Got a new book today. Alaska Tracks by Randy Zarnke. 'Short stories from hunters, fishermen, and trappers of Alaska.'

Paper back, 19.95. All proceeds go to ATA.

Okay this is a first for me. In all my years I have never seen anything like this in Homer. Or anywhere. Maybe it is common elsewhere but odd for these parts.
We went up to try our hand at some late season dipping and we came upon this group, herd, pod or what ever a bunch of SEALS are called! Holy cow.
With a loose count of bodies I had 103. But certainly over 90. Could have chucked a spear in the middle of them and got one for sure. ;0)

Lots of uquq there!

Lots of bait too.

FT, at about any low tide you can find a pod of from 100 to 150 hauled out on sand bars at the head of the bay. Use to fly over them all the time in the cub. No easy way to ever see them except by air, the river fans out and is too shallow to run by boat, and too many miles of gooey mud to walk out there. Nice pictures, I never could get a decent picture of them out of the airplane,
back then all I used for a camera was the throw-away instamatics.

That gravel bar obviously has earned the Good Housekeeping "Seal of Approval!"

Seals showing the banana pose. Kind of common around here to see between 50 to 200 of them laying out on the silt.

Speck I saw a bunch in the river in front of the Bradley Lake terminal this spring bear hunting. The most I ever saw around here. Till now. ;0) Usually it is just one here and there. And more in front of a salmon stream. Well the skates moved on on us today. Made for some tough picking.

Looks like something east of Fairbanks is burning really good this afternoon. Did the range fire kick back up again?

Welcome to AK tightlywound

Thanks Looks like they are doing evacuations

That is just a little campfire to keep the bugs down. They do them all summer, every summer uo that way

Any first hand recent info on the Chitina dipnetting? Earlier today the hotline said slow fishing and high water, but we're still taking off in the morning.

I hope you're not taking that old canoe..........or a new one either

Heck no! I'm beach fishing, may even tie myself off!

I've got a recent first hand report; they call it fishing and not catching for a reason!

Rough first day, got my hoop hung up in a snag at O'Brien Creek sweeping the first day, lost 12 feet of handle and the hoop on that tree. Got 6 in the canyon after that with spare equipment. Nearly flipped my 4wheeler over backwards on myself, got my legs run over on the rocks when I bailed, wife and sister nearly shook hands with a sow and her 2 cubs at the cleaning tables, and the kid didn't want to sleep that first night. Luckily, the water level dropped by the morning, swept 1 fish at O'Brien, was able to retrieve my hoop and handles, and caught my limit and most of my supplemental in the canyons.

In the future I won't bother sweeping at O'Brien if it's that high, and climbing up and down the walls of the canyon looking for "the spot" and giving "the spot" time to warm up is worth it.

But it's fishing. They're where they are when they're there.

Good to hear you limited out! I hate that dang goat trail!

Leaves are already falling off the cottonwoods, here. Fireweed is giving up the ghost as well. Seems awful early to me, but man, have we had a nice summer. A bit too hot, but still, better than the last four.

Aknative....how were the reds looking? I hear the Chitna gets a decent run of silvers too. May need to give it a try before the season is over.

The ones I caught looked good, and they'll taste better. I've never tried silvers in Chitina, and don't think I will. One trip to that river a year is enough!