Catching Fish

Here is the latest fishing update:

On our Homer charter excursion, we caught three King Salmon plus we ran over a school of Sea Bass and caught three. Our Ford truck repair cost us $1,200. It was a broken fuel pump. Expensive fish!

In Valdez, we forfeited going for Halibut since the boat ride was 70 miles out to sea or a 3-hour ride, fish for 3 hours then back again for a 3-hour return ride. That seemed to be too long of a day. But we didn’t go there to fish. Instead we took an 8-hour leisurely tour on a yacht. We saw humpback whales, beluga whales, sea lions, the Columbia glacier, where the Valdez oil spill happened, the pipeline terminal, and caves. It was quite an experience. Our picture was taken of us for our Christmas card near the Columbia Glacier. Very cool (literally, since it was 38º). We’ve seen the Titanic movie. It seemed rather strange dodging ice bergs. They were all over. But we kept putting closer with the boat to the glacier. And then before we knew it, we were next to the glacier. It was like sitting in a bowl of ice cubes. There were broken icebergs all over. We now know where the term “blue ice” comes from since this was the glacier’s color.

Today we are in Sterling, Alaska. This morning we drove to “The Sanctuary” (as the locals call it) were the Kenai and Russian Rivers meet. The Sockeye salmon were running. There were probably 800 people fishing up and down the river banks. The only time the banks cleared up was when the grizzly showed up. It was easy fishing for him. Just look for the fish on the stringers. Linda has never seen anything like it before in her life. Here we landed two Sockeye salmon. We caught fourteen but they seemed to have wiggled off the regulation hooks we have to use in this fishing zone. Linda stood fishing, casting and retrieving for eight hours. She feared even to go to the bathroom because her spot on the river would be taken by another fisherman, besides there might be bears in the woods. Lifting a glass of water is difficult after fighting salmon all day.