Alaska 35. Road Warriors August 13

We went to bed super early with hopes of getting at least SOME sleep before our THREE A.M. alarm. We had gotten the rather disappointing news yesterday that the guy we researched and booked for our fly fishing trip to Saltry Creek was passing us off to a guide who works for him. Sound familiar? Whatever. I’m sure it doesn’t really matter. Or at least that’s what we tell ourselves, because: what are you gonna do about it?

We called him, because, at some point yesterday, after driving around the Island and watching people fish, something occurred to me. Knowing much more about Alaska fishing than we knew when we booked this trip, I said to Dave, “So I assume we are gonna be flossing tomorrow,?” And Dave was like “No. We are fly fishing.” And then like one minute later, “Right?” And then another minute later of debate, “Oh my gosh. You are probably right.”

He called and Travis answered. He was on his roof, in the middle of replacing it.

[Aside] All we heard yesterday as we explored Kodiak was how AMAZING the weather was. (And it was.) But the genuine looks of pure astonishment and the “NO REALLYs” that we encountered from locals was a bit crazy. 

Now, talking to Travis, we learn that it’s *because of this nice weather* that he is sending us out with someone else. He’s apparently been waiting FIVE YEARS for 3 sunny days in a row on Kodiak to do his roof. And here it is. 

And oh, by the way, “You’ll be meeting your guide, Jack,  at 4 am.”  When Dave balked at that ridiculous call time, Travis said, “Four a.m. if you want to catch some fish. It’s fine if you want to go later if you just want to have a nice day and see the sights.”

Four a.m. it was.

Which actually meant three a.m. for our alarms.

I didn’t sleep more than an hour. Not sure if it was knowing I had to get up at 3 a.m. or if it was the damn waterproof mattress pad. I HATE THOSE! I guess I’m like the Princess and the Pea. I can feel every wrinkle; hear ever crinkle…

We were both, honestly, just putting our heads down and trying to make the best of it. We felt like VICTORS, having escaped the comedy of flossing for Sockeye on the Kenai. We had been imagining real fly fishing on Kodiak and had been looking forward to it more than anything else. And we were getting up in the middle of the night to go snag fish — and that was if we were LUCKY, since the Sockeyes were all but done.

If I haven’t waxed poetic enough about the strangeness of fishing in Alaska then you haven’t been reading along. But I should clarify that our experience is largely based on the timing of our trip and the order of the salmon runs. We are here during the beloved (because they are so tasty, not because they are fun to fish) Sockeye run — which don’t bite bait or lures 95% of the time. So you snag them by “flossing.” We are also here during crazy rains. August is always rainy in Alaska but this has been a record year for many of the parts we are in. So that pretty much shuts off trout, Dolly Varden and char — the species we were most excited to fish for. Very soon the Silver (Coho) run should start, which from everything we hear, is a gas. They bite. So do Kings, which run much earlier. Pinks and chums bite as well, but these have not yet been seen by us.

As I said, we are still (STILL!) figuring all this out. 

Anyway, we actually were EARLY meeting Jack, the guide. Three rounds of APPLAUSE for the MENKES!! 

Jack was also adorable. 

I wonder if manly fishing guides would take issue with being called adorable…

He loaded us up into the ATV and we hit the trail. It was about an hour and a half on a rough, flooded out trail, up and over a pass, and down to the other side of the island. We went through HUGE puddles of standing water that I would have thought were impassable. Despite being the sister of the former president of Polaris, I can’t say I’ve ever truly ATV’d before, so what do I know? It should also be noted that this was a HONDA 4×4, so… ?

Heh heh

We got set up on the creek and got schooled in how to FLOSS. No one makes it out to be anything more than it is: a legal snag. Apparently, it’s pretty easy if there are a lot of fish in the water. Jack claims there isn’t much skill involved, but I would beg to differ, since he was able to hook a fish after just casting a few times while I damn near wore out my rotator cuff with nothing to show for it.

Dave caught a few — good for him! Jack caught a couple and handed me the rod to land and I lost them. Jennie is not a good flosser or fish lander, sadly.

Ironically, both Dave and I can see how people get into it. It becomes sort of an obsession to see 5 or 6 fish schooled up and seeing your fly/hook/lure go past them and miss. It’s kind of like playing that bar game where you try to swing the hoop on a rope and hook the nail on the wall. 

The vistas and scenery were breathtaking. Cliché, I know, but it was.

We got three very nice fresh silver sockeye salmon (you want them when they are still silver in color, vs the red color that they turn as they start the spawn). 

We moved upriver to have lunch and talk to the guys who work at the weir counting the fish in the stream as they enter the lake. Manually. One at a time. It must be mind numbing. And lonely. Cuz that guy, Ben, damn near talked our ear off. (He, too, was adorable.)

We planned to end the day casting to pinks (I FINALLY CAUGHT/SNAGGED ONE lol)…

…And wouldn’t you know, just as if God Himself ordered it up, a grizzly came walking up the river! Ben, the fish counter, told us his name was Bruce and he had a bum leg from an unknown incident. They’d seen him around all summer. We were glad to have seen Bruce and not Reba McIntyre with her two daughters (a mama bear with her cubs), as they are far more unpredictable. 

What a great end to the day. 

The ATV ride was much more fun in the light of the day, too. 

We brought the fish to the processor/shipper and headed back to the Airbnb to hang out on the deck and enjoy the weather. 

We ate an early dinner at a sushi place on the water and it was warm enough to actually eat outside!