Fishing the Russian River

Since the Brady Boys (Mac's brothers, Tucker and Eli) were kind enough to drive 3,000 miles across the continent with us, we decided we'd better show them a good time in Alaska for the few days they were able to stay with us. Our good friends the Harris' told us about this spot on the Russian River near Kenai and we headed out for a crazy day of Salmon fishing. It took us a little while to get the hang of the "snagging" game (you don't really wait for the fish to bite, you just let the line go tight in the water and then pull hard, and you snag them...on their body, fin, mouth, etc.) It was so crazy because you are standing there in the water and you can see big red fish everywhere! We had a great time and Tucker went back to Utah with an awesome story of how he battled a King Salmon.....

Tucker was definitely the star fisherman. He was determined and didn't give up and ended with a King Salmon. It was amazing.

I fished for a while and snagged a few and almost had them reeled in and then they would get away. I was not the star fisherman. :) I enjoyed netting them though, and of course, taking pictures!

Eli was a great fisherman too and caught a few Red Salmon. At first we thought you couldn't keep the reds, so we threw back one of the fish he caught. Oops!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Makes me laugh so hard! That fish was slimy and heavy and I couldn't pick it up!

No explanation needed....

Love this man! He was so selfless. We didn't have enough waders for everyone so he netted the fish while the rest of us fished. He never complained once even though I know he really wanted to fish.

You can see the Reds in the water. They were everywhere!

E-dogg fishing

This kind man fishing right next to us took pity on us and started giving us the red salmon he caught. They were only keeping the silvers so I gladly netted the Red salmon he caught.

I think this was Eli's first Red Salmon that we accidentally threw back.

So proud of his fish!

I wish I could tell this story and do it justice, but I know I can't. I'll have to ask Mac to come blog the story later when he gets home. Long story short, right before we were going to leave, Tucker snagged a big one. He had to walk down stream while trying to reel it in for 1/2 mile so that it didn't break the line. All the way down the bank seasoned old fisherman were giving Tucker a nod of approval and telling him to keep going. At one point the fish jumped out and over a log, apparently trying to cut the line. One of the old guys said, "oh yeah, that's a King!" Eli got close enough to net the fish but it was too big to fit in our net! Eli said he could see two other hooks in the fish from when he had broken other fisherman's lines. Eventually the King broke Tucker's line and got away. We couldn't have kept it anyway, but it sure was a cool experience and a fun story to tell. These pics are during Tuck's battle.

Fighting hard.....

The King. Look at the picture of Mac sitting with our net and you will see how big the net was...and how big the fish had to be to not fit in it!

There is just something that is not sexy about waders....but I can't put my finger on it.

A glacier on the way to the Russian River. Can't remember it's name though.

Enoying the fun and watching everyone catch fish. Some of the guys were catching a fish on almost every cast!