Wednesday, June 27, 2007

i smell like salmon, but that's ok

so...
i finally got to go set-netting. (a quickie for the non-fisherpeople out there: you take a giant volleyball type net, stick it out in the mouth of a river, and let the salmon come to you)

Picture this...the sun is slowly sliding down behind the ocean, it sends sharp rays through clouds...three people sit around a fire drinking cuban mojitos.
Is it New Zealand? Mexico? Puerto Rico?

Nope, none of the above. Its Alaska! And how do we know this? As you look closer you can see...the sun isn't really setting, just drifts along the horizon creating a bizarre, ever-twilighty ambiance. The clouds aren't really clouds, but a giant column of grey and black beetle-kill spruce fire smoke reaching out across the sky. And those people, you notice they are sitting awfully close to that fire, and wearing wool hats and gloves, and if you could look really close you might see their long underwear and thermal socks peaking out under their rubber boots.

And if you were there, like really actually there, you would smell them...the unmistakeable odor of salmon. Not just ordinary salmon, mind you, but still warm and slimy - blood and guts in the water being eaten by sea gulls salmon. The smell of your 15 salmon mixed with the smell of the thousands of other salmons being simultaneously butchered by unwashed Alaskans who've been sleeping in the sand, getting their drinking water out of blue plastic, and shitting in a spackel bucket.

And I'm counting down the days until dipnetting starts...

lox, filets, and caviar for all!
amber

1 comment:

mom said...

nothing like a good fish story. mom