No offense taken Queets

Don't spend hours running up and down the lower river, 'cuz, I don't choose to guide on the Kenai

Perhaps you haven't looked around the site to see that fact.

Perhaps you also missed that Fishgal (the other half of my operation) grew up in Kenai and the family resides there

Perhaps the $40,000 I dropped on our new truck in Kenai doesn't count, nor the $25,000+ annually to our halibut Captains that live in Kasilof & Soldotna. Maybe the $30,000 to our lodging providers in Kasilof doesn't count either. How 'bout a few thousand in sales tax to the Borough and a few thousand to local restaurants that we drop ourselves ... not even counting our clients!

Sure, I have a few bucks in the bank that I bring home. But you're looking at 6 figure amount that my operation generates to that local economy every year.

I know many locals resent the fact that we are competition, but many others rely upon us and that will be even more important down the road with the impending closure of the Agrium plant.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree ... most of what I've seen from the cracker guide crowd comes from one of two places:

1) College crowd out-of-staters that can't tell a king from red from a silver, or

2) Part-time locals that think because they caught a fish once and own a boat, they IS a guide

I personally don't care for the Kenai either these days ... that's why I don't guide on it. But for some people that want a crack at the giant king, it's still the place to wet a line ... even if you will be with a few thousand of your closest friends and you might go 3-4 days inbetween fish.

I know several guides on the Gulkana and they do have some days there, just as we we do on the Ditch, but I'll take predictable water conditions for people travelling thousands of miles any time over a very hit-and-miss fishery