Day 29 (6-29-12 - Halibut Fishing Trip at Homer Spit)

We have been on the road for 4 weeks now.  We are more exhausted from our fishing trip today than we were from packing up the camper before we left.

We left camp at 7 a.m. and returned at 5:15pm to go halibut fishing on a boat named, Intodeep .  We went about 15 miles in the boat to Cook Inlet. We saw a lot of snow topped mountains and a puffing volcano. 

The weather was nice.  The waves were around 4 feet.  It was a great day to be on the water. Lane and Doug were great Halibut Fishing teachers.  Tux (Lane's dog), was so happy to see us today.    He is a sweet,energetic dog.  We kept 7 fish and threw back about 10 waiting to get the big fish.

The poles that we used had a 3 pound weight.  It is hard to fish with a pole that has a 3 pound weight that is 200 feet deep.   When I got a fish, it was all that I could do to hang on, use every muscle in my body, and reel the fish into the boat.. 

The first halibut that I caught got off when we were trying to land him.  He would have been a throw back, so I was not upset about losing the fish.

I was able to land the 2nd fish (with a lot of help from Lane and Doug).  This fish weighed about 35 pounds. I don't know if I could get a bigger fish in the boat. The fish flopped around and covered  my legs and feet in blood and fish slime, I hope I can get that smell out of the boots before I go hiking again in bear country. 

I caught 4 fish before Lauren caught one.  I thought that Lauren was going to be skunked.  He finally caught a cod and then several halibut. 

When the fish is really big, he can hurt you when you put it in the boat, so they shoot the fish before pulling the big fish in the boat.  Lauren was disappointed that he didn't get yell, "Choot Em."  I am going to start yelling,"get the gun," instead of "get the net," when we catch next years big crappies.

I stopped fishing around 2 p.m.  After you pull in 6 halibut, every muscle in your body hurts.

I made it until 3 p.m. until I got sea sick.  My Scopolamine patch did not prevent me from getting sea sick.  Doug and Lane gave me sea bands to put on my wrist and then I was fine.  In the past, I have been so sea sick that Lauren had to pack me off the boat.  I am glad this only lasted a few minutes.

We could never have found better teachers than Doug and Lane.  They were really patient with us.  We appreciate Lane, Doug, and Tux for allowing us to fish with them.  It is nice when locals give  you the opportunity to fish with them and do everything that they can to help you catch big fish.

We saw several sea otters and a bunch of eagles today.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/iGd4KTXV2FUgAkpC8