USA 36 - Sockeye Salmon and Rainbow Trout

This post is dedicated to my eldest nephew who, unlike his aunty, is an accomplished fisherman! Perhaps he can give a beginner a few tips when she gets back!

(My sister told me on the phone the other day that it's great to see me learning new skills at 40, she wasn't exactly referring to fishing, but hey...she was BLOODY RIGHT!)

OH MY GOD. I had the day of a lifetime yesterday...it was absolutely INCREDIBLY FANTASTIC. I am now in love with Sockeye Salmon, and hold a very dear spot in my heart for the Rainbow Trout.

Yes, I went fishing. Guided fishing. With Jason, the backwoodsman fishing guide! And three other guys from Colorado/Vegas (father and two sons). There are no words for just how cool it was, how exciting, how thrilling, how stunningly beautiful it was. No wonder it's a national sport here - I've met people from all over the USA and even Alaska how come here to the Kenai for salmon fishing. It's like a mecca for fisherpeople! Lucky, I'm back here at Drifter's Lodge, right on the bloody river!!!

I'll put it right out there now - I caught 7 Sockeyes, 4 of which we could keep and the other three were released (it was just so much fun I wanted to keep catching!), and 2 Rainbow Trout, both of which we released back into the river.

Now here on the Kenai, you can fish for a few types of Salmon - Silver (which I think has finished running), Sockeye, also known as "Reds" because their flesh is so dark and they actually turn red on the outside when they spawn, and King Salmon. Kings are the prize salmon - they are absolutely huge - and at the moment you are only allowed to keep one per person - and they've only just started to allow fishing for Kings because the numbers have been so low this year!

Anyway, I digress. Back to my extensive fisherwoman prowess...

I was more than chuffed with myself - I seemed to equal all the legends around me - even Taylor who was an Anchorage boy fishing next to me who gave me a few tips!

We were off and running at 3.45am, we needed to get in the water early to find our spot - the Sockeyes and the King Salmon have really only just started running so Jason knew things were going to be very busy. We drifted down the Kenai River in his drift boat to a little spot he thought perfect. There were already people around with their rods out and fish being caught.

As you can see, I was all decked out for the gig - I had full thermal underwear on, jeans, t-shirt, caridgan, woollen jumper and my very attractive waders and waterproof fishing boots...later the gloves and beanie appeared - it's bloody cold out on that river, especially with your little tootsies in the freezing water for 7 hours!

The other 3 guys knew their stuff, so I got the full lesson from Jason - we were using fly rods, but using a special "Kenai flick" he called it, especially for the Sockeye - they don't actually eat food, they suck up plankton and stuff, so the idea is to let the line get in their mouth as they are coming upstream, then you "flick" to catch the hook in the side of its mouth! COOL!!! After some embarrassingly bad casting, a few tips from Jason and my new mate, Taylor, I was starting to do something that looked vaguely decent...the other guys had already pulled in a few, and I was still waiting....

Jason was getting impatient for me to pull one in...he was more stressed than I was about it! He moved me literally two metres back from my original spot...changed my sinker, then BAMMMMMMM!!!! OMG Sockeye were flying left, right and centre!!!! IT WAS FANTASTIC. I couldn't get enough of it!! The first few were pretty easy to get in...but then I had a few that I was sure were sharks...they were soooooooo strong, and just ran with the line...I lost a few of those ones, but I did manage to bring in two of the really feisty ones! You should have seen the smile on my face! Well you can see the smile on my face, above, with my first Sockeye for the day!

Now, we are only allowed to keep 3 Sockeye each - I caught one for Jason, so we had our full 15 by about 7am, then we stayed for a bit longer to "catch and release" - you can see our trusty guide, Jason, above with our stash! He got to work filleting right there on the bank, pic above, while we kept at it! BLOODY GREAT FUN.

Once his job was done, we had life vests on, were back in the drift boat and on the hunt for Trout. We were going to do some fly fishing. Check out the pic above, me in the river fly fishing...that was what we looked at, that beautiful mountain as we flicked and flopped our rod around. There was only the five of us here, it was quiet and oh so beautiful...this is the part I loved the most. The fly fishing was tricky, but I liked the challenge, and I loved the serenity around me, it was quite something special.

And I got one!!! I'm proud to say I was the only one to get a trout!! OH YEAH BABY! She was a bit of a struggle to bring in...but boy was she a cutie pie. You can see her there, my face close to hers...a really beautiful friendship beginning! We popped her back in to fight another day.

I caught one more trout on the drift on the way home - we drifted downstream, through the nature reserve, eyes open for bears, and I had my fly rod out and Jason would tell me where to cast...he knew all the good sites...and bammmmm just as we were coming to the boat ramp, I got one - a tiny widdle one! But hey, a fish is a fish is a fish!!

Thoroughly chuffed, tired, hungry and thirsty - we headed back home, head held high...I informed the guys back here we would be having salmon for dinner!!!! And we did!

You can see above - we rubbed one fillet with a salmon rub called "Rub with Love" which is a mix of smoked paprika, thyme and brown sugar, we marinaded one in Teriyaki Sauce, and I asked for one to be left "virgin" so I could get the pure salmon flavour.

Jason wacked them on the barbie, and we ate like kings. I LOVED the virgin one - first I ate it completely pure to taste the salmon and it was soooooooooo good, it was perfectly cooked and just melted away in my mouth with a wonderful salmon flavour - lightly fishy, but clean and smooth...I then added a bit of salt which of course was yummmmmmmm - and that's what I ate - the others of course loved the marinated and rubbed ones...they'd been eating salmon forever and loved the extra flavour.

Bob, one of the owners of the lodge gave me his perfect salmon cooking recipe - take off the skin and brown fat, melt some butter so it's hot but not too hot to burn the butter, season the fish with some salt and a little bit of pepper, and put it in the melted butter to gently cook...add a touch of lemon and voila...perfect salmon. I'm hoping to give that a go next week, when I come back yet again, I'm hooked on the fishing...perhaps I'll go for Kings....hmmmmmmm!!!

PS. One tip for beginners fishing in Alaska...DO NOT TAKE A BANANA ONTO THE BOAT - bananas, so I discovered after I took my breakfast banana out of my backpack to eat in the boat just as we started moving, are BAD LUCK in Alaska for fishing. Let me tell you, things got ugly!!!