JR wrote:
Dave and Steve (& Chas & Willi), Just found time to look at all the pix
at leisure. Very good stuff. Thanks.

Papa Bear Floaters: other than packing heat, what precautions did you all
take for bears?

Steve hit this on the nose. On other trips we've camped well away from the
food, this time we only left 100 feet or so, but despite the ever present
footprints we only saw one bear on the trip, and as soon as the other guys made
enough niose to alert me, he took off. We were fishing a small backwater for
silvers, and the bear came to about 30 to 50 yards from us before he heard us
and took off.


It seemed that the silvers were a mix of bright chromers and dark fish.
Is that the case? If so, what was the approximate proportion of each
would you say? How was the fight of these fish, compared, say, to the
fight of a fresh steelhead of the same size?

There is always some confusion about what a "dark" fish is. No confusion about
bright, but often the fish darken early, sometimes still in the salt. Also,
even bright fish sometimes don't fight too hard. I have pics of a great fish
Willi caught that jumped 6 or 8 times. Enough jumping that I had time to pull
the camera out, adjust the telephoto, and get a couple great pictures of the
fish in mid air. That one was colored a bit and might have been looked down on
by snobs who don't understand these fish.

On the culinary side, it's not such a clear line either. Some of the darker
fish can be prime eating, you can judge them by the firmness of the live fish.
Also, some of the bright fish are soft, and if you keep them you'll discover
the meat is unappetizing. I can't remember the name of the bacteria that
infects a few of these fish, but it causes the fresh raw meat to flake like
it's already been cooked.

On the river it's just like at home, don't make your decisions purely on the
basis of color.

I almost forgot the comparison of the fight with a fresh steelhead of the same
size. Silvers are similar size to steelhead, and can fight nearly as well. I
think steelhead run farther, but not faster, and fight longer but not harder.

Chas

JR
(thinking the chances of a $1500+airfare trip to Alaska is a lot more
likely ever to happen than a $6000 one....)

Chas
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