To all of you that have come to fish in Homer this summer, THANK YOU! The following photo will always be special to me, as it represents the best of times and a testament to those that have the fishing spirit. In July of 2008, Lutz and Andreas came fishing, but were dealt the tough hand of lousy weather. Despite being warned of the possibilities, they and three others just HAD to go fishing that day. Try as we might, the weather curtailed our efforts and we came in with just four small halibut and the story of the “big one” that proved to be a skate. Many visits to the website, e-mails, and a couple of phone calls later, I got another chance to prove to them that fishing in Homer can be phenomenal. This time, Lutz’s sister, Beate, an Anchorage resident, came along, too. The weather this year was tentative at best, but I offered the three the chance to take refuge in the “North kelp” near Anchor Point and try to stay out of the worst of the tide and the weather. We arrived there and the tide was slack and this held us in the trough. Uncomfortable, but I was reminded by Beate that we had good food, music, and company, so we should stick it out. Not long into our wait, a fifty pound halibut came aboard. Lutz claimed that this IS what he came to America for, so we hung in there.

As the tide progressed, we caught a couple of smaller fish around 25# and put them in the box, and had some really good take-downs, so we knew there was a big girl hanging out. Well, finally she took the hook and Lutz reeled in a fish over 100# and THAT was what he had come to America for!  Andreas hooked into a 46# fish and released four more in the 15-35# range. As it turned out, he never did keep a second fish, but the three of them had over 160# of fillets, so all was well. I would like to thank Lutz and Andreas for coming the distance to fish with us again and for giving us a second chance to make it happen. To Beate and her husband, we welcome you to U.S. citizenship. Take care and best of luck.  Pete