Salmon mania

[Dean Romig]

These are from my trip back in '92 with my good friend Lenny. He wanted to bring his spinning gear and I said "Not this time Bud, it's FFO!"

1. Mount Illiamna as we were about to descend to Newalen.

2. Lenny with a crazy sockeye on the line. Absolute drag-burners!

3. A brown bear fishing nearby on the Talachulitna River.

4. Mary's fish camp. She was a native and set small nets along her camp's shoreline on the Kvichak River.

5. Eat your hearts out. I was told it was an original wood and canvas Howard.

6. On a small sand bar on the Talachulitna.

7. A smallish 8 lb. sockeye.

8. Me with about a 10 pounder.

9. The only King salmon I kept from our stay at Tala-View Lodge on the Talachulitna. 30 lbs. but we caught many more that were bigger. Lenny had one on for nearly an hour. We saw him about ten times and the first two times he cleared the water with his mighty leaps... probably pushed 50 lbs. The hook finally pulled and Lenny said "Thank the Good Lord in Heaven - I was getting pretty sick and tired of fighting him." Of course, the big ones are nearly always females.



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[Twice Shooter]

Dean, That sounds like a marvelous trip. The airplane is an old one. Notice the tail number starting with NC. Cheers, Tom

[Dean Romig]

Tom, what's the significance of the NC?

[Richard Flanders]

I'm trying to figure out what kind of plane that is. I can usually ID them at a glance but not this one. Maybe a WACO of some sort? I was hoping Tom C might know.

[Dean Romig]

I was told it was a '38 Howard... whatever that is...

Google: Howard Aircraft Corporation

There's even a picture of this plane in the album of Howard photos.
I wonder if it has any connection to Howard Hughes?

[Richard Flanders]

Roger that. I think that is what it is. I thought of Howard but don't know them all that well. There's another one like it that the Ellis's use to fly the mail out of Glenallen into McCarthy and other local villages in that area. There aren't very many of them still flying.

[Quail1]

This is a Sockeye(Red)hen. Relatively quickly after the salmon hit fresh water they begin the transformation. After the hens have dropped their eggs, males and females quickly move to this stage and become more and more lethargic. Until they ultimately die or are eaten by bears, eagles, etc.
The bears move from rivers that hold no more salmon to others that have later runs. Soon this is all that is left to show that any where there at all.

[Twice Shooter]

Hi Richard, The registration number indicates it was registered after 3-22-1927 and before 12-31-1948. The N means it is a USA registered airplane and the C means it is a standard category airplane. I believe it is a Howard but I was unable to trace the registration number. I could not find a way to trace the NC portion of the number. I'll call someone tomorrow and find out for you.
Cheers, Tom

[edgarspencer]

Would the fact that is says "Howard" on the tail be a hint?

[Richard Flanders]

Tx Edgar. I knew that should be a makers name on the tail and downloaded the photo to see if I could read it but it was too pixelated. I see that if you just dbl click it it will come up larger and is easily readable.

Re the rotting salmon. I've flown up rivers that seemed choked with dying and dead salmon and I swear you can smell them in the plane from at least 500ft up.