Last night we had a steady gentle rain all night so this morning there were puddles everywhere.

Abby had a hair appointment at noon and I didn't feel like combat fishing today as it was threatening to rain all day.  After I dropped Abby off for her appointment I did some admin work at the RV.  After 3 hours and no call from Abby I decided to check out Deep Creek to see if any Silver Salmon were in the river.  None.

Finally at 5 P.M. Abby was done.  I questioned Abby as to why it took 5 hours to cut and color her hair.  It turns out her hair dresser has multiple jobs.  She tends bar at the local American Legion, works in a gift shop, works as a deck hand on charter boats, is a motorcycle mechanic and to top it off works with her dad as a plumber.  I thought maybe she was getting paid by the hour but Abby said the price was set before the appointment. 

We ate dinner at the local Pizza joint (didn't see her hair dresser).  As we were walking out of the restaurant, the halibut charters were arriving.

As predicted, the halibut are getting larger with the smaller tides.  The largest in this picture was exactly 100 lbs, the next was 70 lbs.  We are looking forward to our Saturday charter.  A couple of these beauties will finish filling up the freezer.

I dropped Abby off at the RV and I headed to the Ninilchik River for some fishing.  Spent an hour on the river with not one human in sight and just the sounds of nature.  I was in for a treat.  King Salmon were migrating up the river in small schools and were really fun to watch as they negotiated the shallow parts of the river.  These fish had been in the river long enough to turn a bright orange/red and would not be good eating.  I was also fishing with a light weight fly rod.  These guys were at least twice the size of the Sockeye Salmon we were catching and I had already lost one rod and I didn't need to lose another.

I went back and picked up Abby and we went down to the mouth of the Ninilchik where the commercial fleet was returning to off load their catch of Sockeye's.

T

 These boats are lined up waiting to off load their catch.

This boat off loaded multiple bails like this one.  Very similar to what you see on "Dangerous Catch".

These are the bins full of Salmon on ice waiting for transport to the wholesaler.

There were over 50 fishing boats trawling off shore within visual distance from the process facility.

Driving back to the RV we were treated to this scene just feet from the road along the river.

A cow moose and her calf were chomping peacefully and didn't seem to mind our presence.  It is amazing to see how they totally denude the bushes.  They are an efficient eating machine.

Tomorrow we are driving to Soldotna for grocery shopping and another fly rod for Abby.