Raising Kids Alaska Style

Laying waste with Barbie

NOTE: Thanks to my friend Kent Sullivan, who’ll you recognize as my partner during the recent Angler’s Tonic Alaska trip, for providing this great narrative on a trip he took a while back. He told me this story while we spent time up north and I knew I had to share with all of you. GT

I recently took my wife, Jill, and my daghter, Finley, on a trip up the Taku River, a way to spend father’s day and our anniversary. This was the first time up the river together since Finley was a year old, so this would be her first true memory of such wonderful country.

At the first place we stopped there were a bunch of fresh king salmon present. Finley had a three-foot-long pink Barbie rod that she won at the Juneau Boat Show. She insisted on using that rod, despite the fact that it had four-pound test spooled on it.

I tied on a fuchia Mepps spinner and made an initial cast for her. She reeled by herself and the rest is now family history—she says, “Daddy, I think I have a fish,” and all of a sudden that rod is bent double. For 20 minutes Finley fought that king, a big one, all on that rod and that light test. And pretty soon we landed it on the beach. I couldn’t have been prouder and niether could Finley. And, I could not imagine anyone getting a better father’s day gift.

The rest of our time upriver was no less exciting. Tons of fish. Bears up close. Jet boating excitement, including a branch that whacked me in the face. Even mom caught a king on the fly.

— Kent Sullivan, Juneau, Alaska

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