Seward

It has been rainy and cool, low to mid 50s, for the last few days. Today is no different. However, that won’t stop us from fishing! We went to one of the local fishing areas, where the river meets the sea. We gave it our best shot, but the cold rain, wind, and lack of fish drove us home essentially skunked. Wallace caught a fish, the rest of us caught diddly-squat.

Undeterred, we went to town and I bought a new fishing rod. I bet that will fix my lack of fish! I also picked up a better waterproof jacket. The next day, acting on a tip from a local guide, we went to the beach to fish. the weather, while still a bit damp, was much better. What a beautiful spot!

  

Yes, the new rod works! I hook a nice Sockeye, bring it up on the beach and pounce on it. This one is not getting away! As the day went on, I caught a couple more, Wallace caught 4, and Bennett only snagged a little one. Now that’s a nice catch!

  

I fillet mine out on the beach, and throw the carcasses to the gulls. Back home, I cleaned up the fillets and vacuum sealed some, retaining one fish for the pan. man, there is nothing like really fresh salmon for dinner!

  

The next day dawned with no rain and actual sunshine! We went back to our lucky spot, but got skunked. Hey, that’s how it goes sometimes, but I am fishing in Alaska! How cool is that? I’ve never fished in a prettier spot. That’s the town of Seward across the bay, looks like a cruise ship is in.

  

While in Seward, I suited up with full rain gear and took a bike ride up to Exit Glacier. Seward is on the edge of the Kenai Fjords National Park. Exit Glacier is the only road-accessible glacier that forms part of the Harding Icefield, a huge area of ice, with almost 40 glaciers surrounding it. http://www.nps.gov/kefj/index.htm. 

  

All that ice made me thirsty, so I rode into town and stopped at the Seward Brewing company, where the attractive bartender served me up a flight of their 4 beers: a white wheat ale, a very nice red, a truly “big” IPA and a very respectable stout. looks like I will be filling a few growlers here! After my libations, I puttered around town, picking up a hat pin and seeing the sights.

OK, now for the educational segment of the program: A visit to a fish weir! A short walk from the RV park is the Cook Inlet fish weir. Here, they intercept all of the Sockeye salmon coming up the river to Bear lake. The fish swim up the river and encounter an artificial waterfall that leads to a large holding pen.

  

  

Across the road, you can see the salmon resting in the smooth water prior to tackling the waterfall. man, I could do some damage here with a dip net, but it is forbidden to take any salmon from the river. Not wanting to become a temporary Alaska resident in a jail somewhere, I left them unmolested.

  

Every single fish that comes up the river is handled by the folks who work at the weir! They dip net them from the collection tanks and sort them by gender. Males go into the pen on the right, and females on the left.

  

The females are dip netted up one by one, washed in an alkaline water bath to make them easier to handle (de-sliming) and then are inoculated and tagged. The tagged females are returned to the river, and they usually hang around a while recovering from their odd experience before heading up to the lake to spawn.

  

The weir releases the same number of males upriver, and all additional males are taken and packed in large coolers in ice and are sold to commercial processors. I really tried to talk them out if a few, but the law does not allow them to sell to the public. Bummer!

  

It has been a great visit! Next stop will be Ninilchik to go halibut fishing! Here’s a map of the area I’m in, Ninilchik is about halfway between Soldotna and Homer.