Day 51 of Our RV Journey to Canada and Alaska 7/02/14 - Bob & Jesse Go on a Charter Fishing Trip for Halibut

Jesse and I had another coupon for 2 for 1 halibut charter so we took advantage of this today. We left the campground about 5:10 a.m. and headed to Ninilchik Charters about 3 miles down the road. After checking in, we loaded into a passenger van pulling our boat and gear to the boat launch area.

After  launching the boat, we traveled about 1 hour to a new location that our guide, Julian, hadn't fished for a couple weeks. It started pretty slow, as we had 6 people on board fishing but due to smaller boat we only fished 4 people at any given time.  I sat out at first, letting a husband and wife and their 2 sons fish, after someone got tired or caught a fish, I don't remember, I got up and caught a fish in about the first 5 minutes and then sat back down.

After a bit, we got in a rhythm and rotated pretty good.  It worked out well with 4 people fishing as you usually were ready for a break after reeling in a fish.  I released a few fish and kept trying for my bigger fish. You can only save 1 fish over 29", so it was catch and release until almost the last 30 minutes, when I caught a nice fish. (largest one in photo). Definitely the fishing was a little slower than our trip last Sunday, but the fish were definitely larger.  Jesse and I caught the 2 largest Halibut today so we ended up with 36 pounds of clean fillets from a total of 4 fish today vs 18 pounds last week for 4  fish. In the picture of me holding up the fillet, you can see what my big fish was about, as you yield 4 equally size fillets per fish.

We saw a sea otter today in the middle of Cook Inlet, as well as plenty of those pesky sea gulls.
Beautiful day on the water; fishing in shirt sleeves on fairly calm water.  Again, another great day of  fishing.

We, then, returned to camp and sliced up the fillets and vacuum sealed them and put them away for another day. We did keep enough out for supper.  Jesse grilled Halibut and Ginger made up some Poor Man's Lobster, which was delicious.  She also fixed twice-baked potatoes & steamed mixed vegys.

After supper, we all jumped in Jesse's truck and drove down the road to a fish weir on the Ninilchik River where they capture, sort and count the salmon swimming upstream.

We rode around looking for places to access the river on foot where we can fish for salmon in the next few days.   I am the only one that has hip waders in our group; Jesse, Ginger & Janet have knee-high rubber boots and don't really want to go purchase hip boots so we need to find a place where they can fish from the bank or shallow water.

Jesse drove us to the harbor at the bay of the Ninilchik River.  There were many salmon fishing boats side by side in several rows in the harbor that has water in it when the tide is high but when it is low tide it is just a mud bottom area.  It was an hour until high tide when we went, so there was water in this harbor area with the boats.  They were pulling out, one by one, and entering the Cook Inlet.   Some of the boats were getting ice (or it looked more like compacted snow), to be hoisted & put in their boat.  After the boats got in the Cook Inlet, it appeared that they were stopped, just floating and possibly waiting for a "Ready, Set, GO"!! At least, that is what we think they were doing....if it is anything like some of the TV shows on commercial fishing.  It was quite interesting .... we just need to run into an Old Timer that will tell us the process of commercial fishing here in Ninilchik.

Commercial Fishing and Charter Fishing seems to be the way of life and their bread & butter here in this area of Alaska.  Every road or street you drive on has Charter Fishing businesses &/or big fishing boats.  I can't imagine that there is a need for that many Charter Fishing businesses ... but there must be.

Another thing we have all noticed, that almost all homes have junk boats, trailers, junk, etc. scattered  in their front yards and most of the homes are partially finished or in disrepair.  There are some nice homes too, and a lot of cabins.

We are enjoying the area of Alaska....I would like to live here for one year and experience the Commercial Salmon Fishing, etc.

Have a good one!!

Misc 20.00 Csh



Written by Bob