Highlights from 2005 Season

What we do best!

Here are some highlights of our season.

Each new fishing season is like starting a new life. First it has been dark and gloomy and we haven’t spoken to anyone for a long time. Our eyes are not accustomed to the world without artificial light. Illumination spawns preparation. Seasonal upgrades to the boat start in March. Late April brings better weather and the promise of King salmon. Now begin the butterflies of anticipation as we get the rods and reels sharpened up, string new line, tie new flies and watch the days grow longer. In May the big boys start showing in catchable numbers.

Life in Southeast Alaska, both man and animal, revolves around the salmon cycles. As the young fingerlings leave the streams and head out to sea, their ancestors are returning to the spawning streams. Should they chance to meet, the big ones eat the little ones—for sake of the species—of course.

Here is a shot of our first guests of the season Bob and Brian with some June enhancement Kings.

The professor is back for one more wrestling match with the fish. Gravity keeps him pinned to his chair most of the time but as long as Dave breaths he will breath fishing. What he lacks in physical strength any more he makes up for with pure determination. Returning with his wife Patty,"She Who Is To Be Obeyed", they bring up some nice Kings.

You might notice that The Professor is kicked back taking photos and munching chips while "She Who Is To Be Obeyed" is catching bigger fish.

Our next guests started out as 4 daughters and two dads for Fathers day. As it turned out one of the daughters couldn’t make it so a Mom came instead--sounds innocent enough.

I always wanted to be stuck on a boat with several beautiful women. Moms and dads are OK too. The cruel twist is that two of the daughters are State Police Women who can turn us ruggedly ugly Alaskan guides on our ears and make us scream uncle in a heartbeat.

With out a doubt some of the most fun I ever had on a boat. Makes me ponder abandoning my evil ways and becoming a police woman myself when I grow up.

Our next set of guests came all the way from South Africa to do a little fishing at the Whale’s Eye. Karen was talking with them about gardening and how pesky the deer can get. When she asked what garden pests they had back home Carroll got a disgusted look on her face and spit “monkeys” out of her mouth. I for one would rather have deer. I’m positive they taste better and are more easily deterred by a fence.

Dave came back for a visit and brought some folks from church. We weren’t sure what we were going to talk about as two of them are hearing impaired and we didn’t know much sign language. But Dave, organizer that he is, brought Roger to interpret.

Most of what we do around here transcends language barriers anyway and we all had a great time learning some sign and sending signals that most anybody understands.

Doug and Judy came a little later in the summer this year and brought some friends Rod and Bill. Here is a days catch of mid July Coho.

Blind man John and the Party from Pittsburg are back celebrating 8 years fishing at Whale’s Eye. I guess that is about the highest complement we can receive. When I look back on my life and reflect on the people I’ve become acquainted with these guys will be high on the list. When they are here it’s like they are always are here. When they return we just pick up where we left off.

Fran, Ann, Kathy, Kevin, Jeremy and Jonathon who is about to get his finger caught in a crab, visited in early August. Fran and Ann had visited before and decided to bring the rest of the family. Go fish!

Next we had Terry and Brian back and Phil and Mai Lan for the first time--nothing but sunshine. Phil is a filet knife maker extraordinaire. He was kind enough to leave that one hanging out of his back pocket with me and Jess to give it the Shelter Island extreme work test. We started with the rack of halibut pictured and it continues to perform flawlessly.

Our next group was all new to Whale’s Eye. They didn’t know each other when they came but by the time they left you’d of thought they were best friends. Fishing does that to people.

I’ve often thought that if world leaders got together every year or so and fished together our little blue orb would be a much more peaceful place.

Our next group started out when Dave called and said he was bringing his father Bunny and father-in-law Dean. Sounds good to us then he decided to call his old friend Rob to help… Sounds like the boys out on a lark. It was.

We were honored to host such an esteemed group. Bunny turned out to be our oldest guest ever at 86 (going on 26) and young Dean held his own at 74. We had fun watching Dave and Rob trying to keep up.

Our last group was a bunch of wild men from Elko. The Coho were at peek run and the halibut were looking for a nice freezer to winter over in. We had just the crew to accommodate them. Here is John, Bob, Steve and Rick. It rained and rained and we fished and fished and a great time was had by all.

Every once in a while we get a celebrity out to the Whales Eye. We were extremely honored to host world famous TV and movie stat Big Bird for a fishing trip.

Life is rough here on the cusp. We are forced to deal with raging nature, darkness and isolation but once in a while we get a guest that makes us forget all the hardship. As you can see, me and the Bird became fast friends. We expect him back--maybe for Thanksgiving….

Happy Trails

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