Alaska-Kings-reds-eskimos-and Grizzlys

[alwaysonthemove]

Here is a little story about Fishing in Alaksa

We landed in a little remote village ( not going to say the name). Prior to landing we packed in our own booze. The village is dry along with 99% of the rest of remote villages. When we landed the village police met us on the landing strip. He asked to check our bags and coolers. After a few tense seconds he chuckled and said, Randy asked If I could meet you here and give you guys a hard time. Well he did, we threw our baggage in his truck and headed toward the Beach where we had Randy waiting with the boat. We took off up river to where Randy, Jon, and chuck had set up camp. It was about 15 miles up river. Now keep in mind Randy and Jon are two ex-guides on the river when they quit guiding they bought three boats and stored all there equiptment in town. They know the whole village.

At camp we un packed as quick as we could and just fished from the shore. After about five minutes time I hooked a nice red (in the mouth) LOL and a few more after that. We filleted them out and ate dinner.

The next morning we headed down river to fish some deep holes for Kings. IT was slow for the first halfhour then boom we caught five kings a couple of Dolly's. Man can them kings fight. They were all Jacks so we filleted them out and smoked the dolly's. We finished the day off telling stories and fishing reds at camp. The reds would come through in schools of 5-40 at a time it was fun to just sit on the bank and watch them.

We followed the next four days fishing kings, Dolly's and huge rainbows.

It was saturday night we had fished all day and were back in camp just getting ready for supper when a boat came down river to our camp. Randy goes out to the bank and starts talking too bubba. Invites himn and his girlfriend up for dinner. Bubba was a local native from the village. Randy and jon know both of them. Bubba was somewhat drunk when he got out of the boat but not to bad. About an hour passed and boom. Bubba slapped his girlfriend and hit me. Out of the blue Bubba was so drunk/high that he could barely walk. We did not feed him any booze. So Randy tried to settle Bubba down and got a few punches thrown at him. I asked why don't we put him in the boat and send him down river. Randy said if we do he will flip the boat and drown. Every year I pull 1 or 2 of them out of the river.

So we tried to get Bubba to sleep. He would pretend that he would be a sleep until we turned our backs. He would come out fighting like a crazy man and everybody getting a few licks from him. He was yelling that he was gonna kill his girlfriend. She was hidding out on the tundra. This senario would go on for four more hours.

Bubba come flying out of our tent again this time we knew something was really gonna happen. He jumped in his boat fell over numerous times seen that we took the keys out. Then he cussed us grabbed an oar and started swinging it. It caught Randy and cut him from his eye to his ear. Then he swung at Jon and darn near broke his wrist. I ran around the boat in the water and rocked it to get him to fall over again. We then decided this was enough. So we duct-tapped him up legs and wrists tied him up in the boat. Randy, Matt, Bubba's girlfriend, and I headed down river to the village. We were gonna bring him to jail.

On the way down Bubba went trough a series of crying, and trying to tell us to just kill him and trying to tell his girlfiend to kill us. He would cuss his girlfriend out, cuss us out. Everything under the sun was going on. We got to the river mouth and the tide was low we hit a gravel bar so we got out and started to push the boat toward the village we had about 6" of water so we could push it. When we got to the beach Randy ran up to get the pickup truck at his buddies house. In the mean time Bubba was saying how sorry he was and all that. Until his cousin came up with a four wheeler. They started talking in Upik to each other. A knife came out and he cut him loose. They both threaned to kill us there But we were out in the ocean by then. They took off on the atv so we did too. We started heading to jon's house until we heard a atv coming down the road. It was them we figured we jumped down in a ditch to hide. It was them allright and they were looking for me and matt. Then a Truck came but we did not know who it was. The truck chased Bubba and his little gang away. It was randy he was driving all over the beach looking for us but we were to scarred to come out until he drove right by us. We jumped in and he said they have guns. we raced back to Jons house were we met the village police. They took our reports. Randy asked if he was related to Bubba he said yes. I knew then that we could be arrested. The next couple of hours went by nervracking. The village police came back over and said they arreested Bubba. His girlfriend reported that he was the trouble. Whew! Then it was 9 in the morning we caught about an hour of sleep. woke up and went back up river. We started to break camp we just didn't know were to go yet Until we heard a boat coming up river. It was a boat of locals the went around the bend shut and shut the motor off. Randy ran down to our boat and threw the shot gun up to me. Saying the locals are f ing crazy they will shoot us. I thought oh sh t here we go again. The rest of the guys finished loading the boat. we decided to just get the heck out of there. We headed down the River with Me in the front of the boat with a shot gun scarred as hell. Matt and phil were right behind us in another boat with a rifle. We proceeded down the river without an incident. Went into town and flew out the next day. Went to matts house in girdwood were we finished our trip with some halibutt, rainbows, pinks, and dolly varden. Also with a good massage from a dancer at the bush company. LOL

All in all we filled our king stamps. We figured we had caught 50-75 fish a day. it was an awesome fishing expierence. We brought out fifty pounds of salmon each. Some local Wlrus ivory art and some walrus meat that we had traded for.

