Miles roundtrip: 172 miles
Driving time roundtrip: 3 hours 30 minutes
Weekend: May 14th to 16th
The adventures continue with Roadtrip #2!!!
I have been meaning to get out fishing ever since I moved up here to Alaska... Dad even put a fishing rod and tackle box in my trunk when I first moved up here, but I wasn't home much last summer, and working in the field that I do not many people enjoy hunting and fishing like I do so I didn't know where the hot spots were... **sidenote here ** for the record, just because I study climate does not mean I am a "tree-hugger"... lol... I'm so tired of being called that... haha. They don't go hand in hand... I do believe that climate change is a real concern, but that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I absolutely love fishing and hunting... I'm a 100% country/outdoor loving gal and proud of it!!
Okay back to the blog now that I'm done with that rant...
Anyways I overheard our accountant/travel guy in IARC talking about fishing with Volodya, one of the russian researchers in the department and I caught him in the afternoon when I was turning in some paperwork to see if he knew of any good local fishing holes and he filled me in! His family has a cabin on the lake and since the ice had just gone out on the lake he said the Rainbow Trout were in the shallows... good news for me since I was planning on fishing from shore.
So I packed up the car Thursday night with all of my camping gear and left right from work on Friday afternoon. I fished from about 7 PM to 11 PM and then went to pick out a campsite in the state park for the night.
Campsite at the State Park
What a gorgeous night!... still light out through the entire night being it's summer in Alaska but it was still nice to sit around the campfire and roast marshmallows...
Night Sky at 1 AM
The next morning I slept in until 9, made some breakfast and headed back down to the lake. Just as I pulled in I ran into a guy who said his buddy had just caught one...
First thought through my head... I'm following this guy to see where he goes! hahaha... so I did and it turned out to be a smart decision... not because we caught many that entire afternoon, but because of all of the BS'ing and fishing jokes we kept coming all day. I felt like I was back home in Minnesota hanging out with family or my guy friends.
Shoreline in the afternoon after the morning crowd left
One of the funniest moments happened when his buddy decided he wanted to sit down and relax... he put his folding chair in the shallows of the water... set his beer down in the water to keep in cool... and then proceeded to miss... not 1, not 2, not 3... not 4... but 5 fish in a row!!! I was laughing my ass off as was his buddy... it was priceless! After miss #5 he tossed his chair back up on shore... haha.
Over the course of the afternoon the 2 of them brought in 4 nice Rainbows, and eventually... with the assistance of one of the guys offering me a new lure to tie on after nothing in my tackle box was working... I managed to bring in this puuuurdy 20 inch Rainbow... I was so freaking proud and excited that I practically ran backwards dragging the fish out of the water to make sure I didn't lose it.
My 20 inch Rainbow Trout
Filleting the fish... yes I can clean my own fish... lol
Dinner that night was DEEEELISH!!! Yummmmo! Nothing beats fresh caught Rainbow Trout on the grill... potatoes.... sooooo good!
Dinner! Trout...
And... Potatoes!!!
In the morning I got up and spent a few more hours fishing after packing up the campsite. Saw more fish than you would imagine... beautiful to watch but they weren't hungry so I headed back home...
And that's the end of roadtrip #2!!
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