Taking A Texan Fishing in Alaska

[gitano]

My wife's cousin, and her friend Wayne, are visiting. Mostly, they are doing the tourist "thing", but of course Wayne had a hankerin' for some "wilderness Alaska" fishing. The best I could do on short notice was pink salmon. (Too late for sockeye and too early for cohos.) We drove north about half an hour from my place and got into a mess of pinks. Here are some pictures.


















Paul

[sakorick]

Real nice ones!

[Paul Hoskins]

Nice looking fish. If they were trout I could most likely eat a whole fish myself. Dress, salt & pepper & possibly a bit of Italian seasoning.Half a stick of butter & roll up in foil & cook over an open fire. ......Yummy. ......I'll stop with that. ......Paul H

[gitano]

The fish was actually disappointing. We ate those three hens, and they were not 'good'. Our guests, and even my wife ate them and said they were "OK". However, while I'm most certainly NOT a food snob, I can't bring myself to eat 'bad' salmon. Which includes farmed salmon. I've just been 'spoiled'.

Paul

[JaDub]

Always enjoyed catching Humpies ( pinks ) when the Sockeye run slowed down. I never minded catching them however I`ve always thought of them as dog food.  Fun catching on light tackle but not to take home.  Word has it the sockeye run was nothing short of  awesome  this year.   Figures, the year I miss all hell breaks loose.........   which means next year when I show up it  will be a disaster.  

[gitano]

Fishing in Alaska for salmon will be "good" next year and the year after. Thereafter it will again decline. This pattern has been observed for more than 120 years.

Paul

[JaDub]

Three year cycles...………  ?

[gitano]

No, it's actually about an 11 year CYCLE. THat's from "low" to "high" AND BACK TO "low". That's the sun spot cycle. The sunspot cycle effects earth's climate. (That's not really "debatable".) Climate effects salmon over-wintering survival. Especially sockeye salmon. The 11 years is divided in halves of half "peak" and half "valley". About 5 years each. Around each peak and valley is a 3 year interval of really "good" and really "bad" fishing: 1 year in front of the peak when fishing is "good", the peak when fishing is great, and 1 year after which fishing is "good". Then about 3 years or 4 years of mediocre fishing, then 1 year of "poor" fishing, the "valley" of "bad" fishing, and 1 more year of "poor" fishing. Then back "up" to the peak. Right now, and next year or two are the "peak" years. Thereafter abundance will fall off for about three or four years to the worst years (the "valley") then spend three or four years climbing back up to a peak year, around which fishing will again be "good".


However... I don't expect you to believe me and not the "experts". It has recently AGAIN become patently clear that people simply LOVE to find ways to reject my explanations of - especially - biological phenomena. I DON'T CARE. It doesn't matter to me whether people "believe" me or not. What DOES matter to me is WHY people REFUSE to listen, especially in areas about which I am genuinely an "expert" both by education and experience. Part of the reason people often refuse to act on my recommendations is that OFTEN my recommendations are contrary to the "experts" and "common wisdom", and they simply can't BELIEVE all those experts could be wrong and "some guy" is  right.

As mentioned in the original post in this thread, we were entertaining relatives this past fortnight. After about an hour of fishing, I had caught about 3 times as many fish as he. He was making long casts into places that I KNEW were not where the fish were. I stood on the banks of the river and told the guy EXACTLY where to cast and how to manipulate the drift of his lure after the cast in order to maximize his chances for catching a fish. Even standing beside him and pointing EXACTLY where to cast, he REFUSED to do so. at LEAST THREE TIMES I had to say "No, NOT out there. RIGHT here!" Finally, he cast exactly where I told him to cast. I walked away. He immediately started casting "way out there". Again. I kid you not. Some 6 hours later, he FINALLY did EXACTLY what I told him to do, and guess what... He IMMEDIATELY started catching fish. This fellow KNEW that I 1) have a Ph.D. in Fisheries Science, 2) was head of the state of Alaska's sonar program DESIGNED TO DETERMINE WHERE FISH ARE IN A RIVER, 3) Spent ALL of my professional life studying fish - mostly SALMON - and most importantly, 4) right before HIS OWN EYES I had caught 10 times as many fish as he had!


Again, and VERY importantly, I couldn't care less THAT he didn't listen to me. Not doing what I recommended was his "punishment". What BOTHERS me is WHY would someone DO THAT? It seems completely nuts! BUT IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! This fellow is NOT "special" or "extraordinary". In fact, he is NORMAL. It's the rare person that actually takes my advice. There was a fellow here at THL - RatherBeHunting - that was one of the rare exceptions. He was asking about "what cartridge for my young son's first rifle". I, (as I always do), recommended the .308 Win, and gave the reasons. He got his son a rifle chambered in .308 Win and loaded, Light for Caliber bullets, and was very pleased with the  results. Later, as his son increased in age and size, (and per my recommendations), he upped the weights on the bullets he loaded for bigger game. The process was trivial, AND EFFECTIVE. The reason I mention this example, is NOT because I'm saying "I told you so", neither is it "See how smart I am", but rather to point out that I remember it BECAUSE ACTUALLY APPLYING WHAT I RECOMMEND IS SUCH A RARE OCCURRENCE!
 
I have actually figured out SOME of the reason why people love to ignore what I say. (I'll keep that reason specific to me, to myself for the time being.) And of course there are the "normal" elements of contrariness associated with the y chromosome, and common human behavior. Even with some understanding, I will continue to be baffled, but still not CARE, whether or not people 'listen' to me. The reason it 'bothers' me WHY  is because if one has knowledge borne of experience or education or both, and no one listens to advice based on that knowledge and experience, 3 questions need to be asked: 1) Why "pay" for the experience or education? 2) What am EYE doing wrong that causes people to discount what I say? and 3) how do I rectify what causes people to discount what I say?

The above may sound like whining. I assure you it is NOT! It is simply the self-evaluation that I have done all of my life. The fact is, the "problem" - from my perspective - is MINE. I'm trying to figure out what I'M doing wrong that renders all of my experience and training of so little value. Again, I acknowledge that I'm "up against it" when what I say is not in lock-step with "conventional wisdom" or "what the experts say". What frustrates the !@#$%^^&* out of me is that when I AM A BONA FIDE !@#$%^&*ING EXPERT, and "they" still don't listen. That means there's something "wrong" with ME, and/or my 'delivery'.

So, JaDub, I have no expectation that you (or anyone else), will take my explanation about the abundance of salmon 'seriously'. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I am NOT offended when/if you don't. You will just be among a VERY LARGE group of people, several of which are my FRIENDS here at THL.


Paul

[JaDub]

Truer words were never spoken.   I picked up on effective sockeye fishing very quickly because I had  a bonified  expert to fish with. In due time we were catching fish constantly  while others just kept thrashing the water.  The lower 48 `experts` were all on suicide watch while my friend and I brought them in one after another.