While those fishermen who packed their freezers full of sockeye and coho salmon this summer may be saving their catch for a winter-time feast, the same isn’t true for another creature on the Kenai Peninsula.

Currently, the Kenai River’s population of rainbow trout are gorging on the remainder of summer’s bounty — decaying salmon flesh and fresh eggs — making for one of the best times to catch a trophy trout on the river.

In Week One as a snowbird from Alaska wintering in Washington state, two events stand out: holding my day-old great-granddaughter, Emilynn, and fishing on the Skagit River with my grandson, Doug Palmer.

A few weeks ago, when I first told Doug that I'd be in Washington for the fall and winter, I'd hinted that he should get a boat, so we could go fishing. I didn't think he'd take me seriously. It turned out that he'd been thinking about getting a boat for a long time, so he acted on my suggestion.

This isn't about king salmon. It's more important than that.

Eating can be one of the great pleasures of life. The trouble with pleasures is that they can be taken to extremes, which was my problem. Looking around, I've noticed that I'm not alone. Two out of three people seem to have the same problem.

Empty chairs were hard to find at the Kachemak Bay State Park Citizen Advisory Board’s Sept. 14 meeting.

The park is a popular place, as evidenced by Park Ranger Roger MacCampbell’s report of thousands of visitors, but the Personal Watercraft Club of Alaska’s plea to lift the ban on PWCs in the bay was the real drawing card.

Before calling the meeting to order, Chairman Paul Hueper set out the ground rules.