We love fishing!

Summer is my favorite time of the year. Not only is it warmer, but it's time to come out of hibernation. I'm not talking about the bears. I'm talking about me! I spend a lot of time indoors in the wintertime, because I get cold so easily. Sure it's nice to breath fresh, crisp, cold air, but I like to go out without having to throw on my whole closet of winter clothes.

I love summer time because I get to go out boating again and fishing and berry picking. If I could I would fish all day everyday.

My favorite kind of fish: Silver Salmon!

My husband cutting some salmon for fillets

My husband gets tired after a couple hours of fishing so I'm forced to go home. Plus putting away fish so they don't spoil takes a couple hours in itself. You gotta gut, fillet, clean, and vacuum-pack fish that you will cook throughout the year. If you're going to can fish, that's another long process. For that you might put your fish on ice overnight and cut them early morning.

Our first batch of pink salmon drying on the fish rack

I love the feeling of the first tug on my fishing pole line. I try to guess what kind of salmon is at the end of the line when reeling it in. Silvers and chum (dog salmon) are sometimes hard to distinguish between. They are about the same size, but many locals are not big on chum. Chum is only good for dried fish or dog food. Silvers, on the other hand, are delicious any way you prepare them (strips, fried, baked, canned, half-dried and half boiled).

My family is good at filling our freezer. So much delicious looking silvers.

My boys, Keane (9) and Brian (7) enjoy fishing. Two summers ago, Keane caught his first of many silvers. He was really quiet about it so my husband and I didn't even know he had something on his line. We were fishing from the boat and we all had our lines out. I looked over at Keane and noticed his fishing pole was drooped over and he was using all his might to reel in whatever was at the end of his line. I quickly reeled in my line so I could grab the dipnet. I was so excited to see what kind of fish he had. 

This would be his very first silver! Keane kept reeling and at one point the silver tugged so hard that Keane almost flew out of the side of the boat. This didn't scare him. I think he was too excited to think about anything other than getting that fish into the boat. Finally he got the fish close enough for me to collect it with the dipnet. 

When we got the fish in the boat, Keane let out a big sigh and smiled really hard. Right away he asked, "Mom is that a silver?!?" He knew how much I loved silvers so I could tell he was proud of himself. I told him, "Yes! Way to go! Your very first silver!" I had him pose with his silver and he quickly went back to fishing. That day he caught two more silvers! Fishing for silvers is not an easy task for a 50 lb 7-year-old so I was pretty proud. I think he became addicted to fishing like his mom. That's something to be proud of.