It was Steve's birthday, and we went out to try our luck on this beautiful day after a leisurely morning at the townhouse we rented in Kodiak.
We went to the places we looked at yesterday, but as suspected, we couldn't get any of the fish that were just holding in the rivers to bite.
We drove out to the Buskin River State Recreation Area where we tried our luck at the mouth of the river where it met the ocean. There is a $5 day use parking fee.
Unfortunately, we had no luck there. But the surroundings were pretty, .....
and the water was clear.
Moving up the river, we watched as a Coast Guard plane flew in directly overhead and landed at the airport next door.
Apparently, they were practicing "touch and goes" as they flew over me several times. I stopped fishing long enough to shoot this video.
Just a little farther upriver, we could see some good-sized salmon holding in a deeper pool. We threw everything in the tackle box at them, and they just wouldn't bite. They expressed a little interest a couple times, but not enough to grab a fly or a lure.
We talked with a young lady that had recently moved to Kodiak with her Coast Guard husband, and she was learning to fish while he was working. She was very sweet and gave us a few tips on places to fish. She even offered to rent her ATV to us to access the Saltery River where fishing guides take clients. Concerned about damaging the vehicle, we declined.
We moved the Jeep and walked down to the river at another access point where a few people were "flossing" for Sockeye. We had been told that the Sockeye run was pretty much over, but there were people pulling them in.
Steve and I tried our luck. We could see the fish, but they weren't moving. It seemed people were "flossing" but they were more snagging the fish and hoping they'd get a hook in their mouths by luck since the fish weren't swimming into the lines.
I ended up catching one pink salmon legally, but that was it for the day.
While we were fishing, the ladies made the 50-mile drive to the end of Pasagshak Road to Fossil Beach, which is known for beachcombing and fossils in the rocks on the cliffs. Esther and Linda supplied the following photos.
These shots were taken on the drive out, which they said was gorgeous.
Arriving at Fossil Beach.
They had some luck beachcombing, and Esther was more interested in the fossils than Linda, so she took some photos.
These are spherical concretions.
After spending some time there, they stopped at a couple other beaches on the way back.
At Mayflower Beach, way down the beach, there was a Kodiak brown bear. You can't really see it in the photos, but it's there.
That would be the only Kodiak bear any of us would see during our stay. You can sometimes see them on the road system, but your odds are better if you take a plane into the interior on a bear viewing excursion.
The Kodiak brown bears are a slightly different subspecies of the coastal brown bears we saw at Katmai, and the largest of them are the largest of the species, rivaling Polar Bears in size. But they are still brown bears which are made up of Kodiak brown bears, coastal brown bears, and grizzlies which are a smaller version found more in the interior areas of their range. The grizzlies are smaller due to their lack of access to the high fat, high calorie food sources found along the coast.
Eventually, the four of us rendezvoused at the rental property. I took the salmon I caught and cleaned it at a nearby beach.
Esther made an amazing crab dip with the last of the Dungeness Crab we had left from our crabbing on Prince Of Wales Island back in May, and she cooked steaks for Steve's birthday dinner.
While disappointed in the fishing, we can't complain about the weather and the beauty of the island outside of town. Tomorrow, we're supposed to have some rain, so we'll see how that affects the day's activities. The boys are planning to fish again, but the girls are thinking it may be a day of hanging out at the townhouse.
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