As the tide turns, a bushy soap opera

Egon · Sep 2, 2011

Morning Rick:

The all around duals on the tractor look interesting.:thumbsup:

Pete Judd · Sep 2, 2011

Tung, Yep. that's my just turned 6 grandson steering the tractor in my avitar. Picture taken about a week ago.

stub · Sep 2, 2011

Not sure exactly where we were at other than Olga Bay. I was on the Sourdough out of Homer. Homer is neat with the Salty Dog and the view over the bay. Captain was Rick Swenson if I remember right. Funny guy - great stories. Also runs black bear hunts in the spring around the southeast end of the Kenai - now there's a fun trip. Sleep on the boat, get up around 9 or so, have breakfast, fish for halibot and ling and rock bass for a while till you get tired of pulling them in. The lings were out of season, sometimes we'd have to move the boat to get away from them. We used a gang with 3 flies for the rock bass. When we'd get these all hooked up, the lings would grab the bass and we'd pull up the whole mess (2 or 3 10# bass with a 40# ling chewing on them). Had to beat the lings over the head to get them to let go. Have lunch, cruise around in the bays looking for close bears. See one, put on to the beach in a Zodiak, attempt a stalk, bear runs off, repeat. Eat supper, get back out and hunt till midnight or so. Prettiest place I've ever been, except for the devil's club. Didn't see a cloud the whole week - unlike Kodiak

. I'd really like to do that one again. There's no place like Alaska.

bindian · Sep 2, 2011

Rick,
Did you feel the earthquake or get higher waves?
hugs, Brandi

tungularafishcamp · Sep 2, 2011

Nope, slept right thru it Brandi and the only waves are from the 40 knots of wind today

My wife was gonna fly out for the weekend but weather stopped that

Oh well at least I didn't have to clean the cabin:laughing:

Rick

clemsonfor · Sep 3, 2011

tungularafishcamp said:
Nope, slept right thru it Brandi and the only waves are from the 40 knots of wind today My wife was gonna fly out for the weekend but weather stopped thatOh well at least I didn't have to clean the cabin:laughing:

Rick

Do yall get paid that much more up there? You hear how expensive every thing is even fuel, how can you afford these items? Especially the plane tickets to fly in and out? I personally make a decent wadge and couuld not fly more than a time or two a year at most and those would be bargen basement states tickets?

I have always wondered this when folks live inand around Alaska. I would think you would need to make $60-80 even living a simple life to afford things. Maybe im wrong?

bullbreaker · Sep 3, 2011

Rick :
Superinteresting Thread IMHO !
Thanks for sharing experiences and pics ! :thumbsup:

Boone

tungularafishcamp · Sep 4, 2011

clemsonfor said:
Do yall get paid that much more up there? You hear how expensive every thing is even fuel, how can you afford these items? Especially the plane tickets to fly in and out? I personally make a decent wadge and couuld not fly more than a time or two a year at most and those would be bargen basement states tickets?

I have always wondered this when folks live inand around Alaska. I would think you would need to make $60-80 even living a simple life to afford things. Maybe im wrong?

Clemson it is only a 90 mile flight from town to here, of course it is still $350 round trip, can usually find a cross country flight for about the same. A lot of things you do without or do yourself. Like my personal barber couldnt fly out so I wont get my haircut as you can see I need! (my wife is my barber:laughing

We save $ in lotsa other ways though, like only buy a few packages of bacon and a couple of turkeys a year, all our other protein only costs some sweat.

Heat with wood, only monthly bill out here is for internet and a little bit of propane, the fishing covers all the gasoline and hopefully then some.

What really hurts is when markets go south and fish prices drop. When farmed salmon first came online, our main market for sockeye salmon was Japan and we went from almost 3 bucks a lb for our fish to less than .50 a lb in 3 years and then we stayed there for over 10 years. We have built new markets and clawed our way back up to 1.50 for those fish now so things are better. Makes for a sharp pencil if your primary source of income gets chopped by half or more in a year:laughing:

Rick