Alaska Summer Part II

FISHING THE RUSSIAN RIVER

I love catching dinner

Summer visits in Alaska consist of fishing, fishing, and, uh, more fishing. Cody and I happened to visit AK during the two slowest weeks of the whole season- meaning that we were in between runs. The Kings (Chinook Salmon) were done pretty much everywhere, so we were relegated to the Reds (Sockeye Salmon). We headed to the Russian River where we were hoping to catch the stragglers of the first run and and the pacesetters of the second run. And no, you can't see Russia across the way on the Russian River (thanks Palin). The picture with the Red I caught above is a Red from the 1st run, and since it was so late timing wise to catch 1st run Reds that is why it's not silver anymore and it's changing to red. Thus, the Red Jonathan caught seen in the picture below is a Red from the 2nd run.

Jonathan Severson with his beauty, this man is the sage of fishing

Spawned out Reds, not something you want to eat

Cody fishing a peaceful day on the Russian River- there must not be a lot of fish to catch because if there were this is what the Russian typically looks like when the fish are in full force...

Flashback to Summer '09: King salmon Jamie (Cody's Dad), Cody, and myself caught on the Gulkana River. Because the Gulkana is a tributary of the Copper River these are affectionately known as Copper Kings, the most infamous salmon in the World.

Alaska Summer Part I

Kenai Lake

Every summer I set a few weeks aside and head to Alaska with Cody to visit the family and friends, catch some big fish, and just take advantage of the beautiful wilderness AK has to offer. This year Alaska is having a gorgeous summer with more sunny days that one can count. With the sun not setting until 12 am and rising at 4, there is plenty of time in the day to squeeze in as much as possible. During our stay there were some gigantic wildfires (over 156,000 acres were on fire the last time I checked) happening in the Interior of AK, which is hundreds of miles away from where we were in Southcentral AK. These fires combined with the high pressure system that was presiding over the whole State ended up affecting us all the way down south and made for some reallllly hazy days. But that didn't affect our ability to shoot guns!

Fires + Beer + Whiskey + Marshmallows + Guns + Fireworks = CAMPING AK STYLE

My brother, Chris, and Cody talking about guns and "shit"

Breaking in my brother's new 30-O6 that our Grandpa just passed along to him. He bought the gun in the 60's for $100. It is in perfect condition and is worth about $1000 now. Thanks Grandpa!

Cody loves "shooting shit"

Guns, wahoo!