Fishing in Pasagshak

Kelly, not able to control her laughter

Happy to be heading back with a working motor and three reds

I think I just experienced some of the nicest 4th of July weather Kodiak has seen in a long time. And I caught some fish! I even got my first subsistence fishing permit. My parents have one so we have always put our gillnet out for salmon under their permit. On the day I arrived my dad was working and my mom is in a boot cast until a stress fracture in her foot heals. My sister and brother-in-law had nothing but time on our hands, so I got my own permit.

I have never taken the skiff out without my dad (once Ryan and I did take it out, but it didn't exactly go well). Our outboard is a little touchy, and old, and in fact, it's built from parts of two old outboards. It's the kind of motor that no one should take out unless they possess the skills to fix it themselves (which is often necessary). My brother-in-law is a mechanic so I had full faith in his ability to keep get that thing running again if it decided to quit.

We set the net in Pasagshak in what was a bit of a comedy show. It involved a lot of swear words and exclamations of "How does Dad usually do this?" and "How does your dad get this thing to start?" We first had trouble getting the outboard to start while we were getting pounded into the beach by the surf after we had dropped the anchor on the beach. Once Alex figured out the trick that it had to be in neutral to start, we started letting the net out while reversing away from the beach. We ended up with the net in a classy "S" shape. We looked like total professionals. Then we tried to straighten the net, which somewhat worked after some time. I'm sure the boats on either side of us were staring and probably laughing.

We sat out there for 5 hours and only caught 3 reds. But, we had nothing better to be doing than be bobbing around in the sun. Three reds is nothing to complain about.

Alex did learn something about our outboard, and I think we all learned that my dad makes setting the net look easy.