River WIld

It was raining again today and the rain had kept us from heading out onto the river since last Wednesday. Today we decided that rain or shine we were going to go fishing. 3:00 rolled around and we were ready to go. The weather was not cooperating with us, it was windy, cold and raining so you can imagine how excited I was to be heading out. I don't really have any quality rain gear. I had jeans on for a while then decided that they might not be the best choice since they would just soak up the water so I changed into a pair of my athletic pants, hooded sweatshirt and Columbia coat, gloves and two hats; my Iowa hat and my winter hat as well. I was still a bit cold. The rain was coming down pretty good and my glasses were getting nailed so I couldn't see much unfortunately for the first 30 minutes or so of the trip. I was having fun none the less.

Lida mentioned that she had just bought her fishing license and Kyle asked if I had one and of course I had to say no. Well that would have stopped most people from fishing or letting me fish but Kyle's response was "Well 2 out of 3 isn't bad", i felt better after that. We took off up the river a while and then decided to anchor down and see what we could get. It wasn't very exciting at first because nothing was biting. I had never fished for Salmon before so I was clueless on what to do and not to do. Kyle said I could grab one of the poles and fish if I felt like it. He didn't want to push me into doing it since I didn't have a license and at first I was a little hesitant but then I said screw it ill just put the pole down if we see anyone coming. We fished for a while at this location before moving again up river to another spot. We weren't there for very long and I had something hooked to the end of my pole....Yes ladies and gentleman I had a fish on the end of my pole and so the excitement began to get the fish from the water into the boat without making a fool of myself, mission accomplished.

Once I got the fish in the net and inside the boat Kyle handed me this little bat looking thing and proceeded to tell me I had to whack the fish to send it off to sleepy land so he could "bleed out" the fish. I didn't know what to think so I just grabbed the club and gave the fish a couple whacks; it must have worked because it stopped moving. Kyle then showed me how to cut the gills to release the blood. He said by doing that it makes the Salmon taste better. Well a few minutes into the bleeding process I guess the fish had one last nerve still operational because it flopped and the fish got loose in the river. We tried to find it thinking it would be floating somewhere but it must have sunk to the bottom or something because it was nowhere to be found. Kyle felt really bad but I didn't mind because I actually had to witnesses to me catching that stinking thing. I think Brie would have liked having fresh salmon in the freezer though. Maybe next time ill get it back to shore and eventually in the freezer.

All and all today was a really fun day. The rain stopped about halfway into our trip and the sun actually came out; i was able to get dry. I hadn't had many opportunities to venture outside of the village since arriving a week ago. It was great to be on the river and seeing everything up close that I can see from our window. This is truly a beautiful area and I was able to see a lot of it up close and personal. The only thing that would have made today better was if I was able to see some wildlife which I didn't. I was hoping to see a moose or caribou but no such luck. The great part about living out here is there are always another chances to go somewhere and see something different and amazing.