day 39 - guided hali + salmon in Homer

Tuesday July 11^th – day 39 – guided halibut/salmon fishing in Homer

Erik booked a halibut trip for 6 of us and we’re sure looking forward to it.  Shane, Amanda and Travis joined Erik, Victoria and Matt for this endeavor. 

Okay….. we’re back now, and WOW, what a day. Our trip was booked through Homer Ocean Charters, but the boat was owned and operated by Bryan Baker of Slippery Fish Adventures guide services.  He and his deck hand, Ben, did a great job and had us on fish in very short order. It took about an hour to get out to “the spot”. 

http://www.slipperyfishing.com/captain-bryan/

We setup to troll in about 60 feet of water, using 3 downriggers and flasher boards, trailed by “coho killers”, which are a long skinny spoon, which mimic the action of a “cigar minnow”, upon whom the salmon feed.  Simple setup, and Ben kept them out really well. No major tangles, and good tackle/gear. 

I should add here, that we were fishing within seeing distance of three volcanos. Mt. Illiamna, Mt. Redoubt, and Mt. Augustine are all right there in the Cook Inlet/Kachemak Bay area, and really something to behold. That you can admire them while retrieving salmon dinner makes their sighting all the sweeter.

  

The first salmon, a big silver (coho) was on within minutes. Amanda caught it and did a great job. Shortly thereafter, Victoria was on a nice silver too, and it was netted and in the livewell, which continued to crowd throughout the day.  J

By 10:30am, we’d collected a mix of silvers, pinks and a few kings.  We’d also caught a bunch of smallish halibut, one of which was big enough to keep (Travis’ work here…). The tide was approaching it’s 11:20am “low”, during which there would be a “slack” tide, so we headed to the halibut grounds about 30 minutes away.

Halibut fishing is entirely different from salmon fishing, so a change of tackle and gear was required. Halibut are bottom feeders and are typically found in deeper waters, so you use a huge weight (ie 3#) and a huge circle hook with a mongo (redneck term meaning “substantial”) chunk of herring for bait. The halibut bite was steady and productive. We never caught a HUGE fish, but we caught a lot in the 26-35” (called chickens) range, all of which are good eating and still tons of meat.  Each person was allowed to keep one fish under 28” and one of any size. In an effort to keep this more entertaining yet, I offered $5 to whoever had the fish closest to 28” without going over. Amanda won the money with a 27 1/2” porker. J In an effort to win the money, Erik threw back a nice 26” fish early in the day, as we were catching fish steady, but the fishing slowed down after that.  This was his “albatross” moment, so we made fun of him the balance of the day.  Cause that’s what “friends” do.  He ended up keeping a 24” fish later.  Meanwhile, Victoria caught the big halibut of the day. :)

 

shane masters the photobomb

Once we all had our halibut, we returned to salmon fishing. By this time, Amanda was already “limited out” on both species, cause she’d harvested a big king salmon. At first she was mad that she couldn’t fish any more, but got over it when she realized she could lord it over us that she was “tagged out”, and did so with fine fashion. J

Victoria caught a big king shortly after we started fishing for salmon again, and so both ladies were tagged out and had a good time on the upper deck observing the men who were trying to tag out too.  Then Travis hooked onto a HUGE king salmon, that put up the most entertaining fight of the day, by coming to the top quickly, only to TAKE OFF headed up the left side of the boat while we all watched and yelled.  It must have not liked the yelling, cause it turned around and took off back around the rear of the boat and over to the right side. Eventually he wore the beast out and brought it to the boat. It was a fantastic fish, and one of the last for the day.  Travis normally does a pretty poor “forced smile” in photos.  He’s just a genuine kid, and he doesn’t do well when “made” to look happy.  In fact, this has been a bit of a family joke for years.  Well…. NOT TODAY!  Travis natural smile is fantastic, and he was beaming with it after that fish. 

Bryan said that Travis’ king was the biggest of his season so far, and he does this every day. It was a 35” king, which should be about a 17# fish, according to online sources.  Having held the fish, I swear it felt heavier, and the fillets were beautiful.

Erik, Matt and I fished for another half hour or so, trying to catch anything like Travis’ fish, but failed to do so, and at 4:15, we pulled up lines for the hour long ride back to harbor.  Matt had a rock cod on the rod he reeled in, so that was some “bonus” fillet meat for the burgeoning live well.

The deck hand, Ben, drained the bloody live well and pulled all the fish out for pictures, and then filleted them all while Bryan drove to harbor. In all, we had 12 halibut, 12 salmon, and two rockfish.  I’m estimating that collection made for about 80-100# of actual eating meat, once filleted off the bone.  We kept out three halibut fillets (3/4 of one fish) for dinner and had the balance bagged and frozen for Erik to transport home on Sunday via plane.

All in all, one helluva day of fishing and I will absolutely return someday to try and repeat this performance. The planets were aligned in our favor, between good weather, good tide timing, great guides, strong bite and well behaved kids.

(From Deanna) Meanwhile, back on shore…… Lilly, Luke, and I spent the day on an array of activities, including a visit to the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, tidepooling at Bishop's Beach (checking the shallows and pools created when the tide is low to look for critters), and enjoying lunch at a local restaurant called Two Sisters. While tidepooling, we found jellyfish, crabs, sea anenomes, etc and had a great time.  With one type of jellyfish we could actually see light flashes as electrical currents pulsed through its body.  Very cool!  The weather was perfect for a stroll on the beach- so relaxing!  The only problem is when you're not paying attention when tidepooling, and you walk a little too deep into the water, and your boots begin to fill with water (don't ask me how I know).    After lunch we did some walking around town, visiting local thrift stores and a really cool yarn shop.  While thrifting, I found a great nylon “fishing” shirt from Sportsman's Warehouse for Travis for $6.50. It’s a men’s medium, and it fits him eerily well. He looks like a fishing guide in it and was walking tall between the shirt and that chinook…..

Once back in camp, Erik and Lilly cooked up the halibut and Deanna made rice + veggies to go with it.

After dinner, we sat around a small campfire retelling fish stories (mandatory).   During that event, we needed to relight the fire, and Erik used some surplus tiki torch oil. This turned out to be FAR more flammable than expected, and Erik had to jump back from the fire, spraying fluid (from the Ozarka bottle he’d used for its transport) all over the place, including his britches. 

As bedtime approached, we got ready to hit the hay, but Erik, while walking through his camper accidentally kicked the bear spray and it discharged about two seconds worth INSIDE THE CAMPER!  This added some drama to an already busy day.  I’m not sure if bear spray is effective on bears or not, but it sure as heck works on me!

Quote for the day:  “honey, my pants smell like bear spray and lighter fluid”- Erik