Anyone who thinks fisheries work is easy work has never done any real work with fish. It’s a full day of aqua-fit layered over with wresting (fish), weightlifting, high intensity interval training, gymnastics, rowing……and probably a dozen other sports/exercises that I can’t think of at the moment.
I think this photo of another crew member sums up the feeling when the boat, the cooler of eggs, the net, and all the other associated gear, was dragged up the steep bank and two people head off to retrieve the second truck that was left up at the put-it location up-river. The other two staff waiting behind for the trucks to return are equally flaked out to the left and right outside of the frame.
Certainly not the ‘best’ photo I took today, but definitely the most appropriate summary shot.
The day started with a bit of road work on the Tote Road. When the crew had left the day before they’d discovered, on the way out, that some boulders had come down the scree slope onto the road. They were “just” able to squeeze by and brought back a pry bar and a few strong bodies to try to roll the rocks off the road…if you want to call it a road.
It’s tight squeeze along this goat trail….
It took some effort, but the rocks were eventually moved to the side and we carried on.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day, except for the clouds of black flies that drove us all crazy. But the fish were mostly ripe, and we had some successful sets.
I know that this area is pretty miserable later in the year when fall turns to winter. The sun is fleeting and some parts of the Valley don’t see sun for months. But at this time of year, when the sun shines, it is a beautiful landscape.
On one of the later sets the divers were drifting the net down the river and a wasp was buzzing one of the raft riders. He swatted at it and accidentally swatted his glasses off his face and into the river. The water wasn’t deep, but it was fairly fast at the spot. It took about 20-30 feet before we could get the raft stopped and three of us walked back up looking for them, but the net was being hauled in so I turned and ran back down to help put it in and sort the fish before returning to the glasses hunt. The two divers searched from the spot they went in and down through the deeper waters while the rest of us scoured the shallower waters. It was hard to know if they would have caught in the rocks right away, or been tumbled downstream. The owner of said glasses was leaving on a fishing trip in the morning and one can’t just whip into an optometrist in these parts to find something to substitute. Someone suggested we run the net down and see if we couldn’t pick them up. We got the net stretched out and had just started to drag it when one of the divers stood up front eh river and held them up int he air! Completely undamaged!
Sweet!
And there were some monsters on the river!
At the end of the line we pulled in at Billy’s Cabin and hauled all the gear up the slope and into the shade. Two crew took off to get the second truck and we waited and enjoyed the brief rest.
While waiting I wandered around the remote property and occupied myself with taking some random photos…some of which I liked enough to plunk here.
Ah, one interesting note. There was a stock assessment crew that we passed on our way up and another crew that was up top above us when we launched at birch run. We’d noted that we’d not seen them pass us while we were doing sets and it seemed odd. They don’t spend as much time in one place as we do and typically they raft past at some point. But they didn’t. Apparently they’d encountered an “arrogant bear” (their words not mine) that caused them enough problems that they “took refuge in the box of our truck” that we left at the top end. Sounds like a bear I’m glad to not have encountered!
And thus ends day four.
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