well, thanks - that's a lot of questions.
That trip, August 2003, I was using an 8-wt that Brandon provided for silvers - I brought along my trusty Fisher Sterling 5/6 and Gunnison, caught rainbows and dollies.
I actually hadn't planned the silvers, but a float for big Kenai rainbows with Brandon - he called me the night before and told me Donald was buying the fly-out and all I had to pay was the price of a float. Well yeah, I'm in...
Here's an '08 trip with a bunch of photos, cane, and click-pawl, and shot entirely on Olympus digital
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5996btw, if you take tailwater skills to Alaska, and hire a guide, you'll make him look good, and have a friend for life.
My first trip, I hired a float through Gwin's Lodge, and Brandon was assigned as an overflow guide.
Also on the boat was a couple with their son, who demanded all his time - the son got a nice sockeye.
From the very first stop Brandon knew I had skills, and he just pointed me from then on, and let me land my own fish.
That night with my cheeseburger, the waitress told me my 45-rainbow morning was the talk of the lodge, and moved up Brandon's status to full-time guide, and finally started his own business.
It was also funny, the dad didn't get it - the whole float he was accusing Brandon of putting me on fish while denying them.
Quite the opposite was true - they were getting all Brandon's attention and effort - at least after netting my second rainbow.
Also on that first trip, I met the late Kurt Trout, stayed at his motel in Cooper, and bought some great souvenirs from his famous fly shop.
It was actually Kurt who on our first phone contact booked my first random float with Brandon, through Gwin's.
On another trip, I didn't book Brandon, but fished Quartz, the Russian and Kenai again out of Cooper. At my favorite Kenai bust-in spot, Brandon drifted by with a fare, called over he knew me as soon as he saw the hat, and I was on his spot.
Kenai is always an easy thing to do on a work trip through Anchorage, and the drive alone should be on everyone's bucket list.
By the '08 trip I linked, I was a Kenai creek guide, and put my buddy Ewell on tough June rainbows, and even a grayling.
I never scanned my slides, but let my lab do it on their digital film processor - same lab we used for office work.
There was a different lab I used for hand processing and quality prints - they're gone now, too.
found one more question to answer. I have 8000+ photos on photobucket, and have a better database system there than on my hard drives. I started buying bandwidth there when it was $12/yr - they doubled again and again, and I let my subscription lapse when they tried doubling from $50 to $100.
My buddy Jimbo bought the stupid $1000 subscription, but then he doesn't store any of his photos on computer.
I began using free Imgur when The Betrayal occurred, am very happy with the way it functions, but photobucket is still a better database. I began my photobucket subscription again when they again offered $50/yr subscription, which is what I was willing to pay before. But I only upload new photos to Imgur, so I'm only buying bandwidth and archive from photobucket.