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.

I had a great time fishing with dad (aka Captain Pete) during my recent trip to Alaska. While I wasn’t holding a pole I took a couple of photos and videos – in this one Slim Sorrows battles a nice-sized halibut. ~Isaac

Here are a few photos from the same trip:

Capt. Pete, Erica, andf Capt. Ron with a limit of king salmon

On a recent January day, the weather was warm and the fish were biting. My friends, Don Flynn, Ron Hurley, and his neighbor, Erica joined me in a fun day of fishing near Seldovia. We snacked on king salmon and king crab sandwiches in between taking turns reeling n king salmon from nine pounds to one white king that went over twnety pounds. Here’s a photo of the catch with Ron, Erica, and me. Also, fishing with us that day was Boop, aka Don Flynn, who used to own and run the Diamond Cape. Boop is now back to salmon seining in Prince William Sound, which is what he did before the Exxon Valdez disaster. Erica enjoyed the experience of fishing with three captains, and with the fish cooperating, there was plenty to do between snacks.

Boop reels in a king while Ron cranks the downrigger

It’s not often that I get to take two kings home in a day, but this trip was very rewarding. Erica and her Dad smoked some of the king that they took home and a few days ago, Dr. Bill brought me some all smoked and packaged up. I have sampled some and it was delicious.

The Julia Lynn will be out of the shop and back in the water in a few days and I can hardly wait to get out there and see if we can’t get them to bite again!

Greetings:

We lucked out here and we are enjoying the tail-end of a two week weather window that is not especially unusual this time of year, but most welcome. That cold snap that hit us after Christmas lasted two solid weeks and left us froze solid in the harbor. The stash of king salmon was getting dangerously low and the arms began to atrophize. We finally got free of the harbor and the wind died down on Saturday the 17th and I and three friends went salmon fishing. Caught eight nice fish, 8 to 20# and enjoyed a nice, sunny day. Sunday we took Ericka Roberts and her neighbor, Capt. Ron Hurley, and my friend Don Flynn fishing and we actually did better than Saturday. Eight kings landed and maybe a bit larger than the day before and we got in earlier. Although I am just learning to post on YouTube, I will attempt to include a quick clip here from Saturday’s trip. Luke is on the rod and Tom is handling the net.

We are also back to crabbing until the 15th of March. We’ve been three times since Tuesday and it has been great. The crab are very full of sweet meat. What a treat to enjoy in the winter! It was 36 degrees this morning when we got up, but we are expecting the temps to fall and along with it, some snow. It is time for the “Julia Lynn’s” annual trip to the shop, so we will be out of action for a couple of weeks, but we’ll return all polished up and ready for the ’09 season. We’ll post photos here as they become available.  Take care.  Pete