July 23 – Pelican
After a week of so-so weather, we
were thrilled to see sun and azure blue skies on the day Lee generously treated
us all to a charter fishing trip. Our trusted charter captain, Terry, was also
the winner of the annual Pelican Salmon Derby back when we were in Pelican in 2010
with Lydia, Eric and Cade ... so we knew we would have a pro with local
knowledge.
Roland and I wanted to learn to
fish this summer. OK, to be precise, I
wanted to learn to fish ... specifically for salmon. Not so much for the sport
of fishing, but more so because I wanted to fill our freezer with fresh wild
salmon. Halibut would be nice too!
It took us two hours heading out
the Lisianski Inlet to the Lisianski Strait to get out to the Gulf of Alaska
... to Terry’s “secret” spot.
With little wind, the Gulf was
calm and when we reached our target, Terry pulled out his salmon rods and loaded
us up with bait and sent them down with the downriggers. Within no time JoAnn
hooked a nice king salmon and she and Roland took turns bringing it in.
We also caught a few humpies and
silver salmon, which Terry bludgeoned to death to chop for bait later when we
fished for halibut. Then Lee caught a beautiful king, and I already was
conjuring up creative salmon recipes.
Knowing that Lee and JoAnn had to
fly out later that afternoon, we didn’t want to miss our chance to fish for halibut,
so we pulled up the downriggers and Terry moved the boat to his halibut
“secret” spot.
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JoAnn and Laura ... ready for the BIG ONE! |
Halibut fishing is hard work.
Largely because they are deep bottom feeders, so you’re dropping a line with a
large weight on it 350 feet deep. And every time you drop a line ... you ALSO have
to reel it back up!
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JoAnn's halibut, with some help from our charter captain Terry. |
They say the best halibut meat is
a smaller halibut, 30-50 pounds, so we were delighted when JoAnn hooked a
40-pound halibut and she and Roland took turns bringing it in.
But the BIG catch of the day was
mine. And I initially didn’t even know I had a fish on my line. I started to
reel up my line to move to the other side of the boat where the sun was ... and
all of a sudden something started taking the line out.
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Lee helping to reel in the BIG one! |
I couldn’t stop it, so Terry told
me to let it run and tire itself out ... until we realized it wasn’t tiring and
I was running out of line! So that’s when I sat down and braced myself against
the side of the boat to try reeling this thing in. And almost was pulled
overboard in the process!
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Both eyes are on the other side ... |
Terry quickly came to my aide and
based on what he was feeling (even he was struggling to reel in this fish) he
said he bet it was at least a 200-pound halibut. Lee joined in the action as
well, and after a lot of work, we finally got the fish to the surface and
everyone was in awe.
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We're talking BIG and ugly!!! And look at the size of the bait. |
Terry measured it at about
76-inches, which according to the halibut length/weight chart is close to 250
pounds of halibut. No wonder I couldn’t reel her in.
And we know it was a female
because any halibut over 100 pounds is a female; they live longer and grow
larger than males. If you’ve never seen a halibut, you’d be a bit surprised ...
it’s a flatfish, with the left eye next to the right eye on the same side, a
huge mouth with teeth ... a downright ugly fish! And this one was more than 200
pounds of ugly!!! Terry struggled holding the fish up to the surface so we
could try to get a photo of it, but given it’s size, we decided to let it go
and he clipped the line.
Heading back to Pelican, it began
to rain ... we decided our timing was perfect.
And so was the day ... except we
soon would be saying good-bye to Lee and Joann, losing another well-trained
team of crewmembers ;)
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The "airport" at the end of the dock in front of Engelenbak. |
At 5 p.m. they boarded their
flight ... literally a half-minute walk down the dock from our boat ... and were
flying to Juneau to begin their trek home.
After a sad farewell, Roland and I
kicked back, relaxed ... and told fish stories!!
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And they're off!!! |