A Fish Eye's View

Sly The Silver Salmon

I have finally finished out my 1 year in salt water and it is time for me to begin my journey back to fresh water where I will then have the opportunity to spawn and complete my life cycle.  I am so pumped!  It has been a great 5 years.  I began my life as a fertilized egg in fresh water where my mother laid me.  She left me with my nutrient filled egg sack, which I ate as I developed into an alevin.  Once my egg sack was gone I could finally be called a fry.  What an exciting time in my life!  I grew for about 4 years in the fresh water, but then one day I just had a wild itch to see the world, so I headed downstream, and ended up in the ocean.  What a change!  The predators were as big as whales!  Zipping in and around the Pacific Ocean I had the time of my life.  Aside from those Kings I was the biggest Salmon around.  Then one day something changed.  Maybe it was just hormones, or some really irrational nostalgia, but I had the intense urge to go swim up the river where I was born, even though it would kill me.  My milt was ready to fertilize some eggs :)  As I made my way to the estuary I found many other silver salmon experiencing the same hormonal insanity.  Before entering the fresh water I decided it was time for one last meal.  After 5 years I can definitely say that it was the biggest mistake of my life.  In front of me I saw a piece of something twirling and dangling and thought about how lucky I was to have that lovely meal dropped right in front of me.  I dove towards it, pushing other salmon out of the way as I grabbed it.  I grabbed the perfect section of meat but then I immediately felt something tug on my mouth.  I tried to retreat and take back the meal that I had just swallowed, but it was not letting go of me.  As I was pulled toward the surface I began to see the outline of what appeared to be a boat.  As I surfaced I saw four people upon the boat jumping around, grabbing nets, and stretching out towards me.  I resisted even more and watched the human on the other side of the line struggle to keep a hold of me.  I was strong, but the humans were stronger and I was eventually hauled into the boat and indignantly thrown below with others who had suffered the same fate as I.  However, it was gratifying knowing that I would be able to provide meat for those in need throughout the cold winter above the water.  My life was complete and although I would not be able to complete it the way I had thought, I knew that I now had an even higher calling and I am thankful for that opportunity.


Harriet the Halibut

What a life I lead on the bottom of the ocean.  265 feet down and I would go further if I could, but I am a little halibut and I am trying to stick close to others of my kind.  It is dark and cold down here, and both of my eyes are on one side of my body, that is how much I love staring upward.  Being as I am a lucky halibut a tasty, stinky fish has just landed in front of me.  I am not one to snap and grab it though. I think I'll just nibble a little bit and take a minute to let it all go down.  As I'm swallowing the tasty, stinky fish, I feel a tug deep in my throat and feel myself being lifted off of my comfy ocean bottom bed.  I don't want to go up to the surface!  It's too bright up there!  I fight with all 20 pounds the whole 265 feet.  The hook is imbedded so deep within me that the human on the other end of the line finally wins out.  However, in my last few minutes of life I take in the funniest scene that my eyes have ever beheld.  I am hauled into a boat where the human on the other end of the line is almost passed out from the exertion of the fight.  Take that!  I am glad that although I may not have been the winner of this fight, I do not have to deal with the next week of sore muscles that the human is going to have to deal with.  What a wonderful life!  I'm glad to know that I made the human work for those tasty fillets that will later come off of me after I've passed. 


Yvonne the Yellow-Eyed

I am a Rockfish, but of a different color.  My eyes are buggy and yellow and my skin is the color of sherbert.  I swim around with a look of constant surprise on my face.  Of course, I am a fish, and with my short memory it's befitting because I am constantly surprised.  Just like any other day I was trying to find a meal wherever I could get one and it just so happened that today was my lucky day.  Right in front of me a squid landed and he was way to slow for my quick reflexes.  I snapped so quick that I took the whole squid in at once.  The only problem was that when I swallowed the squid I had an immediate case of heart burn that began to force me to rise to the surface.  I tried to dispel this unpleasant feeling by throwing up my air bladder.  I was not the only one surprised by the sudden change of events.  As I was pulled aboard what I assume was a boat, the surprise and wonder from the female human on the other side of the boat almost equaled my own.  Once on board I knew the next course of action that would take place.  I would be grabbed and my air bladder that had been used just seconds before to protect would be popped and my juices would squirt all over whoever took on that calling.  The surprise on their faces was classic!  As I am filleted my ear bones will be cut out for their ivory and made into jewelery for the beautiful female who pulled me aboard.  It was a good life and I enjoyed what I can remember of it.


