Finally made it to fish camp on Tuesday, August 7 and what a wonderful place to relax, fish and sightsee. The Tinkers were wonderful hosts, telling us we could stay for as long as we wanted. They were leaving on Thursday to return home to Fairbanks for a grandson’s birthday, so we pulled out the same day. This a view of the Copper River.
Fish camp was so unique. They had a kitchen, a gathering room (tarp covered from the rain), an outhouse (no, I didn’t want to bring this one home), a well, a septic, electricity, a big storage building for fishing gear and multiple freezers and parking spots for at least 7-8 rvs. The Tinkers have a legal/registered fish wheel and they catch and process enough salmon for 20 families they tell us.
In the meantime, they hooked up the boat and took us grayling fishing on the Gulkana River where we got into a few graylings, a few schools of sockeye, kings on their upstream travels and eagles, eagles, eagles! The Alaska pipeline goes over the top of the river, too. The Alaska Fish and Game closed all King salmon fishing because they say their numbers are too low. However, the “escapement” numbers are up, meaning enough King salmon had traveled up stream to spawn.
The next day, Mike took Connie and I to the Gakona River to try for some Sockeye salmon. No such luck, but a beautiful day and a beautiful river.
And again, more eagles !
We said our good-byes the next morning and headed for the Yukon, British Columbia and home. Still miles and miles to go.
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