Fireworks, Fish, and Fun

Not gonna lie folks! I have been very UN-motivated in writing in this thing lately.

BUT... I said I would. And I did have a good weekend to write about so here goes... Sorry, I don't have enough motivation though to go to my computer and get pictures so that will have to be saved for tomorrow or something.

Well I last left you on 4th of July when I was about to join the festivities here on site. We had a cook out and it managed to stop raining and get a little nice for enough time, but as everyone's stomachs were nearing to a close, the rain returned. We took everything inside and hung out for a bit. As darkness came, Scott was intent on shooting off the fireworks he got, rain or not! And that he did! For a one-man show, he did a DAMN GOOD JOB! We were all really impressed! We stood in the heat of the fire pit, with some rain falling on us, and watched him shoot off some really good fireworks off the weir.

Anyhow, it was nice to be back with everyone having a good time! The next two days I worked... We started setting up the incubators for when spawning season begins and the eggs go in. It's all starting to come back full circle now... well not a FULL circle but it's gettin there. Back when we ponded, I remember taking these incubators all apart... now they are going all back together. Tim, Adam and I were flying thru that, but on Friday afternoon, Scott decided to give Jessica and Andy a break from the crappy work they were doing, so they took Tim and my place. Then we got put to work on some odd jobs... first one being "clean out the incinerator!" Yeah, sounds fun right!?!? Seriously! Clean out the incinerator!? What's there to clean!? A whole lot of ash is the answer. Actually, it ended up being kind of a fun job, probably cause Tim and I were cracking up and being crazy the whole time! Shoveling out ash... getting out any metal and glass. Just another dirty job... :-)

Well, my first weekend back and it was a really good one for a change! Adam and I decided to go halibut fishing on Saturday. First we had to catch bait of course... he hooked a King Salmon after alot of searching and I brought it in. Then we went out. Unfortunately, the water had gotten rough in the time we were trying to catch bait so it was a little rocky as we were sitting there. After sitting there for a while and not getting anything, he said we were going to move so we had to reel up all 150-200 feet of line (with a big weight on the bottom). That's always BLAH but I ended up having a fish at the end of mine! It was only a Silver Grey Rockfish... not a halibut. I asked him if I should have known I had that on my line, and he said "well probably not..." just cause it was rocky and it wasn't very big. That made me feel better! But hey, Becky 1 - Adam NOTHIN!

Then we moved and after sitting for a little bit, sure enough, I had something! AND OH MUH GOD, it felt big! Or it was just the 200 feet of line causing resistance!? *Deer in the headlight stare at Adam* "Start reelin..." he says. Pulling up a fish that is 200 feet down plus a big fat weight is a little tough on your arm! He was laughing at me the WHOLE TIME! Cause he knew it wasn't anything big... probably a tiny halibut actually. It sure felt heavy but he was probably right. Sure enough, it was the tiniest halibut I have ever seen! Like 5 pounds... Not gonna lie, I was a little embarrassed that I had to struggle to pull it up so hard! It was so little! I do have a picture but I have to get it from Adam. Yeah, he laughed at me alot! But again... Becky 2 - Adam NOTHIN! I threw it back though... along with the other one. We moved and fished in another spot but got nothing.

Sunday, we decided, since it was nice, Adam and I head to Baranof Hot Springs in his boat. We decided to hike up to this lake just a little past the pools where we "commandeered" a vessel (a little red canoe) and took off. Adam brought his fishing pole too so he threw it out there and dragged it behind us. The lake ends up snaking pretty far back and we actually paddled our little boat all the way back there! It took a while... but it was really pretty back there. There was a little cabin (Forest Service or something) and a few water sources came in. The water right there was SO clear, it was really cool. So we walked around a little bit... canoed a little ways over to some rocky area that looked like a beach. He fished for a few... I walked around. He didn't catch anything... then we looked at some rocks and found this gold flakes in the water. It wasn't real gold we are assuming! HA Anyhow, it was funny because just the other day he said something about panning for gold somewhere... and then we found this stuff that really did look like gold. So as we were walking around a little, he looks over and goes "STOP... come back this way." He had spotted a bear probably a 100 feet away... he checked us out but must have gone away.

Well we had enough of that so we begun the trek back... of course, by then, the wind was now blowing a little... in the opposite direction we were heading so we got no help. It was about a 45 minute paddle to shore. Then we walked back to the hot springs. Remember the nice "changing area" sign? There actually is a changing area but it is just a little wood platform with a bench... no privacy but there IS an area. Well the water sure was warmer than last time! It was probably the temperature of a pretty warm hot tub... pretty HOT hot tub I guess. Adam though it was warmer than a hot tub but I didn't. It felt good for about 10 minutes then you started to sweat. The lower pools felt nicer because they were cooler of course. And there was this little tiny pool... almost like a little seat for one that felt really nice. (Picture to come...) We probably only stayed about 20 minutes maybe... (we were at the lake for a few hours.)

On the way back to the hatchery, I tried to call Grandma, because it was her birthday and we were in reach of the cell phone tower, but my phone didn't want to work. BOO... We kept going and watched one of the seiner boats pull up their catch, which wasn't much. Driving the boat through Chatham Strait these days is a little tough because you have to keep your eye out for seine nets. We almost ran right straight into one of them but spotted it at the last minute.

What these big ol boats do is they have a net with floats on top that they drop in the water. It's reallllly long and probably goes 20 feet down. Well the big boat holds one end... and this littler boat has the other end and pulls it out straight until the net is stretched. Then the little boat pulls it back around toward the big boat trapping the fish. When it gets back to the big boat, the net ends up getting a "purse" effect and pulls all the fish up and into the big boat. It was pretty interesting... I didn't know how they did it until Sunday. There are ALOT of boats out in the bay and Strait all doing the same thing... it was pretty cool to see so many big boats around when I first flew back to the hatchery. A bunch of them come into our bay too to hang out for the night and stuff. We have some shower and laundry facilities too that the seiners can use too, so there are usually atleast a few random people walking around.

Well, that's really about all. The past few days have still been spent in incubation, getting things set up good. There are a few bears starting to walk around, though I haven't seen them quite yet. I've heard that they are walking around alot pretty close... Finally the other day I saw the Mama bear and cub! SOOO CUTE! Those are the ones I need to be careful of as I walk over to the duplex alot (Adam's house...) Yesterday, we were both walking over there and there was a bear on the rocks down by the weir (which is down the hill from the duplex). We stopped and looked... he spotted us and sort of freaked out. He turned and went to run away but ended up jumping into water over his head... he swam over to shore and we just kind of laughed at it! It was kinda cute though. Well... THAT is about it now. Check back in for some pictures tomorrow or something... I'll try to get the motivation I guess to post them. :-\ I guess I'm just having too much fun! *WINK*

SHOUT OUT OF THE DAY - To my Grandma, I always remember your birthday, you know that! I didn't forget... :-)