Day 20-Goin' Fishin' Today in Homer,AK-Thursday, June1, 2017

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Up @6 a.m., temp. 42deg., sunny...sun rose 4:59 a.m.!

Nice to get up and have a relaxing morning, knowing we don't have to rush off for another 8 hrs. or so of driving. Goin' fishin' this afternoon are the only plans for the day. We started to do some packing of the clothes etc. that we won't need for rest of trip. We'll be returning the RV in Anchorage on Saturday afternoon as our 22 day "Great Adventure" comes to an end.

Al, Tom, Peggy, Ray, and I reported for "fishing duty" at the dock area @12:30pm for our charter. Dorrie, Sandy, Diane, & John went out for lunch and shopping on the "spit" while we fished. As part of the charter, we were provided with a 24 hr. fishing license for the day. We headed out of the marina right on time for a 1hr. ride to our "fishing hole" for halibut in Kachemak Bay where Homer is located, right near Cook Inlet. I spotted an orca on the way as well as several "rafts" of sea otters...for you landlubbers, that's a group of sea otters. We got a short safety briefing on the way along with instructions how to use the rods when we got to fishing area. Basically, a rod with a reel and a 2lb. sinker to send down 100' to bottom and wait for halibut to take the bait and catch the hook in its mouth and then reel it in. I'm no fisherman, it was pretty easy to do, but that didn't mean the fish would take the bait. No sooner had we anchored however, and Ray dropped his line in and caught the first fish...too small to keep @26"...back in again and this time, within a few minutes Ray had 1st catch of the group @28". There were approx. 14 people on the charter and regulations allow non-residents only 2 fish at a time and limit of 4/yr. The group continued to be successful, one after another including a lady at least 10 years older than I who landed 2 before I had any...nothing for me for the first 90 mins. and finally I had my 1st @27"... I think. There's a complicated method for allowing smaller size fish to be taken, which some of us did, but it would be impossible for me to explain. Suffice to say, the group caught its quota of 2 each, ranging somewhere between 8 to 15 lbs. each. Up anchor and we headed for port. We posed for pictures on the way back, with just the 4 largest fish caught by the group of 14. The crew then filleted all the fish and separated into bags for each of us to take away. There are 4 good sized fillets in each halibut and among Ray, Al, and I, I would guess the bags weighed at least 20 lbs...the current market for halibut is $24.75/lb. We gave some of fish to person at RV office, will try to give some more away tomorrow at RV Park before heading out. We'll save enough for dinner tomorrow night and have it stored in ice in a styrofoam cooler over night as Great Alaskan Holidays doesn't want any fresh fish stored in the new refrigerators under pain of stiff $penalty..

Al, Sue, Tom, & Peggy decided to go out to a restaurant and have enough of their catch cooked for them. I cooked ours for Dorrie & I in a simple recipe of butter, Ritz crackers, lemon & white wine and we sat down to a meal of the best fish we've ever had. Played cards after dinner, had a bonfire to warm us, tried to sing some songs, the words to which we didn't know and finished with "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"...see pics. I'm finishing this blog right now, just before going to bed, so I'll be ahead for a change...only a few more postings to go. From the drop off in the number of comments I've been receiving, you must be as tired of reading these posts as I am in writing them, but it's been fun.

All for now...goodnight. (11:30 p.m. Alaska time, sun just set)

Quentin

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