salmon and salad Gerry was the only die-hard fisherman to return to the river for 2 more.   DAILY FISH COUNT: 6/ 10 lbs TOTAL FISH COUNT: 56

 July 19th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Weather: 72 degrees, sunny and dry!!! Hallelujah!  Distance: 300 miles/ 6 hours R/T Soldotna  We were up at 5 am this morning preparing for our trip into anchorage to get Kim to the airport. But first… the fish. We were first in line at 6:45 am hoping to get a 40 lb box of salmon for Kim to take home. An hour later (when we were supposed to leave) the packing company could only produce 28 lbs of flash frozen fish. We grabbed what we could and got on our way. 3 hours later we were hugging her goodbye, wishing she could stay. The Sterling Highway gave her some of the best views she’s had all 16 days she’s been here, even with SUN!  After saying goodbye to Kim we were pleased to welcome our NH friends Gerry & Gayle Dukelow! They got caught in that horrendous Microsoft outage and were stuck sleeping in a chair overnight in Seattle. Literally Sleepless In Seattle! We celebrated their arrival by going to the Moose’s Tooth for pizza before ...

July 18th, 2024 The weather: typical Alaska Distance: 0 Soldotna Our last full day with Kimmy. We will miss her smile, her positive attitude, her willingness to jump in and help wherever she’s needed, her crazy ideas of fireweed icecream and having s’mores over the fire while it’s raining but especially her laugh. We slept in and then she took Gary out to lunch while I did a couple of loads of laundry.  We were back on the river by 4:00 and Gary and I reached our limit of 6 by 6:30 but Kim had a frustrating night of getting fish hooked up but then losing them in the fight. I admire her tenacity and finally by 8pm she reached her limit.   We went to work filleting them all and had them done in a record 45 minutes!!  We settled down to a final meal together of steak and wine. We had bought this bottle of “Yellowstone Bison Blend” when we were all visiting Yellowstone National Park in 2020. We saved it for a special occasion which is tonight.  DAILY FISH COUNT: 18/ 28.2...

July 17th, 2024 Weather: partly sunny, with scattered showers. 55 degrees  160 miles/ 3 hours Soldotna/Homer Spit Our plans today were to get an early start and head to Homer… On our way to drop off fish at the processor I noticed a weird sound the truck was making. We found out that a bolt went through the back tire and we were well on our way to a flat tire. That waylaid our departure for an hour.  On the way down south to Homer we stopped in at Anchor Point which is a beach that has a very unique way of launching and retrieving boats. They use a skidder! It’s quite an operation to watch and they are very busy. The other operation that is very busy can be found on the shoreline where seagulls and eagles fill up with fish skeletons that wash up on shore.  Homer Spit is a portion of land that juts out into the Kachemak Bay. It’s a quaint little touristy area with lots of gift shops and food and opportunities to book various guided tours - all along the boardwalk. No matte...

July 16th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Weather? ________ & _________ (you can fill it in.Ugh) 0 miles Soldotna AK I’ve been asked to explain yesterday’s comment regarding fish allowed per day. In years past we have been allowed to keep 3 fish per person until 500,000 salmon have run up river. Once that happens we are then allowed to keep 6 fish per person per day. Well for the first time that limit has been raised to 12! So we can keep 6 per day right now but when 'the run' starts our limit increases. Today began slow… real slow. We are all feeling the effects of the physical demand it requires to cast constantly for 5 hours, fight the Kenai current and then fight the fish into the net. It’s exhausting but fun. So we spent the day shopping, setting up camp and playing sudoku!  We had a delicious salmon dinner made from the recipe we learned about in Fairbanks when we visited the Pioneer Park salmon bake a few weeks ago.  We didn’t get on the river until 7 pm but were told “you’ll ca...

July 15th, 2024 THE DETAILS: Cloudy with scattered rain showers Temps 50s Soldotna, AK Last night Gary decided to fish until 1am and successfully caught his first fish! We’re off to a great start.  Today, after a great teaching session with Gary, Kim and I joined him for 5 hours with Gary catching 4, Kim catching 3, and I caught 2. Total fish count: 9 Total pounds: 21.6 Twice today we were caught with two of us having fish on at the same time leaving the third person to run between us and net! Currently the fish limit is 6 fish a day per person. Expected to go to 12 per person shortly. This has never occurred since we’ve been coming up here.  Kim did great for her first time on the river. She not only caught fish but successfully netted fish. Watch her first catch on the Kenai here ! Gary taught us all how to filet the fish and we set up a production line. We had those nine fish cleaned and filleted in less than an hour. It was a successful (and fun!) first day of fishing. So ...

 July 14th, 2024 Cloudy, rainy, cool… repeat. But we miraculously saw sun this afternoon! 100 miles/ 2 hours  River Terrace RV Park, Soldotna AK Kim keeps playing the song “The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore”. We’re all singing along. Our day started with a two mile hike up to Exit Glacier. There were stunning views of the mountains, the glacier, the glacier water runoff, waterfalls, and wispy clouds descending into the valley below. We were able to get within half a mile from the frozen tundra. Before heading out of the town that created Alaska’s flag (Seward), we decided to visit a few gift shops that cost us more than we wanted to spend. But we were treated by the cloudy skies breaking into glorious warm sunshine, blue skies and a spectacular view of the mountains that had been hiding behind shades of grey. It’s been over a week of rain. We grabbed coffee and brunch on our way out to Soldotna. We spent two hours on the road getting here but then spent another two hours maneu...