Since my parents were in town for a few more days, Matt and I decided to take advantage of that to run off one evening to go fishing. We debating going to a few different fishing spots, but we ended up being too overwhelmed by the choices and decided to go back to Bird Creek.
We positioned ourselves out on the spit to wait for the tide to come in. The seagulls apparently were hanging out waiting for the fish as well. Note the gloomy weather - it kept raining and stopping, but luckily it wasn't bad enough to convince us to give up and go home.
Patiently waiting for the tide to turn. There were a few people catching fish, but not many. I think Matt and I managed to both snag a gross thing - Matt's was a dead fish, mine was a fish skeleton. Yuck!
I may have not read the tide tables all that well and it turns out that we were more than just a little bit early. Oh well, we managed to keep ourselves entertained in between throwing lures in the creek. Which means it was selfie time! Matt is such a good sport. :)
The seagulls were keeping themselves busy as well. This guy kept pecking at something in the water, it took me awhile to realize that it was a salmon. Poor guy! Seagulls are jerks.
The train even went by us! Last time that happened, it stopped on the bridge to let all the passengers/tourist take photos of us. Apparently they don't do that for cargo cars, it just chugged on by. ;)
Finally, the tide came in! It's not something you can generally miss in this part of Alaska. Depending on the day, it can actually be quite the sight! It wasn't so impressive today, but some days the bore tide can be up to 6-10' high and people surf it inland for miles. (I tried to center it in this photo so you can see it - like I said, not as impressive as it *can* be.)
Where did all the land go?? The water comes in fast once the bore tide goes past. This is also when the fish finally start coming in. They can't really get into the creek until the waters rise up high enough, so once it comes in the fishing usually gets much better!
A view back to the bridge before the tide came in.
Same spot after the tide came in. The muddy slope we were standing on has already gone under water. You can see the people without waders are already starting to back up out of the water. It helps to pay attention when the tide comes in!
Or you end up further out than you intended! The beach we were standing out is now completely under water. I was getting a little worried that Matt wasn't paying attention, but he headed back towards land before I had to go drag him myself. :)
I'd love to post some photos of all the awesome fish we caught, but we pretty much lucked out. I snagged one humpy in the back, but that was it for our catches. Either way, it was still fun to get out and fish for a little while. Plus there was this super awesome salmon graffiti to share with you guys. :)