This Saturday, I will be retracing the paths of Joe Juneau and other early pioneers from the air. We will be visiting our dauhter and her family, and getting acquainted with our granddaughter born July1.

Thanks to the internet, I have found a new friend who will take my SIL and I out on his boat, so we should find plenty of salmon and halibut, etc.

Thanks for the tip. Never been to Valdez, but have always heard good things about it. Our primary mission is to assist our daughter and SIL with care of newborn granddaughter, so we will be sticking to Juneau-Douglas.

Went out yesterday and found two nice dungeness crabs in crabpot, and limited on chums. Fishing with SIL and grandson is always on the menu. Plan to fish halibut on Thursday.

Thanks.

Wearing a PFD and drowned??  Glacial silt loading him down??  I would have thought that silt is heavier than water and like salt water silt water would make him more likely to float.  Well it is too bad it happened any way.

Mendenhall Lake is freshwater, not salt. He was kayaking with two other family members, when calving flipped all their kayaks. They had ignored warnings to stay away. The other two were able to self-rescue, but he could not. They were passengers on one of the cruiseships.

Yes, silt is heavier than water, but with currents, it remains suspended. If any of you have visited AK, you know that many of the rivers are loaded with silt, and one of the effects is that you cannot see below the surface. The near shore saltwater around here is also loaded with silt, which is part of what makes paddling a 15' crab canoe challenging. Another challenge is having my 4 yr old grandson along for the ride.

Last night, we (SIL & I), went with an internet friend, 'Joe' on a nice boat ride to do some whale watching and fishing. We were out about 3 hours in the Lynn Canal and saw lots of whales breaching and fished for about an hour or so. In that time, I caught a couple small 'buts' and we caught a boatload of P-cod.

As for canoeing/yaking the Inside Passage, that is the thought I had 8 years ago when we did a cruise. I think it would be almost mandatory to wear a wetsuit, and to be skilled in self-rescue, and, of course, to always wear the PFD. The water temps are in the high 30's-low 40's in the summer. The fishing boats, cruise ships, etc show no mercy if they see a canoe/yak, and the wake can easily swamp such a vessel.

We saw several lighthouses and ship wrecks of yesteryear while we were out. Lots of fun!

Tomorrow, we go out again, and are looking forward to some nicer halibut. The scenery up here is simply spectacular! Lots of glaciers and snowcapped peaks. 'Joe' is trying to convince me to move up here so he can take me fishing more. Wish I could.

As for a canoe trip, yes, it would be lots of fun and no portages. The fishing is fantastic, but you'll have to figure out how to boat the 'buts'. A 50 lber would not fit in a canoe. You would have to shoot it in the water, and tie it up alongside, and then the weight might roll you. Those would be fun problems to solve, and could probably be a whole 'nother thread. We saw thousands of chums running and jumping all over the place. The commercial fisherman figure every jump equals 500 salmon, so what we saw was several 100,000's. We were fishing a ridge about 190-200' deep, but the water gets easily into 1000s of feet deep.

More later. I'll try to post a few pics later...