Kenai Profiles: Phil and Debbie Dreyer

Many of you regulars will know Phil and Debbie Dreyer (kneeling in the front in the photo above).   If you haven't met them at Beaver Creek Cabins I know you've at least met their boat.   The beautiful blue Willie boat that is tied up on the end of the dock belongs to them.     It's the "Cocktail Boat" as many of our neighbors like to call it.   I guess I'd be stating the obvious if I had to explain why it's called the "Cocktail Boat".

Up until Phil and Debbie bought their boat, they use to spend quite a bit of time in mine.   I didn't realize how much until I started looking through my photo album.  Believe me, the photos I've posted represents just a few of the trips we've spent together.

When you spend a lot of time in a boat with people you really get to know them.   It didn't take me too many trips to coin the term "Philism".    Basically, what this is is a clever or funny insight to the world around us.   For example, Phil was telling a story about catching a salmon shark.   I told him I heard they were very good to eat.   Phil said, "yeah, the first 400 pounds are pretty good but after that you get a little sick of it."   That, my friends, is a "Philism".

Here's a photo with Debbie with a nice Kenai king.  I always like it when a fish is too large for Debbie to lift up.

That's Phil on the bottom right.  He's a charter member of the original dipnetting crew.

This king was on the edge of being too large for Debbie to hold up.   If that's a problem give me a million of them.  

Here's Phil with a group of guys from work.  No question the silver bite was on that morning.

Here's one of the most memorable fish battles that Phil had on the Kenai.   If he looks a little fatigued he should be.   Phil must have walked around the boat 50 times before we could get a net around it.

How cool is this photo?   This king was just the right size for Debbie to hold herself.  If I remember correctly, she didn't want to stand with the fish because she thought it might get away over the side of the boat and she had worked way too hard to let that happen.   Sitting on the floor was the best way to prevent that.

I can honestly say that no one strikes a pose quite like Debbie.  "Catching fish is icing on the cake!"

The Kenai River is what draws Phil and Debbie to the peninsula and that ultimately led them to us.  However, as much as they enjoy the river, a close second is having a meal at Louie's Restaurant in Kenai.   Nothing quite like catching a few salmon and then sitting down to razor clams, chicken sandwich supremes, and patty melts.

Summer is just around the corner.  Can't wait to see you guys again.