Hello all! Well this is my second time writing this post, so if for some reason 2 posts show up on my blog I'm sorry. Let's pick up where the last post left off, I was getting my wrestling team ready to head to Kotzebue for the Bush Brawl Rumble in the Arctic. I decided to bring 7 kids to Kotzebue for the tournament. I could have taken 8 but we didn't have enough wrestlers that were eligible to travel. The tournament had over 300 wrestlers from all over the state as far away as Bethel (GoogleMap it). The wrestlers did great I am very proud of the effort that the kids put forth and the success that we had. Every wrestler won at least 1 match! We had 2 podium finishes and 2 4th places. Pretty good for our first big time tournament. As you can imagine at a 3 day tournament there is a lot of down time. Having kids you can trust to make good decisions during this time is imperative. Luckily I brought some great kids because I had to test that trust. Unfortunately one of my sophomore boys dislocated his elbow during a match, so I had to leave my kids in the care of another coach and travel to the hospital in an ambulance. To his credit my wrestler was tougher than nails. 2 hours and 2 doctors later his arm was re-located and we were back at the gym for the finals. Our travel home was thankfully uneventful.
This week in school was pretty laid back. We only had students for 3 days then 3 days of in-service training from the district. I took advantage of the easy work week by going fishing...a lot. Every night and every morning I went setting nets and lines with my good friend Brad. Traveling to the fishing spot is an adventure in itself. We take a 4 wheeler and trailer through the trees and tundra down to the frozen river. We then travel a mile down river on the ice to our spot. Some nights/mornings we have had amazing northern lights to entertain us on our ride. Other nights we travel by moonlight with Brads two German shepherds darting in and out of the brush leading the way. It struck me that except for the 4 wheeler this same scene has been played out countless time for hundreds of years in Alaska, following dogs by moonlight going fishing. The first day we set a net under the ice targeting large whitefish. We opened two big square holes about 40 feet apart. We then made a lot of small holes about 8 inches apart in between the two squares. We were then able to pass the rope under the ice from hole to hole. Once the rope was strung we hooked the net up to one side and pulled it through until the net was strung under the ice. We checked the net after a 24 hour soak and only got 7 fish. Obviously the whitefish are not in that section of the river. We decided to put the net away and "set lines". We use set lines to target ticktalik aka mud shark, burbot. A set line is made up of a drag line that about 4 hooks are attached to. The drag line then runs to an "anchor" i.e. rock, piece of metal, anything that is heavy and sinks. From the anchor your main line come up out of the hole. Once the anchor is set you tie the end of the rope to a stick that is elevated at an angle over your hole. The idea is to keep the line in the middle of the hole. The set looks like an L when it's set with the bottom being the drag and the vertical being the main line and the anchor is where the lines meet. We have been checking the lines 2-3 times a day once in the morning and twice at night. We have caught a lot of fish! We keep moving our holes trying to zero in on the money hole. We cut our holes by hand with a chisel and axe. The ice is about 6 inches thick. It is a workout to cut new holes! On the up side it keeps you warm with the weather in the single digits. We caught a fish Monday morning and I was able to bring it into my inupiaq crafts and cultures class and teach the kids about subsistence and how to cut a ticktalik! It was a lot of fun.
Hopefully the great weather that we have been having will hold. The sun rises about 9:30 and sets around 7:30 not a lot of day light that's why you use a head lamp! I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, it has been a great week. I'm heading to Anchorage for 4 days to a CTE professional development conference today so I will be writing about that in my next post. As always, thanks for reading and taking an interest in my greater northern adventures! Oh and I updated my blog so anyone can comment!
This week in school was pretty laid back. We only had students for 3 days then 3 days of in-service training from the district. I took advantage of the easy work week by going fishing...a lot. Every night and every morning I went setting nets and lines with my good friend Brad. Traveling to the fishing spot is an adventure in itself. We take a 4 wheeler and trailer through the trees and tundra down to the frozen river. We then travel a mile down river on the ice to our spot. Some nights/mornings we have had amazing northern lights to entertain us on our ride. Other nights we travel by moonlight with Brads two German shepherds darting in and out of the brush leading the way. It struck me that except for the 4 wheeler this same scene has been played out countless time for hundreds of years in Alaska, following dogs by moonlight going fishing. The first day we set a net under the ice targeting large whitefish. We opened two big square holes about 40 feet apart. We then made a lot of small holes about 8 inches apart in between the two squares. We were then able to pass the rope under the ice from hole to hole. Once the rope was strung we hooked the net up to one side and pulled it through until the net was strung under the ice. We checked the net after a 24 hour soak and only got 7 fish. Obviously the whitefish are not in that section of the river. We decided to put the net away and "set lines". We use set lines to target ticktalik aka mud shark, burbot. A set line is made up of a drag line that about 4 hooks are attached to. The drag line then runs to an "anchor" i.e. rock, piece of metal, anything that is heavy and sinks. From the anchor your main line come up out of the hole. Once the anchor is set you tie the end of the rope to a stick that is elevated at an angle over your hole. The idea is to keep the line in the middle of the hole. The set looks like an L when it's set with the bottom being the drag and the vertical being the main line and the anchor is where the lines meet. We have been checking the lines 2-3 times a day once in the morning and twice at night. We have caught a lot of fish! We keep moving our holes trying to zero in on the money hole. We cut our holes by hand with a chisel and axe. The ice is about 6 inches thick. It is a workout to cut new holes! On the up side it keeps you warm with the weather in the single digits. We caught a fish Monday morning and I was able to bring it into my inupiaq crafts and cultures class and teach the kids about subsistence and how to cut a ticktalik! It was a lot of fun.
Hopefully the great weather that we have been having will hold. The sun rises about 9:30 and sets around 7:30 not a lot of day light that's why you use a head lamp! I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, it has been a great week. I'm heading to Anchorage for 4 days to a CTE professional development conference today so I will be writing about that in my next post. As always, thanks for reading and taking an interest in my greater northern adventures! Oh and I updated my blog so anyone can comment!
