Vanilla Sausages

My son spent all his high school years cruising through middle Tennessee in his beloved old Dodge Ram truck (he once stopped seeing a girl because she did not like that Ram) looking for all the good fishing spots.

Once he dragged LC a mile down the middle of a stream by a dam close to our house, because that's where the good fish were.

I still remember him arguing with me when he was in high school, insisting that "vanilla sausages" made good bait. 

I had to take him to a grocery store to prove that they were actually vienna sausages, and after he tried them out he finally relented on the vienna and relented on the fact that they didn't make such great fish bait after all.

When he was in Iraq the first time he fished a lake overlooking one of Saddam Hussein's palaces using fried chicken for bait.

He and LC spent a small fortune on lures.  Daily they would get them one by one snagged and then lost on the rocky shores of beach front in this area.  And then they'd have to run to stores in town to pick up some more.  

They made a bunch of "lure runs" over the course of almost two weeks....

I had all kinds of plans to show him various places of interest in Juneau, but all Chris really wanted to do was fish, and that was fine with me.

It was his vacation, he changed his work schedule to night shift just so he could come see me, and he could spend it as he wanted........

I had to work in the Valley for a couple of hours on a cold and rainy morning last Thursday, and met the guys when I was done.

I left my car in the lot, and together we all drove out to Douglas North, to scope out a point just past the boat dock.

Although I love this place in terms of the mountain and channel views, and it is a wonderful place to explore on foot, it did not turn out to be a great fishing place.

We did not stay long as the fish were not biting, but I did manage to take some pictures before we moved on.....

A healthy tree literally growing sideway out of the rocks........

Day by day my son while he was here, transformed more and more from his Jersey-boy self to an Alaska fisherman........

After leaving Douglas we stopped at Fred Meyers to pick up some chicken, and then picked up my car.

Chris and my Mountain Boy went down to Auke Village Recreation Area to fish some more, while I went home to pick up the dog, some more food, and everything we needed to bar-b-q our chicken.

It turns out that Chris is an excellant cook. 

He's learned that through a combination of a lifetime of having a mother who was always out running and biking and not a great cook, and his experiences grilling out with his buddies in the military.

He did an outstanding job putting together some potatoes, chicken and garlic bread.  I made the salad.

A great way to spend a late afternoon at the beach on a cold and rainy day.......

Another fishing day - this time sunny and warm - and this time at Amalga Harbor......

Amalga Harbor yet again, but this time on another cold and cloudy, but very calm day not long before Chris headed back home.

There Amalga Harbor proper is beautiful, rocky, and contains views of the Chilkats that could, and do, take your breathe away.

This lake feeds directly into the channel.

Regardless of the weather, either sunny and clear and beautiful or cloudy and foggy and beautiful, when the water is still this small lake is a wonderful reflecting pool.  I love it.......

This short trail leads from the pulloff where we parked the truck to the back side of the lake and a narrow stream that feeds directly into it.........

Even though the guys had caught a bunch of dog-salmon over the past few days previous to this, Chris finally caught a Coho in good shape and we were all excited knowing that we would be eating salmon for dinner that night.........

After some time back down at the rocks again with no luck it was finally time for the kid to do this......for just a short time.......but enough time to regroup, gather up the bar-b-q stuff again and head out to Eagle Beach later in the day for dinner........

It was about 6pm by the time we arrived at Eagle Beach, and the weather was very cool and very rainy.

In the Lower 48 we would never have considered grilling salmon for dinner outside in such nasty weather.

But this is not the Lower 48.

And we had the entire beach to ourselves.

Three people and a dog - laughing and joking and bundling up against the cold and rain, happy to be outside and happy to be eating fish they caught themselves and happy to be together......

When the salmon was almost cooked the clouds cleared over the Chilkoots and the sun struggled to come out.

Eventually the sun won that struggle and it shined weakly over the mountains..........

It was almost dark.

We had finished eating our meal, but Chris was still grilling up the last of our fish.

And then this guy appeared across the river on the river bank of the Boy Scout Trails.

He was not very big, and was alone.

And although he looked in our direction, Jamie's barking scared this young bear further along the shore and away from us.

The picture is very grainy - it was too late and too dark, I zoomed too far, and he was too small.

We were happy to see him.  Happy to see him move away from us. 

And after seeing him across the river, and then a very large porcupine walking up the sidewalk close to where we were, we all realized that it was getting late and the animals were starting to move........

It was time to pack up and head for the house.............

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.....Herbert Hoover