Icy Strait Point-Hoonah

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Icy Strait Point-Hoonah
The marine wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park is millions of acres of snow capped mountains, deep fjords, freshwater rivers and lakes, and tidewater glaciers. Long ago, this was the ancestral home of the Tlingit before a rapid glacier forced them out. Still with a strong spiritual connection, the village of Hoonah is the largest Tlingit settlement in Alaska. Our Hoonah morning started with a fishing trip with Eric from Ear mountain charters. The weather started out sprinkling but turned into a beautiful day with sun poking thru. Our trip was 4 hours leaving us wishing we had more time to fish as the trip out and back in takes close to two hours. I caught a 24" Halibut that was fun to pull in but not quite big enough to keep. Rules on Eric's boat was you had to kiss your catch..talk about a salty one..lol One guy of the four of us caught a 36 inch halibut so I'm including a picture of it. The other couple also caught two ugly fish, a spiny creature. It was beautiful smooth water and so quiet. We could hear the water running down the mountainside and bubbles and play from some nearby sea lions who popped their heads out near our boat. We also watched a dozen or more of whales blow out along the islands edge with occasional tales breaching. Spectacular. We fished out from Aldmiralty Island which has 1.6 bears per square mile, a very large bear community. Back on shore, we spent the afternoon walking thru the town which is very small and visited their shops with homemade goods. The town now has 800 residents and has been changed since our last visit with a sidewalk along the road from ship and new construction. There was the longest zip line in the world there that goes from top to bottom in 90 seconds. Bear tours and fly fishing are just a couple of the many nature trips to take. Hoonah is very remote and scenic on the water.

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