Birthday Gift

Today is my birthday and every year it's a great day. If I'm not guiding, which I love, it's a day that Jane and I can go fishing ourselves. Five years ago Jane and I went out in the afternoon and we caught 7 kings in just over two hours. That was with no bait! By far the best couple of hours for only two poles being fished. Other years we've spend the day on the water and not had a bite.




This morning Jane and I went out for a couple of hours. The first troll we didn't have a bite. On the second troll Jane motioned to the pole over my shoulder and I assumed I had a bite. Nope. It was a momma moose and her calf swimming across the river. I see moose swimming quite often but never get tired of it. Of all the big game animals that we see moose are by far the best swimmers. You wouldn't think they would be with their long, skinny legs but they get across the river with ease.






Anyway, back to fishing. We made a couple of more trolls and I was thinking about heading back to the cabins to do some work. I figured we'd try it for the first few hours and then come back out in the afternoon. However, Jane had a bite and decided to give it another five minutes. I'm glad I did. Soon after my pole was buried in the rod holder so I set the hook and handed it off to Jane. I've caught a lot of fish in my life and I take pleasure in watching Jane reel a fish in. She doesn't think she has good fishing skills because she's relatively new to the sport, but she really does. After about ten minutes the king came to the net. I'm guessing that the weight was between 25-30lbs. It was a nice fish and we thought long and hard about whether we should keep it. With a 2 fish seasonal limit and a month and half of fishing left we decided to let it go.




We plan on heading out again later today. I'll see if I can get more "icing" for my birthday cake.