Alaska - doin' a little fishin'

The fishing was hot! Nothing can compare to Alaskan salmon fishing. and needless to say, I had NO IDEA what was in store for me. The first fish I reeled up left me spring-loaded and trembling. I should admit to screaming like a girl too, but that is unneccesary.

Overall, we caught 8 King Salmon, 1 Coho Salmon, 2 rock rish, 3 keepable crabs (we had to thow many of them back because we're not alowed to keep the females) and about 5 Ibs. of shrimp.

The King salmon we caught ranged from about 18 Ibs on up to a whoppin' 36 pounder that happened to catch the line at the same time we were reeling in another fish. I was given the title "Sea Hag" on Day 1 of fishing. The official responsibilities of the "Sea Hag" were to make ugly faces at the bait, get the hell out of the way when the Deck Hand was on a mission, gasp at the knocking out and murder by knife of the fish, squeal a lot and generally just stand around and look pretty. On day 2, I figured I had mastered "Sea Hag" so well that I promoted myself to "Soux Hand" which is essentially the assistant Deck Hand. My promotion was accepted, I was rapidly moving up that corporate fishing ladder, feeling pretty good and ready to take on the task of clubbing the fish myself. This involved a lot jumping about and screaming while shouting simultaneous profanities and words of encouragement to my poor fishy victims. By day 3, I figured I had climbed so far so fast, that I decided to retire into the cabin to take cat naps and munch on smoked salmon while the others worked their assess off. Thus went my short, but extremely influentual career as a Corp. Fishin' Bitch.

The top photo is the sad reality of these poor fishy-folk. Yes, that's a pool of it's own blood that it's lying in. Carolyn, that savage beast of a deck hand, would slit their throats and bleed them out after they were caught. Each time, I promptly beat the crap out of her and threw her overboard but she kept coming back to club and murder more fish. What could a Sea Hag do, what with such limited corporate power and all?

Photo 2 is the filet and cleaning stations. Pat was the filet man, Carolyn transfered the fish from filet station to cleaning station, Dad was the rinse guy, and my job was to place the fish filets neatly in baggies and make sure the zip-lock was done right. Clearly, my job was the most important. None can argue that.

Bottom 2 photos - Dad and Daughter with the "Big One".