The summer of '91 was a fun and very exciting time for myself. During the summer, I did a lot of things. The thing that I will never forget was the time when me and James Oney first started to fish with each other. That was a new experience for James because he hadn't fished in a long time. He had to learn new things about fishing.

The first time we went out was very nerve racking for both of us because we were very nervous about getting stuck, or one of us falling into the river. As we traveled up the Yukon, I thought of all the things that my dad taught me about fishing. While we were going up river, we saw a lot of other people traveling to where they were going to fish. When we got to our fishing spot we were 15 minutes early, so we decided to have something to eat. We ate Spam and crackers. As we ate I kept looking at my watch to see how many more minutes we had till the opening started. Five minutes before the opening started, I told James to get ready to fish. He listened to me and got up in front of the boat. When it was time to fish James set out the net and we drifted down the Yukon. While we were drifting I looked at my depth finder to see how deep it was. When we got to where we pulled in the net I told James to get ready to check the net. We pulled in the net and to my surprise, we caught about 21 King salmon. As the period went by we caught more and more fish and I got happier by the hour. At the end of the opening we sold our fish and started for home. To my surprise I felt very tired and my hands ached from doing so much pulling on the net. Before we got to Marshall, we stretched my net below the airport, cleaned my boat, and I gave my fish tickets to my father. That opening was the funnest one I had this summer.

Story by LESLIE HUNTER JR.