We had a great time fishing with Paul and Chris.  Waking up at 3:30 in the morning, on the water by 5:30, fishing until 4:00 in the afternoon, and processing fish until about 9:30 at night, it has taken us all week to catch up from the exhaustion.  But, our freezer is full of fish at the moment, and we are looking forward to eating it throughout the course of the winter.  Paul and Chris could not have made the trip more fun, especially Chris's excitement over every single thing that was hooked, whether we ended up hauling it into the boat or not.  We are so thankful for their hospitality, and Ben is really looking forward to going out again.  It was not without it's punishment though, since every time we closed our eyes or got into the shower for the next two days we felt like we were back on the waves being tossed about like one of those Magic 8-Balls.

Thank you Paul and Chris!
Ben and Rachel

Clammin' to Prevent Famine

Rachel: Ok...
Ben:  Yeah that was pretty bad.
Rachel:  Clamming is dirty business.  You get up really early in the morning, on your day off...
Ben:  That sounds dirty already...
Rachel:  Pile into a small truck with your husband and two other boys, with two dogs in the back...
Ben:  Gettin' dirtier (and more smelly) already...
Rachel:  Travel two hours and wind up on a muddy, sandy beach with dead fish all over the place.
Ben:  Hmmmmmm, sounds like fun so far.
Rachel:  You put on your rubber boots...
Ben:  Oh goodness, it's going downhill...
Rachel:  Grab your shovel, or if you are rich enough, clamming gun...
Ben:  We aren't rich enough.
Rachel:  ...and head out into the mud.  You walk around for about half an hour staring at nothing but mud...
Ben: ...and looking for mystical clam divots in the sand...that you have no clue what they look like.
Rachel:  You take the opportunity to speak with other clammers that know what they are doing, and getting clams...
Ben:  ...but it doesn't help you at all for the most part.  You are still like a lost puppy looking for a puppy chow factory.
Rachel:  Then, miracle upon miracle, you discover one of these mystical divots.
Ben:  How did we miss those again?
Rachel.  And the annihilation begins.
Ben:  You work your butt off trying to dig each clam out before it can escape.
Rachel:  Those things are fast.  We're talking, like a mole-with-its-butt-on-fire-burrowing-toward-water-after-chugging-a-case-of-Five-Hour-Energies fast.
Ben:  So you dig in as fast as you possibly can, and end up on your knees in the mud, digging with your hands, trying to get the thing out, and hoping that you haven't lost it already.
Rachel:  As you dig like a dog in the mud, you realize that once again you have broken the clam shell, and therefore the clam, into millions of pieces with your shovel, because, once again, you aren't rich enough to afford the clamming gun.
Ben:  Remember all those times we thought we lost it and then realized that we had hucked the pieces of clam out with the first couple of shovel fulls?  That was embarrassing...
Rachel:  Let's reiterate that we are clamming for "razor clams".
Ben:  "Razor"...like those sharp things that I never use?
Rachel:  Exactly.
Ben:  Right, so when you totally smash the clam to pieces...the pieces are really sharp!  Hence, the super thick rubber gloves!
Rachel:  The excitement of pulling out your first clam, demolished or not, is comparable to finding a thick, meaty piece of pirate treasure...in the shape of a clam.
Ben:  The hoots, hollars, whooping, and exuberance were abundant after that.  We struck, literally, all kinds of meaty clam treasure.
Rachel:  One must keep in mind that you go clamming when the tide is low.  And as the moon shifts, so does the tide.
Ben:  Oh, so that's why the ocean nearly swallowed our cooler and bucket of flounders from the salmon fishermen!
Rachel:  Yes.  We raced the tide back to shore...
Ben:  But of course, we searched out mystical divots as we went.
Rachel:  Although we did not capture the 240 clams that had been our goal...
Ben:  That 240 would include each of our 4 individual limits of 60...
Rachel:  The 2 pounds that we DID get, and the dead flounder that we received, made for some pretty good clam chowder and fried flounder.
Ben:  Wait, what about the "dirty" part?
Rachel:  Even though you may try to protect yourself, the mud and sand find a way into everything.
Ben:  Boots, gloves, hats, pants, socks, bags, mouths...it's maddening...
Rachel:  But worth it...
Ben:  I can't wait to go clamming again...do you think we'll be rich enough for the clamming gun?

