09-07-2010, 05:46 PM
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Administrator/Business Member
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Wasilla / Skwentna, Alaska
Posts: 8,885
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About Those People Who Stop & Watch You Fish;
Hi guys & Gals,
Rather than post into Ants thread with this I thought to put it out here for all to read. I hope this rings a bell.
I always thought that when people stop to watch you it is a form of compliment and combined curiosity. I have not had the type problem that some of us have described with onlookers but have not fished much in the type areas where audiences may gather except once.
A few years back (2005) when leaving Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage (I lived in Anchorage at the time) I did have quite an audience / fisherman interaction. I was about the only person that I saw catch a king salmon that day and considered my good fortune the result of dogged perseverance. As I waded and walked back up the tidal flats to the dam that marks the upstream boundary of the open fishery two, '2', Holland America tour buses were unloading their passengers at the dam. There is a fish spillway there where the salmon congregate before running the outflow and heading up into the safety of the nursery waters of Ship Creek. I had no idea that salmon viewing was a tourist attraction until that day.
As the crowd assembled and grew on the walkways and viewing decks of the dam they noticed the "Alaskan Fisherman" coming toward them carrying what must have surly looked like a huge fish. People began to call down to me in their best English asking that I please hold the fish up so they could take photographs of it, and I obliged. Within 45 seconds there were at least 80 Europeans clamoring at the railings pointing every sort of digital camera and camcorder imaginable at me and calling out for me to stay until they got a shot. Finally I propped my rod against the cable that stretches across the current and the land marking the no fishing zone and with both hands hoisted the king (bright as the chrome on a F 150 bumper) over my head and this was met with booming applause and shouts of approval from my new found admirers, all cheering their American Salmon Fisherman! At the time I just smiled and held the fish but when I think back on that day now I know it will never happen again. If I were to think of a movie it would be the crowd chanting Maximus, Maximus, as I stood in the arena! It was like nothing I could have ever imagined, the people cheered! After crossing the cable and climbing the steel mesh stairs that lead up to the dam and parking area some of my new admirers wanted pictures of me, the fish, and them all together now, smile! I was flabbergasted, never had I been the focus of so much attention and cameras at the same time. It was truly my very own 15 seconds of fame. I smile to myself as I write this and a tear of forgotten joy has formed in my eyes. I'll tell you this my friends, be patient and be good to those who may stop to watch you cast or to land a fish, the day may prove to be one that will bring you fond memories and a quick smile years later.
Ard
Last edited by Hardyreels; 01-13-2012 at 05:45 PM.
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