Thanks Bob - didn't quite come out how I wanted, but good practice.


A rattly old fibreglass go-kart from a shed in Norfolk, also known as a Lotus Elise

Where was the top picture taken?I looks like the remains of the old bridge at Carrbridge near Aviemore.

I know that I am half the world away from you fellows and you may never come here just as I may not visit or fish your lovely streams. I do however enjoy looking at the famous rivers and chalk streams that get posted here. Prior to joining this forum were only names to me. The pictures have allowed me to imagine with greater accuracy what it must be like to live and fish in the UK. With that said, here are some photos from Alaska.

I have not been busy with the camera over the winter but did take it along on my last trip to our cabin the first week of April. It may help you get the feel for this place knowing that it sits 80 miles from any road, access is by boat, snowmachine, or aircraft. Spring is coming early here in Alaska and now I can not go back until the rivers and the lake go clear of ice. I use a snowmachine in winter to travel the frozen rivers and the boat at all other times. Once the melt starts you either must stay until ice out or you better get out while you can.

When the slab of snow and ice lets go of that roof it shakes the building and makes a noise like I can't describe. It came down the night after I tookf the picture at about 1:00 AM.

[IMG][/IMG]

This was taken in summer and you can see that the building is built 4' off the ground to allow for snow. As the snow loses its loft 6' can become 4'. I stayed there for two months winter of 2009 and the snow actually was piled half way up the windows. You were walking up hill when you went out the doors.

[IMG][/IMG]

I spent a day snowshoeing to this trout stream that can not be reached by any but the stout of spirit because of the Bush that isolates it from civilization.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

These tracks included moose, fox, lynx, beaver, muskrat, and along the tree lines there were martin and the trail of three wolves. It is amazing how the open water becomes the hub for activity because in the dead of January you will swear that you and your dog are the only things alive except the birds.

[IMG][/IMG]

These are my own tracks as I was returning to where I had to leave the snowmachine.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

I drove the snow trail in on one day and then returned the next morning so it would be firm from the overnight temps. Even with the trail made in advance it was soft and I had to park where you see it. These things can get stuck and when that happens it makes for a bad day.

What was I doing? I used the snowshoes to travel way up into the creeks valley and marked way points with a GPS. After I had driven the 2.6 miles out of the area I stooped along many spots along a river to find the shortest distance to my marked way-points. Then I hiked the shortest path to the creek 4 tenths of a mile! I left a few surveyor tapes and in summer will use a machete to hack a path to the spot. Even in Alaska if you want to be sure you will be alone you have to pay. Here you pay with time and effort, when I gamble right I find really good places to fish. I have already spent hours hiking and cutting my way to places where I found only small trout and not many at that. This is the gamble, you don't know until you go.

This is a picture of a stream that I hike in and found it to be a good place to fish. There isn't any competition here. I've never seen another person or evidence of any.

[IMG][/IMG]

Ard

Great images

Thank you fishfly,

Simmo, Those are both great pictures. The bridge looks like something from the days of the Romans or shortly thereafter.

Gnome pic from this afternoon.

Bruce... Up to no good again

__________________

What a cheeky wee monkey he is..

__________________
Eddie
"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."
Voltaire

Here are a couple from last week, May 13 2011. Taken truly in the middle of a very wild place while I was on a five day float trip down a river. I usually camp on the islands unless there exists a threat of rising water.

[IMG][/IMG]

On the river;

[IMG][/IMG]

I did some fishing and caught a nice bunch of Dolly Varden Char. I am much better at taking pictures of things that don't try to escape while I focus so you must take my word that I caught a few fish. None of them were large but some were beautiful fish and about a foot long. The salmon will be coming soon so I was checking out my favorite spots to see that there were no new obstructions on the bottom to snag my flies while salmon fishing. There is hardly a better way to know the water than to float slowly over the runs & pools and to take close account of the bottom structure. This way even if the water runs off color I know where to expect the fish to be holding as they make their way up the river.

Not!

Click on it for 1000px version



This is the River Forth estuary, er, 5 minutes ago. The gusts were forecast to be 70 mph and I think some of them are making it.

That will be why I am not currently fishing the Lake of Menteith

And it's getting a mayfly hatch just now too!

Col

__________________
My hovercraft is full of eels