Hi KK,
Your workouts as usual are great. Sounds like you are doing such a good job on them.
I don't envy the tax thing. Ugh.
This is what has been happening in my life.
I've been having fun trying to catch a fish and learned a lot in one day about fishing in the Skykomish River. Only about 15 or 20 min. away from home.
When I first got there, there were nets set every so far from each other all the way up and down in the river. I found out that the Indians have the right to do this. Anglers, like myself couldn't fish 100 feet from these nets.
The Indians had a great technique on how to get the fish into their nets. They would use a power motored dingy and go on the sides of the river and pound on the boat and shout to scare the fish into the nets. Then they would leave and come back every two hours and inside their nets were about 10 fish. Then they would repeat that process throughout the day. There was always one person that stood on the bank while the other person checked the nets. WOW!
I had the opportunity to talk with them and learned what kinds of fish are in the river. These fish were huge! Salmon of course, steel head...all about 12 to 15 pounds each.
An hour before I left the river, I also met a few people going by me as I was telling them that I was here all day long and didn't once have a nibble. They looked at my set up and made all kinds of modifications. Gave me some much needed things/advice and left me on my merry way to continue fishing. I gave up after about 7 hours. However I decided to go again the next day with my new set up. Pole in hand with added new stuff from a stop at Walmart, and off I went again.
I found my new friends there while they were taking the fish out of the nets. Same guy there on the bank as before. But this time I realized it was a woman taking the fish out of the net. Said hi to the man on the bank, jabbered a bit and walked down the river in my favorite spot, 100 feet away from the net. The guy also looked at my rig and gave his approval.
While I was fishing and when they were done collecting their fish , they asked me to come over. I did, and they gave me this 12 pound male salmon. I thanked them profusely, for I thought I would never catch one anyway. We talked a little more and away I went to my spot on the river and used my stringer to put the fish onto and hold the fish in place. Soon the woman came to me and gave me a slip of paper with writing on it. "1 King Salmon male about 12 lbs given to by Skokomish tribal member Jennifer Williams." She said the limit for me is two, but with this salmon and the note, I, myself can catch two with the addition of this one. That was so kind of them.
I'm going to try to get her address and give her a thank you note and perhaps a book marker I crocheted, to thank her one more time. It was so generous and kind of them to do that. I had a warm heart from that simple act.
While I was still fishing, the Indians left. The fish was dead and was fresh for now, but I thought about going home to get it into the fridge before too long. So, I did go home. On the way I saw all these fisherman on the bank looking down off the semi cliff watching the process of the Indians collecting their fish. The anglers were not happy at all. They said it was a depressing year and they were upset because no one can catch their limit of fish, let alone have a chance to fish with all the nets and sound effects.
I then realized why there was a lone person on the bank of the river while the other person would collect the fish. He was a kinda guard to protect the collector of fish. I understand that there are treaties and I think this might be one of them. Of course it changes every year, and the anglers say that maybe next year will be a better year for anglers.
Anyway, I decided no more fishing for me this year or perhaps at this time. Felt the tension in the air (when I realized what was happening) and I don't want to be in the middle of it. Although I did have a great time, and met very interesting people. I do wish people could get along, I just loved what I learned so far, and was yearning for more.
Well, I've got to pack up for the ocean. We'll leave early tomorrow. Want to clean a little in the house, so when I get home, things at least are put away and semi clean. I can't wait to bring home massage stones as big and probably bigger than my fists. YEAH!
I'll check in later today to see how ya all doing.