Anchor Point, AK, May 30, 2011. I wrote yesterday about the majesty of a soaring eagle. This morning as we prepared to depart aboard our charter boat, The Independence, down on the beach, this eagle was tearing at the flesh off a fresh breakfast kill while defending his meal from several gulls - takes a little shine off the pumpkin, doesn't it.
There is no dock at Anchor Point. Boats are launched by a tractor which shoves the trailer hauling the boat into the water. When sufficient depth is achieved, the boat powers off the trailer in reverse. The trailer is then pulled buck onto the beach to await the boat's return. Later, the process is reversed with the boat powering onto the trailer, then pulled onto the beach for where the passengers unload.
The captain of the boat was Aaron, and his first and only mate was Trevor. Aaron is the son of another captain, legendary in this area for many years. Trevor is from Sand Point, ID. Aaron is the older of the two and Trevor looks like he just graduated from high school. Both were highly skilled fishermen.
We were joined on board by two brothers, Joe and Boyd and their wives, Amy and Heather. Joe is a Captain in the Army, fresh back from his fourth tour in the Middle East. Boyd is a state trooper in Alaska. Joe and Boyd are avid hunters and fishermen. In fact, Boyd moved to Alaska because of the hunting and fishing opportunities there.
It was a good day, fishwise. The temperature stayed in the low to mid fifties all day, the wind blew and the water was choppy. But the halibut were hungry. The eight of us caught more than thirty. Each could keep only two, so we kept the sixteen largest, of course. Annie landed the first keeper. It was the third largest caught all day. Modesty prevents me from revealing who caught the first and second largest.
The Independence rose and settled with the heaves of the water, churned by the wind. The water wasn't all that heaved. Heather got sick twice and another passenger got sick once. I won't embarrass him by revealing his name. I will say that he justified his actions by referring to it as an sacrificial offering of breakfast to the halibut gods to insure a good catch.
After catching our limit of halibut, we moved closer to shore to fish for king salmon. The fishing cooled substantially. Only one king salmon was caught. It was a team effort between Annie and Malachi. Annie saw the rod jerking and called to the others. Malachi picked up the rod and landed a 22-pound salmon. We fished another four hours, caught a trout and two cod, but no more salmon.
It was a good day. Any day you can fish improves if you fish successfully. We did that. It was cold and unpleasant on the water, but the success of the outing compensated for the discomfort. We took our catch back to Homer for processing and shipping to Kansas City. I was surprised to learn how little of the total fish weight is eatable. We caught about 110 pounds of halibut. Its shipping weight was 33 pounds. The 22-pound king salmon was reduced to only 8 pounds of salmon fillets. However, that should be plenty for a family fish feed when we return to Kansas City.
We are back in the Fred Meyer parking lot tonight, headed north again tomorrow. Our time in Alaska is half spent. It has gone both slow and fast. It seems to take forever to get from one place to another. That part has been slow. However, looking back over the time we've been here, it seems like we just arrived. But, there is more to enjoy before boarding the ferry on June 6. We intend to do just that.
1 comment:
Those fish are going to make the little perch in your lake look pretty pathetic. But let's try to catch some anyway when you get back.
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