Among the lesser reported events of President Obama’s recent visit to the 49th state was a coho spawning all over his shoes. The local woman helping him handle the fish said the salmon was happy to see him.
What the frisky salmon was really thinking was, “I just swam thousands of miles with one thing on my mind before I die. Instead, I get caught in a freakin’ net and now I’m getting squeezed so hard I can’t hold it!”
It was not reported who cleaned up the president’s shoes.
Obama’s visit to Dillingham in Bristol Bay, AK—ground zero for the proposed Pebble Mine—sparked some buzz. But the president did not address the mine issue directly, instead focusing on global climate change issues. Alaska is feeling the sting of climate change this summer. At the end of a fishing season with very low water resulting in jet boats full of holes, anglers and guides in Bristol Bay are peering into the crystal ball hoping to see a cold, wet winter ahead.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.