I must apologize to all three blog followers, for leaving you with the Anchorage cliffhanger. Truth is, once the kids landed, we just had too much fun.
We left Anchorage in the Motorhome (Tioga), which drives like a bus, and had similar fuel economy (7.8MPG) the morning of the 8th, bound for Homer.
On the way, we stopped at Girdwood, which was having their annual Forest Fest https://girdwoodforestfair.com/
it was a ton of fun. lots of homemade stuff, and 3000calorie plates of food available to anyone with the coin. I spent my coin with kids operating independent lemonade distributorships.
then we headed to Homer, arriving about 5pm. we hit visited the charter boat places to verify fishing plans for the next day, had dinner, and got to bed early.
Next morning, the 9th, we all rousted early and got over to the boats for a day of big fishin. Shanes family fished with North Country Halibut Charters. Eriks family fished with Alaska Coastal Marine. Our captain warned us the ride might be "bumpy" (Mrs. Mack called this foreshadowing in my English class, circa 1991).
We spent about 90 minutes racing other boats out to the targeted fishing grounds. While Erik + crew started in on the halibut, we got started trolling for salmon. Fortunately for us, this "cove" was protected from the winds and tide waves coming in, so it was a pleasant boat ride. In short order, we were catching a mix of pinks and king salmon. The limit on kings is now 1 fish per license per day, and most of us caught a good king. We kept all the pinks we could, plus a couple rockfish and had a large time doing it. :)
Once we had plenty of salmon, we moved on to the "big halibut" grounds. The ride to the halibut area was way bumpier than anything before, and in short order, bellies became unhappy. On arrival to the halibut area, we started dropping lines to a depth of about 300' using three POUND weights. that's correct, three pounds. Just checking bait was a major task retrieving 350' of line, and a 3# weight in "bumpy" water is a pretty good fight, even if it isn't a fish. Still, we pretty quickly had about 7 halibut in the cooler, including all our "overs". The fishing regs limit you to two halibut per day, and only one of those can be over 28".
After that spot had filled our "overs", we moved back towards Homer to the "chicken" area - where most boats will fill their limits of halibut under 28", which is just what we did. Once our halibut limit had been reached, it was time for the 75 minute boat ride back to the harbor where bellies could once again stabilize. Other than the hurling, it had been a great day of fishing.
When we got to harbor, we got to catch up with Erik and Lilly. Their boat had not focused as much on salmon, but had really hammerred big halibut. Their family of 4 boated a 20, 40, 60 and a 90# halibut. Our big 'buts- all good fish, mind you.... - were only ~12-13# by comparison. Lilly caught the 90# fish, and it was so big that their deck hand shot it with a 410 shotgun before bringing it in the water so they wouldnt lose it. Anytime you catch a fish so big that it has to be shot..... is a good day. :)
The next couple days in Homer, we spent time fishing the lagoon, which is a manmade huge bathtub that fills and drains with the tidal flows. The hatchery releases baby salmon in the lagoon every fall, so when they approach end of life, they return to this same area and end up getting caught by local fishermen. Pretty cool! We caught pinks, silvers, and some kings in the lagoon + surrounding area.
Following all that fun..... we packed up and migrated to Soldotna. I'll have to come back later and add more pictures, cause they are on other folks cameras.
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