Kulik River

Again, thanks to Michelle for posting this on her blog!

Our last day fishing was AWESOME! We had to leave early, just like normal, and get on a plane and fly to the river. The amazing thing about the Kulik is that it is only 1/2 mile long. And we were able to fish just about the entire day in one spot.

This is my grandpa and I wading to shore after getting off the plane in the morning.

The first "real" fish I caught was a rainbow that had previously broken it's back. can you see how it looks humped? The rainbow stripe follows the hump. Somehow this little guy managed to survive breaking it's back, and is still around to show it.

In this daddy-daughter picture, my dad has a bigger fish than me. It happens.

And this is my beautiful rainbow. In front of some beautiful land. While I'm kneeling in a beautiful river.

There were so many bears! I saw at least four different mammas with their cubs. And one juvenile, and at least one big male. They were so fun to watch! And they weren't threatening at all. We take a lot of precautions so that the bears won't associate humans with food. We eat only in the boat (so all the crumbs fall into the boat which we pack out with us).

See the red fish I'm holding? That's a sockeye. I caught a lot of those, but usually they aren't fun to catch. The sockeye have reached their nesting grounds, and most of them have already mated. They are just swimming around waiting to die. This is the kind of fish the bears eat. But this sockeye (shown below) fought like mad. I was sure it was a trout because it was so alive, running with my line, swimming all around the stream. But it was a beautiful sockeye! And now my fish is bigger than my dad's fish. :)

This is a movie of a bear fishing. He just jumps in and pops out with a fish in his mouth! It was amazing to watch.

And this is what the sockeye look like underwater.

You know how every fisherman had those awesome pictures of them holding a fish? And you wonder why fish hold still for them? Well, the truth is that fish don't hold still. I snapped this picture of my dad failing to hold onto his fish. This is what I look like so much of the time. :) (don't worry, he just picked the fish back up (it was still hooked) and we took a good picture).

And these cute little guys were my "pet" white fish. They always swam about six inches off my boots. I was proving a break in the current, and they enjoyed resting there.