Salmon Fishing Alaska, Sermon of the Salmon

Alaska is on a scale most people can not comprehend, an unimaginably huge and awesome landscape, where the fragility of life can be plainly seen, and the seriousness of a dangerous beauty, felt into the marrow of one's bones.

Be stupid here cousin, and it will kill you_ like yesterday.

Spend time here, and the knowledge of these uncommonly big vistas will live fresh in your mind all the days of your life, a special appreciation and admiration will be  burned into your heart. Alaska will make you feel alive and understand how thin and raveled is the thread of life.

This friendly stranger taught me how to rig for Silver Salmon, which is the preferred catch by the local people and most fishermen on upper Kenai Peninsula in the fall, and I caught a nice one in no time flat. There are so many, one just has to run in to your hook.

It was a surprising and explosive ten seconds. It almost spooled me. I had no idea a fish so big could swim so fast or pull so hard in water half as deep as the fish itself. I didn't know that snagging was the only legal method to fish some species and others must be caught by mouth. I just thought I was a fisherman.

However, upon seeing Salmon in such great numbers and witnessing their great sacrifice, I lost all interest in catching any more than one. I realized that the wondrous sight of them was what I was there for. It's purely amazing.

Imagine the thousands of Rivers and thousands of miles of Selfless Salmon like these, all on a mission to perpetuate the circle of life, none to cheat, not one to lie. To whom might they preach?.

Most of the salmon in these images are Chinook Salmon in their spawning season (The red and pink fish) which are out of season during this trip, but there are Silver Salmon and really big Rainbow Trout swimming with these Chinook, only their color really blends in well with the color of the rocks, so they're harder to see.

The Alaska Salmon spawn is a sight to behold, a lesson of a lifetime no man should live a day without, lest he be incomplete. From the deck of a ship, 80 feet above the ocean or so, in very clear water, I've seen masses of Salmon, as deep as I could see. Far into the distance there was Salmon thick enough to walk on.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up cousin.

I've looked for God all my days, and believe I will see His face. I study the earth and the hearts of men, read the finest words of so many scholars and Holy Men of history, but they can most definitely not minister the way the Salmon do. They cannot sing it, they cannot act it out in such a beautiful way, and this wonder is accomplished in silence, by the sight of it.

 Only the Mountains, the Stars, and the Salmon can do this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_run

Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tuscon AZ

 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Xavier_del_Bac