Skill Or Luck ~~~ Pat Shows up Up!

Well, shall we call this blog “Skill or Luck!”

Pat, Steve and I head off to go halibut fishing again. The time is just right for the slack tide. This is a great time for fishing as the water doesn’t move a lot. Pat heads off to the lucky spot to fish. We all put our poles in the water, start fishing and BOOM~~~~~ Pat has a fish, not just a fish but a big one that. Everybody gets excited and takes their places in the boat. After many tugs and pulls and tugs and pulls we get the halibut to the boat, Holy Moly this thing is huge! Shall we keep it? No one says anything! Next thing we know, Pat has the harpoon and is going after the halibut. The first shot is a good one, off the halibut goes with the float and it is ~~~~ GONE~~~~. Where did it go George, where did it go!! (That is the saying that Pat and Steve use.) Up it comes on the other side of the boat. This is going to take awhile to get in I can tell. The halibut doesn’t want to move at all. He is to the boat several times and off he goes again. This is about a 40 minute pull and tug affair. Everybody is getting tired but me; I have the camera and am taking pictures of it all. We get the halibut to the boat and get another rope on him, finally calm it down enough to tie his tail also. We get him tied to the boat and off we head towards home. This is going to be a very slow trip~~ halibut hanging off the side of the boat. After about 2 miles we decide to see if he is dead ~~ looks dead to me! We all tug and tug and get him into the boat. (You never never put a halibut over 40 pounds in a boat until they are dead dead, as they will either beat the bottom of the boat out, or beat you up !)

Wow~!~!~! Just look at the size of that halibut! Great job Pat! Now comes the guessing game of how much he weighs!! That made for conversation on the way back to the boat launch.

So now it is picture time! Pat sure is proud of his catch! Well who wouldn’t be!

Wow~!~!~! Just look at the size of that halibut! Great job Pat! Now comes the guessing game of how much he weighs!! That made for conversation on the way back to the boat launch.

Everybody get into the picture and smile!

Of course we have to use the rope and pulley to get this guy out of the boat. Do any of you know how much SLIME a halibut has on it? A lot, no a huge amount, now what is the most that you can have, well a gob?? I think that they are made of slime on the outside and stink~~~ OH, boy~~ the odor would make a skunk smile!

The butt is almost 72 inches long (6 feet) and weighs according to the chart 185 pounds. (Our scale only goes to 50 pounds.)

Now, do I have tell you that the work begins now! There is no easy way to clean a halibut this big. We hang him up and filet it this way. The steaks are huge on this! Lot of good eats for everybody!


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Steve's Big Butt

Well now this is a story about Steve’s big halibut ! For your information Steve has been coming to stay with us for 5 years. We enjoy him so much and he has helped out with lots of projects around the place. He has caught lots of fish in all his visits but never a halibut big enough to brag about! Now he did, it was 80 pounds and 55 inches long.

This halibut was brought up and harpooned in the head, died instantly, but he harpoon didn’t go through the body. Now the funny part is, both Pat and Steve took turns holding the pole while the other one hit the harpoon with a stick that we use to kill fish. Guess that you had to be there, but it was really funny. Finally after beating and beating on the harpoon it went through the halibut. Hurray, we got him now!

Just look at the size of this halibut. Great job Steve! You sure got a lunker to begin with, this one will be hard to beat.

We have to get a rope and pull this guy up out of the boat, it is too heavy to man-handle. You thought that wheel barrows were for dirt and gravel? Guess again, a halibut fits into them also.

We have to get a rope and pull this guy up out of the boat, it is too heavy to man-handle. You thought that wheel barrows were for dirt and gravel? Guess again, a halibut fits into them also.

Steve and his prize halibut.

Now the work begins, it takes about 40 minutes for this to be cut up, cleaned and put in the refrigerator for packing tomorrow.

 Now that is two nice filets of halibut !

To top it off, here are the 9 crabs that we got, and we had a great day fishing and crabbing!

Stay tuned ~~~ More to come!



I would be happy too if I caught this one!

Let The Fishin' Begin

Pat had a meeting today, so Steve and I hit the outlet for salmon. Steve wants to try his hand at fly fishing. After several casts here and there and everywhere he has no luck. We decide to move up the outlet to the snag hole.

The fish are jumping everywhere. We anchor the boat and start fishing. Both of us have fish on but they get off, then ~~ Boom, Steve gets one on! Steve lands his first Coho and it is 6 pounds plus, now the spell is broken and the fishing begins!

We get a call on the radio and Pat is ready for us to pick him up at the dock, then we head out to the North entrance for some halibut fishing.

