I've been hangin round here for the better part of three years now, and I have come to know most of y'all as being hard core fishermen/women. But, I gotta tell ya, those Alaskan folks are REALLY hard core.

The day after his wife had gone missing in a fishing accident off shore in Anchorage, a husband answered the door to find two Alaskan state troopers standing there.

"We're sorry, Mr. Wilkens, but we have some news about your wife."

"Tell me, did you find her?"

The troopers looked at each other, and one finally spoke up and said, "We have some bad news, some good news, and some really good news."

Mr. Wilkens swallowed hard and said, "OK - Give me the bad news first."

"We found your wife's body", one of the troopers said, "in Kachemak Bay."

"Oh my Lord. What could the good news possibly be?"

The trooper continued, "When we pulled her up she had 11 twenty-five pound King Crabs, and 6 good sized Dungeness Crabs clinging to her, and we feel your entitled to share in the catch."

Stunned, Mr. Wilkens demanded, "If that's the good news, what in the world could the REALLY good news be?"

"Well, the trooper said with a smile, "tommorrow we're gonna pull her up again."

Man, I told ya. Those Alaskans are hared core.