Smoky the Fish

Gary and I returned this week from a cruise to Alaska. We spent two days in Vancouver and enjoyed hanging out with our friends, Eve and Dan, and their kids. Eve makes great oyster shots! Alaska was as gorgeous as everyone always told me it was. I never wanted to go because I like vacations in warm weather. I discovered that some cold weather trips are better than others - and this was the BEST! I caught a 17-lb. king salmon in Juneau. As the skipper of our sportfishing boat, "Desire," dropped the fish out of the net and onto the deck so I could remove the hook, I said, "I'm going to name him Smoky." With that, the skipper clubbed Smoky on the head and he stopped flipping about. "Guess I'm going to have him smoked, too," I said. Gary was laughing hysterically, as were the family of four from Honolulu who were fishing with us. Gary caught a 2-lb. piece of gross green moss, so I was very happy with Smoky the Fish, who was delivered to a seafood processing place on our way back to the cruise ship. I've never caught a fish that big, and certainly never enjoyed handling fish. Yuck. But this was fun, even with fish scales and blood all over my hands and my new down coat. I loved it. If one can handle changing adult diapers, one can handle fish guts. Time for some Smoky!