Sport Show Season

Hi there! It's been awhile since we last posted. We don't have any new fish pictures but thought we would let you know that we will be at the Minnesota Sportsmen's Boat, Camping & Vacation Show at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota. We will be there from January 9th through January 13th. Our booth number is 51. We get lonely at the booth and tired of each other so please stop by and say hello.

That's All Folks!

My last Kenai River fishing trip of the year was yesterday. The temperature at 7:00am was 28 and it wasn't until 10:30am before all the frost was out of the boat. I fished John and Mike a second day and wish we could have done as well as the day before ( should've been here yesterday????). Nonetheless, we ended the season with a beautiful 14lb buck. Out of all the fish John caught this one by far gave us the best fight. I'm glad we stayed out a little bit longer because his fish came during the second to last troll of the season. It's good to have a couple of "half full" or "always full" guys in the boat. Thanks for ending my season the way that you did.

Tomorrow Jane and I should be finished winterizing the boats and cabins. I can't believe how fast it comes to an end. My friend Jeff referred to the end of season as a high school graduation. Anyway, we both feel very blessed and fortunate to be doing what we're doing and we'd like to thank everyone of you that made 2007 a great success.

This will not be our final blog/report of the year so make sure you check back once in awhile. I can't guarantee that we'll be writing a lot but we'll do our best to let you know what we're up to.

One last thing. To date we are scheduled to be at two Sportmen's Boat, Camping and Vacation Shows. The first one will be at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota from January 9th-13th.
The second one will be at the Civic Centre in St. Cloud, Minnesota from February 28th-March 2nd. If you get a chance stop by and say hello.

Talk to you later.....

Keith & Jane

Winding Down

Our 2007 season is coming to a close. While I am anxious to have free time to see family and friends, it is always kind of sad to close things up too.

The photo is of Canyon Creek. I had to pick up Keith at the airport in Anchorage last weekend so I took my time, stopped for photos along the way and just enjoyed the ride. It has been a pretty fall so far with more good weather than bad.

Keith is on his last trip of the season today...I'm sure you will get a final update from him today or tomorrow. We will then take the dock out this evening after he gets in. I have a sneaky feeling we will still launch the boat for another day or two of personal fishing.

I've put a good dent into my fall close up tasks....3 of the 4 cabins are cleaned. All of the bedding and pillows have been laundered, 3 of the 4 ovens have been cleaned (yuck!) and 3 of the 4 refrigerators are cleaned and defrosted. I cleaned out one of the grills yesterday...what a mess...and need to thank whoever cleaned the charcoal grill on the Steelhead. I'm guessing Dan. Thank you! One of the gas grills will be replaced next spring, so that leaves just one more grill to clean. Thank goodness....not a job I do often enough I'm afraid....if I did it more frequently the grills probably wouldn't get so bad, right?

Well, I'm off to my next closing project....organize the paperwork. It shouldn't take long and at least it doesn't require latex gloves.

Jane

XXL Silvers

The season is starting to wind down for me. I've got a couple of more trips this week and then it's time to winterize the boat and cabins. I hate to see it end so soon.

This morning it wasn't raining out, so Jane and I went out fishing for a couple of hours. Fishing was great and the average size was phenonemenal. I'm holding a 17lbs silver that provided the most entertainment of all the fish hooked this fall. We were fishing near the Crossover when the silver hit. He decided the river wasn't big enough so it beached itself on a gravel bar. It eventually found it's way back to the water and peeled out a 100yds of line. For all of you keeping score, chalk up another one on the "Fancy Pants."

Silver Update 9/13

It's been awhile since my last report. We've been enjoying typical September silver fishing. Lot's of rain, cool days, and a consistent bite.

For those who wanted to fish most of the day limits were caught. The average size of the silver's has been impressive of late. Most of the fish have been in the 12-15lb range. The largest topped the scale at 18lbs.

I know the photo is not a recent one but I like it for two reasons: an action photo on the Kenai, and kids enjoying the fight of a salmon.

Darn Seal

The last couple of days I've been fishing Robin and Jeff Argir from Brainerd, Minnesota. Fantastic weather and steady fishing for them.

Jeff came back from the fish processor this morning and said they had nearly 40lbs of fillets. He could catch one more silver before he left for Homer so we went out this afternoon for an hour or two to try our luck. It didn't take too long and Jeff hooked up a nice silver on the Fancy Pants lure. It made a couple of nice runs and we dropped our buoy and chased it down the river. We had the fish about 10 feet from the boat but it decided to head down stream. About 50 yards away I saw a swirl and thought it was his fish. Just then a seal popped it's head up and the line went limp. It knocked the fish off of the line. First time ever.

Most of you could guess the rest of the story. No more bites.

Dirty rotten seal.

Team ABC Seamless

Great weather and a great day for fishing. In the photo from left to right you'll see Steve, Wally, Brian, and Marshall. I can't quite figure out if I should call them Team ABC, Team Minnesota, or Team Raisanen. One thing I know for sure is these boys can flat out fish.