We planned this 6-day trip  around the Turnagain Arm bore tide.  C was working on the best predicted days, but we still had a shot on his first full day off.  (We will have a chance at a better bore tide in August,  but not sure if we will try again.)

We likely would have caught more fish at Sheep Creek Slough if we didn’t need to head south to catch the July 25 evening tide.  We drove several hours after C got off work, setting up camp at 11 p.m. on the 24th.  When we hit the river the next morning  fish were rolling, and I caught and released a large chum.  The group bait fishing next to us had 4 beautiful coho on a stringer.  Even though the fishing looked good, we headed south to Turnagain Arm.

That evening we saw two small waves.  We’re not sure if the bore tide wasn’t very big, or if we were moving at the wrong times.  We started at Beluga Point, where we saw turbulence and fast rising water, but no long waves.  Then we drove down to Bird Point Scenic Overlook, where we saw a cool, very long wave, but it didn’t look very high – maybe a foot?   See the photo above. No one was surfing it, that is for sure! We hung around a while at Bird Point after almost everyone else had left.  Then we drove north to Bird Creek, and while looking for fish in the creek, a significant wave surprised us, moving upstream .   It was only a few inches high, but going against a strong current.  It stirred up a lot of mud in the clearwater creek. It was just that one, single wave. Weird!

We saw our first black bear of this trip along the Parks Highway on the drive south,  then C saw 5 more bears on the Russian River.  M has a cold and is resting and puttering more than fishing.

Three days into our trip and our little freezer is almost full with the 4 sockeye C has caught.  We are getting better and faster at putting up our catch on the tailgate or at a picnic table.  The vacuum sealer takes very little power from the Jackery.  In order to run our little mobile freezer, we alternate using the Jackery, and then using the generator to simultaneously run the freezer and recharge the Jackery.  Once all the fish is frozen solid, we can unplug the freezer for a bit and recharge the Jackery using solar, but so far we haven’t been able to fit solar into the rotation.

Last year by August 9 we had only caught four fish. https://roaming-nature.com/2023/07/03/sockeye-bears/ .  This year we have been able to get out more, plus we have broadened our skills.   We already have caught (and mostly released), 53 Arctic Grayling (me & C),  1 Lake Trout (C), 1 Chum Salmon (me) and 21 Sockeye Salmon (C). 

However, last summer we saw wild polar bears, so how does one compare?  We are blessed.   https://roaming-nature.com/2023/06/19/utqiagvik-part-2-polar-bears/