It was 4 AM and we were getting dressed in our head-to-toe fishing gear. We promised the fishing guide, Rick Woods, that we would meet him at Bing’s Landing on the Kenai River at 5 AM sharp.
Our hosts, the former Mayor of Soldatna, Ken Lancaster and Mavis, his wife, Mavis made sure we were out the door on time and reminded us to watch out and not disrupt the moose with her young in their front yard, since sometimes they hang out in the driveway.  We tiptoed  out the door to not wake the moose, and made a dash for the car since we heard the fish take the bait in the early morning hours, and we didn’t want to miss out catching our salmon. It was a late August day, and the Silver Salmon were running in the Kenai River. We had just missed the King Salmon run in July, and it was the end of the Sockeye run.
The weather was brisk, in the 40’s and there was a chill in the air. Good thing we had layers of fleece and a waterproof jacket with pants in case of rain.
We were prepared and ready to catch dozens of fish. Rick introduced us to the basics of fishing and made sure we had our fishing licenses in hand. He let us know that we each had a limit of 2 fish each, and the last couple mornings, his customers had caught their 2 fish limit by 8 am. With pole in hand, we were ready to reel our fish in!
After waiting patiently for a bite, we learned the importance of patience since neither of us caught a salmon all morning.
In fact after 14 hours of being on the fishing boat, we caught only one Silver Salmon each. Even though it was only one fish, we felt so proud of our catch of the day!
