Luke and Pete with King Salmon

Many of you will remember Pete Hopley, who was our deckhand during the 1998 and 2000 seasons here in Homer. Since then, Pete has come back to fish with us and is now a licensed captain and also fishes on the Venturess with Travis Larson. Pete has been in the Guard for many years and last year was deployed to Iraq. He served there and returned this summer back home. We were so happy that he decided to come to Alaska to visit and have enjoyed having him here. Today he and our friend Luke, and I went fishing for king salmon. We managed to catch two kings and a couple of silvers and we topped it off with a nice tote full of tanner crab. We had a feast here at the house and some of the crab and salmon will go home with Pete for his family. For me, it was a special day spent with a couple of my favorite people.

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

When Friends Go Fishing

As many of you know, July 1st marks the beginning of ling cod fishing here in South Central Alaska. Lings are considered by many of us to be some of the most succulent meat available from these waters. Although a bit tricky to find and hook, with some diligent angling, they are a lot of fun to catch. Since this trip was just for fun, the crew, myself and Meghan Hamson got to fish along with our friends, Steve Haber and his son Mackenzie and their friends from Colorado. Meghan’s friend, Justin was kind enough to take the photo. Yeah, we lost a couple of jigs and had to work a little for the ling cod, but in the end, it couldn’t have been a better trip. The trip requires the weather to allow us to venture into the Gulf of Alaska, and take three hours of running from Homer. We got there at 10AM and left at 1PM. You might notice that most of the anglers were wearing their Habervisoon sunglasses which are available online at www.habervision.com

It is not often that I get to actually fish for myself in June, but with a rare week off, I took time out from work on the homestead to fish for king salmon today. I actually left the harbor with only getting the engines warm enough to change the oil in mind, but after two hours of trolling up the Bay and seconds before giving up to head back to the harbor, we hooked up. Many of you will remember Kenny Cardwell, who worked for me back in 2002 and 2003. Well, Ken has been helping us around the house in between working on the North Slope and going to Bristol Bay to commercial fish for red salmon, so he went along to see if we couldn’t find a fish for dinner. It was just serendipity that this 26# king bit the hook as I was getting ready to pop it loose from the downrigger.

We shared over half of the bounty with friends on the way home and then put this piece on a piece of cedar and into the grill. When it was half done, I slathered it with a mixture of mayo, yogurt, lemon juice, and dill. I squeezed half the lemon onto the fish before grilling. It was absolutely scrumptious and I must thank my daughter-in-law, Jessica for giving me her recipe for the topping. I had been in Eagle River last Monday and she had cooked a fillet of red salmon that way and I was quite impressed. Am sure it would be good on halibut as well. I also know for a fact that it will be awesome as a cold leftover tomorrow.

This week Fish and Game here in Homer closed the Anchor River to king salmon fishing for the first time in many years. Low escapement is the reason. We are just now beginning to see the bait arrive and some salmon show up along the bluff (and at least one from up the Bay!) Hopefully the kings are just a little late and not missing in action. Halibut continues to be very good with larger fish arriving as the days go by. The weather has been awesome.