Fish Porn (or, what I did on my Alaska vacation)

I have not posted in a really long time (see comments in the 'Ecto' post below) for a couple of reasons. First, I've got a huge case coming up in just under 2 weeks. It's a very high profile murder case. Given how small this state is, I'm not going to give any details, but I have been just crazy busy having to deal with that on top of preparing for this trial. I also spent several days fishing. Now, you might wonder why I would go fishing with such an important trial pending.

I have been planning this trip for some time, since January, to be precise. I got this case in March after this trip was already set. I had asked to set the case in January, 2006, given my absence in September. The court denied that motion, saying that it did not want to try the case in January next year because it had been tried in January this year. Well, I was still going on my fishing trip. With that in mind, let me share a few photos and some commenary.

I will starte this picture of my fishing partner (my dad) and the guide, fishing in the river set against some of the foothills in the Becharoff National Wildlife Refuge:

But you are probably wondering why I would entitle this posting 'Fish Porn'. Well, I figure that the following pictures will, if you fish, particularly if you fly fish, only make you lust. Consider this nice Arctic Char caught at the Ugashik Narrows:

Or how about this nice rainbow trout (Yes, that is a rainbow trout):

Or maybe this particular trout (different than the one above):

Anyway, I spent several days fishing. All fish (except one Dolly Varden char, not pictured here) were released. The two rainbows pictured above were over 30". In a surprising way, it did help me prepare for trial because I was able to relax and do something I've wanted to do for a long time: go fly fishing on the Naknek in September. Next year at this time I hope to have good pictures of a giant brown bear for the wall and a moose for the freezer (although I wouldn't mind a nice rack on the moose).

I was not fishing the whole time, but that explains a few days. Otherwise, I have been preparing for trial or attending the public defender agency annual conference. I think that discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to discussing PD conferences so I will just let that one go. But I did go to 2 days of really good lectures on DNA evidence and forensic pathology.

Comments

[Sanchovilla]

Sweeet Jeeezus! I dream of catching a Rainbow like that! Ours down here in Cali are usually about a 1lb at most and all planted. I really would have had to eat one of the rainbows though.

Oh, and welcome back to the blogging world.

[Chris]

Holy cow! I've never seen rainbows like that, unbelievable!

Truly does make ya salivate!

[steven davies]

Nice fishes.I see that you like go fishing.My favourite is the rainbow trout:)

[Sam Clark]

That is amazing...wow what a great trip and man those are some of the sweetest fish I have seen.

Hope all is well and you can take another trip soon

[Melanie Daryl]

Alaska is the best place to catch all kinds of fish. When we were there, there was so much salmon in the river that you can literally catch them by hand if you're fast enough. If not, you can use a spear of a stick. There were so many of them it's an almost guaranteed catch every time you speared the water.