Not to long and Pat gets a nice halibut on. Steve gets the pole while Pat gets the harpoon ready ~ need to be prepared next time. While Steve reels it up, and gets the halibut next to the boat, Pat prepares to harpoon the halibut, the first hit goes wide and pulls out, off the halibut goes ~~ Steve reels it back up, second hit pulls out again. We are thinking that either the halibut is really hooked good or he just wants to come aboard with us and go home for dinner. Steve reels that halibut again and third hit ~~ got him! WOW!!! That was really stressful. I know that we will enjoy every bite of that halibut.

Wow! What a nice catch Pat!

Halibut on the menu tonight or tomorrow.

Two ropes and Pat and Steve have the halibut under control. They then take it to the fish cleaning station. This halibut weighed 46 pounds and was 51 long.

Now we can have some great tasting butt steaks!

I spy with my BIG eye another halibut in the future!

Stay tuned for the next day of halibut fishing!

Gone Fishin'

Rain showers in the forecast but we are heading out fishing. We launch the boat and head out into the bay, wind starts blowing, and rain is coming down. Maybe we will fish in the bay and the outlet today.

Pat is looking this way and that looking for the fish.

Steve is casting away hoping to catch his fish first.

                                               

Pat gets the first fish on, what a great fight his has on his hands ~~ well not from the fish BUT from the seal! Yes, the seal got his first fish. He was not a happy camper about it either. But a few casts later and he lands a nice coho.

Laura hooks a nice coho of her own. Have to say that is bigger than Pats too.

After casting so many times, our arms are tried, we decide to go and check the crab pots. Pat and Steve are pulling them up and checking the bait. Wow~~ I think that we have some keepers in this pot!

 

Hey ~~~ let me out of here!

I don’t want to be on the dinner table.

I know ~ I will pinch him on the boot and he will let me go!

Hey buddy ~ Turn me over so we can crawl away and hide.

This is a float plane that has brought in some guest to the Lodge across the bay.

Looks like the rain is going to stay around for awhile here in the bay.

Pat hiding behind the windshield as he heads back to the boat ramp.

Steve is hiding trying to stay dry ~ good luck Steve!

The next day we head out again.

The time has come to hit the hot spot for butts! Halibuts that is, butts is the Alaska words for halibuts. We gather all our special lures, I have my own. My brother made me one to try, it is a cross arm piece that is white and has a bend to it. Off we go to the special spot by Exchange Cove. Fish for about 4 hours, only thing that we caught was trash fish.

Going back to North Entrance we come across some whales blowing. They are getting close to us. No tail shots this time.

Always farther we see some Sea Otters. Sure are cute, but cause a lot of trouble to the clams, crabs and other shell fish.

This is a shot of our salmon for dinner, along with the crab. Sure does look yummy! Taste even better.

Keep in touch for more exciting blogs!

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Road Trip

What to do on our Anniversary!  I know, Ask Bruce and Pam if they want to take a picnic and go on a road trip to look at Twin Island Lakes, and maybe to Sarkar to see if the sockeye are in.

Off towards Twin Island Lake we go, and the guys find a likely spot to put the boats in. It will soon be a hot fishing spot. We also drive down some roads that go no where! Great roads for a bit, then they turn into brushy tunnels. There is always an adventure in Alaska.

We find a lot of pretty flowers. I don’t know what they are called. I still have to get my flower book checked out at the library. I know that the big yellow one is a dandelion. How pretty is it in this picture!

Good Freinds

This little fawn was by the road with his mommy, got scared and dropped down to hide! We see you little guy! Took a couple of pictures and left him to go to his mommy!

We stop at Sarkar Lake and eat our lunch. Tasty deviled egg sandwich, chips, carrots, and yummy cookies! Great food! We meet a Forest Service geologist there and ask him questions about where to find gold! He doesn’t know, but later down the blog you will know where to find gold.

Yum!

Sarkar Lake in background

Only In Alaska boat trailer

Next stop was Nakauti!  For those of you that have never been there, it is an experience. I was all for going to get an ice cream at the store. We drive up the road to the store, walk in ~~~~ “NO ICE CREAM today”. The ice cream is on its way and will be here in a couple of hours. That is too long to wait. We drive around the area, look at the nice new school that was built, nice boat harbor and saw this. Does anybody know what it is?

It is a steam donkey. Pat is going to write about it. He was so excited to see it, as you can tell by the pictures.

The old donkey was originally set on a float and used for beach logging, or “A” frame logging. An “A” frame was mounted on the front of the float, and the contraption was used similar to a modern day hi-lead logging tower, except that the logs were drug directly into the water. This was probably made in the early 1900s, but may have been brought up here to Alaska at a later time. There was a fair amount of beach logging done here in the early part of the last century.

 

Remember the “GOLD”. We found a huge nugget in a secret spot!  

Pam and I were on it instantly so that no one else could take it over. If anyone would like to have more information about the nugget, please send a check with the current price for one ounce of gold and we will forward the place so that you can get in on this huge nugget. Don’t miss out on this opportunity

 

We all had a great day on the road! We saw some great scenery and had a great time. Hope to do this again soon.