And an Eagle Posing on a Stump

Sterling,
July 10 2008

SIX HALIBUT CAUGHT A FISHING; FIVE DOLPHINS SWIMMING; 4 BUNK BEDS FOR SLEEPING; 3 SAND HILL CRANES A-STRUTTIN’ ; 2 MOOSE A GRAZING AND A BALD EAGLE POSING ON A STUMP! (sung to the tune of a Partridge in a Pear Tree)

HOMER
We arrived in Homer a little after 4:00 p.m. after a nice drive down the highway. On the way down we finally saw a couple of moose grazing just off the road, our first moose sighting for the trip. And there was a bald eagle sitting on a stump along side the road that was absolutely majestic. It was our first eagle sighting as well. When we left the fishing camp it was spitting rain and cloudy…and it is no different here except it isn’t raining.

Bob’s Trophy Charters is where we booked our charter for tomorrow…and they also have a guest house which we booked a room. Imagine our surprise when we opened the door to our room and discovered two sets of bunk beds! The thought running through my mind was “I guess I get the top bunk” and I wasn’t wrong. Very interesting night of no sleep.

Up earlier than I like and on to the boat. WOW….what a nice boat. It’s a 52 footer, the Nauti-Lady and she is beautiful. They had refurbished her last winter and so it was nice and modern and clean..didn’t even smell like a fishing boat. Our captain is “Fred” and the deck hand is “Jake”. The boat usually carries 16-18 people, but today only 9 of us were on board. That made for a very pleasant fishing day. The others on board were Paul from Massachusetts (complete with accent); Chuck from Salt Lake; Scott and Tyler from Michigan; Taryn and Jason from Edmonton, Alberta; and us. And the sun has came out to shine today --- yeah. The sea’s were fairly calm (as calm as they get up here where you have 6 tides a day and the tides can vary up to 35 feet!) and as usual the scenery is breath-taking. Our first stop only resulted in us seeing a couple of whales in the distance—we were in about 80 feet of water and no fish. Next stop we were in 100 feet of water and I was hoping for halibut in that shallow of water so it wouldn’t be so hard to pull them up, but no fish. DARN! Next stop we are in 250 feet of water and there are dophins all over the place playing with the boat. Finally they moved off and the halibut started to bite. After casting in, I wasn’t in the water for 30 seconds and I had a halibut on the end of my line; pretty soon all on board had one. UGH….pulling this baby up I thought I had a whopper …but just a 24 pounder, which I kept! I was pooped dragging that thing in, but back in the water I go. Al had already landed one about the same size and Randy had thrown back a smaller one. I was trying to rest, but darn, I had another fish on! This one was a little bigger and after reeling and reeling and REELING, I finally landed it and said “GOT MY LIMIT—I’m DONE!” Pretty soon Al had his limit as well. Randy had one in the box and had just thrown another one back (too small). Al and I went in to the cabin to rest and all of a sudden I heard on the boats radio “may-day, may-day, boat taking on water and sinking.” NO!!! NOT AGAIN! Last year we were part of the rescue of a sinking boat on our halibut trip!!!! A 16 foot aluminum skiff was sinking 4 miles west of Anchor Point with 3 people on board. I spent the rest of the time listening to the radio as these people were rescued. One thing for sure, you don’t want to spend much time in this water (at 42 degrees). Finally we heard that they had been rescued and didn’t need medical care. WHEW! Good deal. Oh, and by the way for you readers that read my account of last year’s boat sinking, The Fat-Kat was pulled up, refurbished and back on the water….amazing!

Back on land we sent our fish to Coal Point for flash freezing and shipping home (with the exception of one fillet, which is dinner tomorrow night.) We went to the Elks for a great halibut dinner and then headed home. While at the elks we watched 3 sand hill cranes parade around on the lawn. Fun to watch. The entire day had turned out to be fairly nice, sunny and warm (well, warm for here..in the 60’s…I didn’t take my coat off!) We arrived back at our camp around 9:30 p.m.; tired but happy to have some fish. Bob’s Trophy Charters was the best charter we have had…as I said, great boat and crew and good equipment. If we do this again, we will book with them.

I wonder if this is our last year here. Al had a good time on the boat today, but had to struggle to fish and everyone on board was watching out for him as he was so unsteady on his feet. And getting him in and out of the boat is a challenge. We will see what the rest of the month brings and then make the decision to either wait a year or put a for sale sign on the trailer here now. Saddens me to think that he may not be able to come up here anymore as he loves it; but it is getting pretty hard on all of us, including him. Perhaps we should sell the trailer and just come up for a week or so each summer……something for us to think about for next year.