It really bummed me out cause the next day if Bubba didnot cut our trip short we were gonna go to a branch in the river where we would of been flyfing rainbows right with the grizzly's. Randy was saying one guy will fish while the other guys watch for bears coming too close. That was something I really wanted to do fish right with the bears. Next time.

[traveler]

yeah, that happened to me last time too:)

[Ufatz]

There is more of this stuff taking place out there than anyone wants to admit or talk about. There have been some VERY tense confrontations with locals armed with Uzi's and other serious armament.

Be careful out there. It ain't the old days.

[alwaysonthemove]

Well I know a litre of whiskey around here goes for around tweenty dollars and up there boot legging it will go for four hundred.

But oozies? They are poor I just dont see where they get money besides welfare and oil checks. Most are too lazy to work like on fishing boats, or other out of town jobs.

[fishermann222]

Not oozies but yes AR's. IT was the village of Tuntatuliak, very tense moment between wildlife troopers and villagers.

Booze in the villages doesn't go for 400 bucks either. I have lived in Mekoryuk, one of the hardest villages for them to smuggle booze in becuase the ONLY way to get there is fly. There people would pay 180 for a 5th of cheap booze. Not 400.

I would not say MOST are too lazy to work, I would say some are, but not most. You sure do sound racist for never having lived out here and just visited. Next time don't listen to everything you hear, make your own judgements from your own experiences when you are informed enough to do so, instead of hearing how lazy they are this or that.

As far as smuggling booze into the village (Goodnews, quin, or somewhere off the Nush) and bragging about it, I am forwarding this post to the Alaska State Troopers here in Bethel, and I hope you get busted for illegal importation and have to fly back for a court hearing!!!!!!!!

[fishkid]

there is one in every crowd i guesss /l\

l

[jwmiller33]

that has to be the craziest, most Fed up story i have ever heard... idont even really fully understand it...

my trip to alaska last summer was nothing like that... we enjoyed catching kings everyday without once seeing a gun

[Sherpa]

I have been going to Alaska for over fifteen years and I have never experienced anything like this. I will say that the areas near Anchorage like the Kenai peninsula and the Matanuska/Susitna valley are a different world than the bush communities are. But I don't think having a bad experience is a good reason to label a group of people as poor and lazy. Alcohol has done a lot of damage to these communities, but I have been all over Alaska from Kotzebue/Nome to Wrangell and have never had anything close to this happen to me.

[jwmiller33]

could someone explain to me why alcohol is such a bad thing for these communities? why is it outlawed? i guess i don't understand it completely and am just looking for an understanding.

[waterbound]

Booze in general isn't the greatest thing in the world...it makes people crazy sometimes, but in larger cities it isn't as big a problem because there are police available to stop problems it can cause. In a village in Alaska or elsewhere with little outside contact there might not be a police force that is able to cover the wide area the population might be spread out over and situations can get bad and people hurt or worse. Also in small villages even if booze was not outlawed it would most likely be very expensive and if it was sold in bars or liquor stores I'm sure there would be crime due to the combination of convenience and desire. If the booze isn't allowed then the convenience part of the equation disappears and the crime will too.

[jwmiller33]

so booze is legally outlawed in some of these small communities/villages?

[fishermann222]

Yes booze is legally outlawed. There is a law in the state of alaska that lets every village/town decide if they want to allow booze or not. It is called "local option". There are three different statuses if a community votes into local option. Dry, Damp (booze is allowed to be ordered in LIMITED QUANTITIES with a monthly limit per person, but not sold locally) or wet (booze sales allowed). A village can also vote out of local option law, in which case they can create their own status and laws.

Bethel (where I live) has been damp for 20 some years, and we voted OUT of local option this past year, so now we currently have no limits on what we can import. For the first time in 20 years we can legally have a keg flown in and enjoy keg bear out of a keg-orator. Before voting out of local option it was a felony to import a keg.

Village life in rural Alaska is a very different kind of life, and to really grasp the underlying problems you would have to live out here for a few years.

The fact is though, outlawing the booze does not stop the problem, just makes it a little less than what it would be with booze legally available. Each village has a VPSO (village public safety officer) no police in most villages. Troopers come out and do any investigations and deal with the problems.

The original poster committed and openly admitted to committing a FELONY according to Alaska law, by importing booze to a dry village. The problems he experienced were because of his own stupidity.

[waterbound]

fishermann222, I was really just guessing as to why booze would be outlawed, but it sounds like I wasn't completely off track. It's interesting to hear about laws and enforcement in other areas. I've always been interested in the law (especially the enforcement aspect) and I'm glad you're able to help shed some light in this area.

[ozzie]

the guy did admit to bringing in booze but he stated that he did not provide any to the local (bubba) so I don't understand why you feel he created his own problem?