On a Sunday morning in early August, we went on an organised boat trip to catch silver salmon. They are 'running' at the moment, which means they have come back from 4 years in the Pacific Ocean to breed in the Susitna River, where they grew up.
As the fish like to get an early breakfast, we had to get to Wasilla, about 40 miles North of Anchorage, by 5.30 am. This meant setting the alarm for 3am - hardly worth going to bed!
This shot was taken at about 7am, by which time we had already got half our quota of 2 fish per person.
This is Sylvia's first fish, which weighed in at 11.3 pounds. We know this because all the fish have scales (ha ha!). It put up a struggle and for a while we were not sure if the fish was coming out of the water or Sylvia was going in!
This is Sylvia on the river bank with proof of the weight of her catch. The hair is a bit wild because the boat does 20 knots, which is pretty bracing on a cold river at the crack of dawn.
This is Andy, our guide, who cleaned and filleted our fish for us. The remains go back into the water for the bears and seagulls to pick at. In the end, we came away with about 40lbs of prime salmon fillets. These are now in our spare freezer ready for the winter nights.
Quite an experience for 2 novices and never to be forgotten.
Alan & Sylvia
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