I often tease my wife, who loves hockey, that she is just watching a fight, and suddenly a hockey game breaks out! I kind of had something like this happen to me this week.
"You interested in going on an excursion deer hunt on Monday?" A friend asked me.
With a lead in like that he had me hooked before he paused for me to reply.
"Let me think... Yes!" I exclaimed, without even trying to get the details.
Jim is one of our local hunting guides. He guides for bear, goats, and deer. A hunting trip with him is a learning experience I will never turn down.
We loaded a skiff onto Jim's big boat and headed out Monday morning early. We headed South to Redoubt lake and tied to the mooring buoy. We then unloaded the skiff and rowed to the beach. At the beach, we hauled two loads of gear up over a hill to the lake we would be hunting. Jim's Son-in-Law packed the heavy outboard motor as he is the youngest of the bunch. Jim and I lugged the skiff up the muddy, rock piled, tree root infested trail to the lake. We were both puffing as we arrived.
"Look at the salmon jumping!" Jim said. Big Coho (Silver) salmon were launching out of the calm water into the early morning air in silvery sheets of spray.
"I've got a couple of fishing poles and some spinners, if we want to try for some fish," Jim said.
I'm never one to turn down a good tussle on a fishing pole, and quickly dug into the boat for the poles. Jim dumped water out of the spinner tackle box... hmmmm I thought to myself. He handed me the box and I looked at a rusty mess with a little bit of orange color mixed in. "We call them rusty orange," Jim smiled.
The first spinner I took out of the box had no hooks at all... rusted clean off! The next one had no color on the spinner blade, just a rusty chunk of metal. The next one had a blade and one very rusty hook of the treble hook.
"I guess this will have to do," I commented while tying it on.
My first cast was blasted by a big Silver Salmon. Nothing. I cast back and immediately hooked a big fish. With only one rusty hook of the treble, I eased the big fish to the side of the skiff. "Wow this is going to be tricky," I told Jim. I fought the big fish for a long time to make sure it was very tired, as we had no net, no gaff hook, or any other means of getting a slimy fish over the side of the skiff.
Jim worked his fingers carefully into the gills of the fish and slid it into the boat! "Wow, look at that beauty!" we both exclaimed, "It is as bright as an ocean silver.
Once salmon run from the ocean into fresh water their bodies start deteriorating.They grow a huge hook nose and jaw, their flesh turns dark and their skin starts turning dark brown to reds.
This fish looked like it was still swimming in the ocean.
Now we were excited. These are eating fish! The deer hunt went quickly onto hold and we blasted the water of the little lake with rusty spinners.
After a few more fish, Jim suggested we stick to our plan of looking for deer. We ran to a muskeg he had hunted in the past and made a hike through it. No deer but one of the most spectacular places I have witnessed in Alaska. Morning frost laid thick on the muskeg and a haze of fog lifted revealing high mountain peaks capped with snow in the background. It was stunningly beautiful.
We saw fresh deer tracks in the frost and called a bit on the deer call but they played smart and stayed hidden in the thick forest surrounding the muskeg.
At about 1:00 pm we decided we had better work our way back to the lower end of the lake and start portaging our gear back to the big boat. Darkness comes early in the winter and non of us wanted to take the big boat through the rock piles back to town in the dark.
The temptation of the salmon soon overcame our good judgement and we were back to casting for Silvers. We managed to catch a few more before leaving the lake and had a blast doing it.
We were nearing town when we started spotting whale blow spouts. Jim, being the good guide he is, eased the boat near the whales and cut the engines. We drifted in the beautiful sun setting calm water with whales blowing all around us. There was not a ripple on the water and the whales sounded like huge bulls bellowing their breath's as the enormous spouts of water showered the bay.
We slid into the harbor at dark and had to agree that this day was nothing short of spectacular!
Very few places are left in the world where you can go catch salmon as fast as you want, hunt deer, and watch whales, and never see another person! Oh sure, there is some work involved in getting to these places, but the end result is more than worth it.
Yes, we went on a deer hunt and a fishing trip broke out.
One of the dark Silver Salmon Caught on the trip
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