Alaskan Salmon
Year 2018 - Cosmo is there again
Run or no run, that was the question here
would you rather go straight to the photo album?
2018 started on June 19th - Cosmo was there - finally back with Hund
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The flight was easy for both of us and so we arrived in Anchorage in the afternoon. Through immigration, fetching Cosmo and luggage, through customs - everything went smoothly. Then walk over to National Airport, check in at Grant Aviation and 20 minute flight to Kenai. Jeff and Marcie were already waiting there. They had brought me my "new" - a GMC Suburban. White, long chassis, 5.8 liters. Unfortunately, they had to continue straight away and I set off with Cosmo
Sterling, the last 20 miles (32 km). Halfway there, quickly in at Fred Meyer's, get something to eat and drink and then to the cabin. Everything was fine there, no winter damage. Switch on the electricity, turn on the gas, connect the water, thready. Then a short phone call to Dish Network and the TV was fine too.
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Steve is coming - planning, shopping and work
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Two days later I picked up my friend Steven at Kenai Airport - he lived with me for almost 2 weeks and wanted to help me a bit and of course go fishing with me. The "little bit of help" then consisted of the fact that he painted the entire new extension on the outside for me. Thank you Steve!! Unfortunately there was nothing with fish due to a lack of fish. I also have another friend to thank, with whom I completed the new boot port in a considerable amount of time. Thanks Klaus!! Over the course of my 85 days there was still some interior work and tree trimming. Unfortunately, the whole thing didn't go unnoticed and I got a really bad infection in my thigh. But after a visit to an orthopedist and a cortisone injection (ouch) it worked again.
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As always, you can see the whole thing illustrated on my page cabin view.
Monika and Robin, Quentin and Mia, Renate and salmon
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The children and grandchildren were also part of the party again, Monika and the kids 4 weeks, Robin unfortunately a little shorter. It was a great time again and Cosmo did really well with the "little ones". Unfortunately, the 2018 fish was not far off. What it was really about, I can't say.
Whether the commercials (professional fishermen) caught too much, the flood 5 years ago was to blame or simply a collapse in theNature - nobody knows. The fact was that there was simply no real run.
The numbers of incoming salmon have fluctuated greatly.
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The strongest day was 60,000. Then immediately back down to 19,000 and unfortunately it went on like that. At the beginning of August, less than half were Sockeye Salmon in the Kenai River, compared to 2017. Result: The catch limit was reduced from 3 to 1 salmon per day and finally Fish and Game closed sport fishing for almost three weeks. Fatal for vacationers who had booked an expensive vacation in Alaska for 2-3 weeks and ultimately flew home empty-handed. Whether the government has done itself a favor remains to be seen. In the last week of August the fishing picked up again - although it was hardly possible to catch anything other than pink salmon - more on that later. Of course we were busy and went regularly to the water despite poor catches. So the children could at least take fish with them to old Germany. Not as much as we wanted, but how does the Spaniard say? "Mejor que nada" (for insiders) A few days after the children had left, Renate came. Friend Siggi took her from Anchorage to Cooper Landing - thanks Siggi - where I picked her up and saved me a good two thirds of the journey.
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The last salmon and the end
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Unfortunately, after Renate was there, the Sockeye Salmon (Reds) quickly went downhill and the Humpies (Humpback Salmon) came in droves. The humpy, with its inferior meat, is a salmon that we don't appreciate very much. But every 4-5 years there is (unfortunately) a "humpy year" and that was the case in 2018 to make matters worse. I then caught a few coho salmon in September, but in the end our catch was severely reduced. How ever, we made the best of it and had a nice few days. And they were really beautiful. That was definitely the most beautiful late summer of recent years. Pure sun for almost three weeks. Steve came back to see Renate for a week. All in all, 2018 was a year with lots of friends, a great birthday party and great weather. Because of the poor fishing, we had a lot of time for our friends and they for us.
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So that also had its good side and we are looking forward to 2019