Rachel:  Ummmmm, let's see...

On Our Way

We've been in Alaska nearly three full months now, and it's great to say that we are on our way!  We are still putting things back in order from the chaos of relocation, BUT we are starting to have some fun too.

Forays into the Alaskan Wilderness (a.k.a. Hiking):
Although there is technically no "wilderness" here, it seems that if there is a decent chance of seeing a bear or moose in a place, then it should qualify as "wilderness"...which is everywhere around here.  There are SO MANY LAKES HERE!  Plus we have mountains, eat your heart out Minnesota. The only disappointment so far is that the trails don't tend to head upward into the mountains, but stay nestled mostly in the comfortable valleys and around the lakes and rivers (for more details about why this rocks, see "fishing").  However, the views are breathtaking, which is fine because the air is thicker down here and we feel like superheroes when we hike because we are used to Montana's high altitudes, so we don't get winded easily.  We've explored a lot of the trails in the area but there are still many more to see...and we want to see them all!


Acting Contrary to Most Modern Invention (a.k.a. Camping):
Unfortunately we've only made it out for one good camping trip so far.  It was a great time though and we had a blast.  We went car-camping along Palmer Creek, near Hope, which doesn't mean anything to most of you but if you wanted to find a place to drive to on the Kenai Peninsula that would inspire you to go back home and take a shower and maybe do some yard work, it would be Hope.  We sat by the fire, sang songs, ran the dogs until they were dead on their feet, ate some awesome good food (thereby clogging arteries in abundance), and donated large amounts of blood to the local mosquito and moose fly populations.  The next day we went for a hike up a nearby trail to a couple of lakes where we laughed in exuberant mirth as Lilly first ran away from us despite our calling her back, then upon realizing that we were leaving without her tried to cross one of the lakes on the sketchy ice that was still melting in the lake, then fell in the water and had to swim back to shore.  We are hoping to get out for some backpacking soon, but we've had so much going on that it has been tough finding a weekend for it.


Russian Names, Western Oceans, and-...um...Homer:
A few weeks ago Rachel decided to surprise Ben by asking his supervisor for a couple of days off and arranging a great little tour de Kenai.  We stayed in a lodge in Kasilof where we had some great time together, and did a little fishing but caught nothing.  The hostess Dot was really cool and was a lot of fun.  She was trying to convince us to bring our dogs next time...we told here that we didn't want to bring her beautiful lodge to ruin.  We went to Homer and had sushi and checked out the Homer spit, and had some great R & R time.  All around it was a great trip, even though we were actually both sick at the time.


Convincing Something That You Want to Eat to Eat Something That It Doesn't Want to Eat So That You Can Eat It (a.k.a. Fishing):
Fishing trips, thus far, have been somewhat few...BUT we're working on changing that.  We tried a little fishing in Kasilof but were sadly skunked.  Ben went fishing in Ptarmigan Creek nearby and had a great time, catching 3 trout, losing 1, and keeping the best for some good eating.  He only had one small slip while down on the shore...swamping his waders with some of the good, frigid, glacial water.  Totally worth it though!  We tried fishing Salmon with some friends another day, but still no joyful Salmon adventures.  Tomorrow we will be getting up 'round the crack of dawn, 4AM, in order to go fishing down in Resurrection Bay for Halibut, Ling Cod, Salmon, and whatever else we can convince to bite onto something attached to some filament.


For the purpose of not getting too far into everything that we've been up to, for this is not the half of it and doesn't do the experience a lot of justice, we'll have to end this long-winded exhortation of revelation.  Last and not least, we want to say that even though we are having a great time, we really miss everyone, especially friends and family.  We just got hit with a wave of homesickness the last couple of weeks, and we really can't wait to see you all again!

We love you all and miss you dearly!
Ben and Rachel