day 22 - Petersburg AK!!!!!!!

Saturday June 24 – Day 22 of trip – dock at Petersburg

Unloaded the ferry at 12:45pm. Saw lots of eagles on the way in, and one whale, but couldn’t tell what kind it was (as if I’d recognize one whale from another).

Once we got checked into camp, the RV park operator told us “the kings are in”, and so we hustled to the hardware store, got licenses, a TON of tackle, and headed for the water.  There were about a dozen folks in the area when we got there, so our group of 5 fishermen (me, Erik, Matt, Travis, Amanda) added to the pressure, but the salmon were indeed….. IN!  We could see them jumping and running through the area. Hookups for us were rare, but effective. :)

We caught several small cod, and Travis even pulled in an itty bitty halibut.

Bear in mind, I’ve never caught a salmon in my life. I got to watch Travis and Matt reel a pair of 16#’ers in back in BC in 2015 but never got to fight one. Well let me tell you, they are HORSES, or as my buddy Scott says…. They have SHOULDERS.  After countless casts, I hung into one, and it took FOREVER to bring it to the shore, but we got it in.  Amanda helped me in the netting process, and Deanna got some great pictures of the whole sequence.  It was fantastic.  Best fish of my life to date. I am 43, and I’ve caught a lot of fish. The fact that the whole family was there just made the evening sweeter.

 

Amanda with the assist!  Shane's first king salmon

Small gear is totally inappropriate for these fish. We were all using heavy duty catfish rods, and even those seemed under-gunned.  College buddy Anderson would have been impressed to see Amanda master the “baitcusser” Abu Garcia 6500’s.

Eventually, a black bear showed up to fish the same area, but he maintained his distance. Glad it wasn’t a brown bear, which are typically more opinionated….

We cooked the fish I caught for dinner and almost finished it.  Think about that….. 9 humans ALL got fed off one big king (chinook) salmon God provided for us.

Erik, Shane and dinner

Later in the evening Matt (Erik’s eldest boy) caught another fine salmon.

EGGSALENT DAY.