I just watched an hour long program on the National Geographic channel called "Moose: Titans of the North." It mostly dealt with moose in Denali Park and the urban moose in Anchorage. It was informative and the filmography was second to none.
I started thinking about the moose we find on the Peninsula and there's no doubt we have both urban moose and the backcountry moose like the one's found in Denali park. The difference? Generations of urban moose have lived and survived around people and buildings. They can be dangerous, after all they are a wild animal but overall show great tolerance for people, pets, and vehicles. This is just the opposite for moose that are in the bush. They are skittish, often hard to find, and are more protective of their territory.
All the photos above were taken from the window of our cabin...definitely urban moose. You don't ever want to startle a moose, especially a mother and her calf, and this is good reason why you need to be aware of your surroundings when you walk out the door. Credits go to Jane for capturing these "ahhhh, fer cute" moments.
Dan and Mary live in Peoria, Illinois. After meeting them for the first time I could tell that Alaska was more than just a trip on their "bucket list." It started out as an anniversary, trip of a lifetime gift to themselves and quickly turned into an every year trip. Through the years not only did they fish and sightsee when they were in Alaska but they became interested in real estate. This past fall they finally pulled the trigger and bought property about a half a mile away from our cabins. So, not only have they become good friends, Jane and I can officially call them our neighbors.
Fisherman are superstitious by nature and Mary is the queen on my boat. She has two fail safe truisms when it comes to catching fish. The first one is that fish will bite when a passing boat wake will rock our boat. Can't argue with that because we certainly have caught a bunch of fish when this has happened. I think it has to do with the the lures going side to side which entices a fish to bite. Not so sure about her second superstition and why it works. Mary is firm believer that eating a Kit Kat bar will trigger a bite. Mary is selfless person and will bring in the boat enough Kit Kat bars to make sure the entire boat will limit out. I think the key to the Kit Kat bar luck is you can only eat one when there hasn't been a bite for awhile. You just can't eat and eat them all day long. It's hard to argue with success of the Kit Kat bar and neither will my waistline:)
There are a lot of excellent fisherman on the Kenai River and a big key to their success is their bait. I watch guys like Mack Padgett, Will Jahrig, and Greg Davis (The Beaver Creek All Stars) consistently catch fish when others don't and it's not hard to figure out that they have the "right stuff". Sure they're savvy and know the river well but without a doubt they know how to cure eggs and that sets them apart from other fisherman. In this post I will explain the egg curing process I use and hopefully, in turn, help increase your overall fishing success.
I happen to be on the pro staff for Pro Cure and favor their products but there are quite a few commercially made egg cures on the market and they're all very good. Besides Pro Cure there's Pro Glo, Pautzke, Cure All, Nitro, and Nate's Bait, to name a few. How to use their products are easily explained on their labels but like most recipes there's a certain amount of "tweaking" that can be done. Before a cure is used, in my opinion the most important step of the egg curing process happens before the cure is used and that is TAKING CARE OF YOUR EGGS. What I mean by this is after you catch a female salmon you need to bleed it. This is as simple as cutting one of the gill rakers and this takes a short amount of time to do. If you don't do this blood will pool around the eggs and the potential for contamination increases. This is a significant, after all, salmon smell in parts per billion and a contaminated egg will not get bit. Notice how clean the eggs look in the photo above. They came from a properly bled salmon.
So, that's it. This is how I do it. There are plenty of other ways to cure eggs (jar method, air dry method) but I have found this process works well for me . It's fast and convenient. Whatever method you use or cure try not be set on just one scent or color. On different days, different conditions, different times of the season salmon will show a marked preference for different cures and colors. Bring several different cured eggs when fishing and let the fish tell you what they want. Another thing that will improve your odds: make sure to change your bait often. I find the more bait I use the more I get back!
