Another crab season has commenced here and the crew of the Julia Lynn has been very successful. Unfortunately, the rules do not allow this to be done in the course of our charter day, but once the working day is done, the family, crew, and friends of Capt. Pete’s head out and pull the pots. For Debra, this is a good chance to enjoy her investment in the Julia Lynn……just a quick three mile jaunt to the crab grounds. For all of us, it means some GOOD EATS! Our deckhand, Jona, has proved to be a sage hand at all of what it means to crab in Kachemak Bay….coiling, sorting, and setting the crabpot. Sorry to say that she is now a veteran of the crab “bite” and am happy to report that no finger nails were lost in the clash. We began crabbing the 16th of July, celebrated Jona’s 18th birthday on the 20th and have enjoyed dozens of crabs since. Halibut fishing is awesome right now and the silvers are showing up. Whales abound and there has even been a king bite lately. If only the rain would cease and the sun shine again….the weather today was awesome.

I have been remiss (or just busy) in getting photos posted here. It would be good to post every day, but some days, I just need some time to shut down. We have had some good days out in the Inlet and some days when it was a bit rough to go to the middle, but managed to find fish somewhere. We have had some good whale shows, both humpbacks and orcas, but because I am busy maneuvering the “Julia Lynn”, I have not tried to get photos. If you are reading this and were on the boat one of those days and have a photo, don’t hesitate to send it to me and I will post it here. Thank you all for coming to fish with us. We will always try our best to fill the box no matter what the weather.

This Spring, it was time for us to have a new brochure designed and printed. As is my custom, I waited for the last minute to begin the process and was fortunate enough to get a referral from my brother at eye-cue.com and he sent me to Kevin Holt, who does this type of work. Not only were we pleased with the results, but the printing was done in time for the Sportsman Show in Anchorage this Spring. Part of the deal included taking Kevin, his family, and friends fishing for halibut. We had a great day out on the water and the results were fantastic. Thanks Kevin for a great job.

There are a lot of things to learn when you decide you want to work on a boat and netting salmon is one of the more difficult. There are so many things that can go wrong between hooking them and getting them into the boat. This one was a nice one and although I cannot say it was a textbook landing, the fish made it into the boat and the result is a large smile from our deckhand, Jona. There will be many more salmon to net this season.

I know this is getting a bit repetitive, but we caught another octopus Wednesday. Tom Jordan, who would have preferred a large halibut caught it on the East/West ridge while we were ducked in there hiding from a strong wind. Seems like I was hiding from the wind, along with the rest of the fleet, most of last week. Thank goodness there was a good bite of fish around Flat Island, so a least we all got our limits. The octopus went to Henry Baldauf who will brine and smoke it….yum!

Pete caught an octopus – here is a photo Steve sent him of their fishing trip!

Here are the Sauers with their halibut and octopus!