A Halibut a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

We packed up the Escape and drove down Friday night after work to Homer, AK. We got in pretty late in the evening, but decided to drive the Spit for the others who hadn't been to Homer yet. I felt like a personal tour guide ha. After that we settled in at the hotel and tried to get some rest before the big fishing day.

5 am came a little too early, but we managed to get everyone ready to go for the day. We stopped by Boardwalk Bakery like last time to get cinnamon rolls for breakfast and boxed lunches for the boat ride. The half day halibut fishing trip included myself, Becca, Jenna, Paige, Hana, and Tim. We were joined by the Sherman family along with a father/son duo which made a total of 16 people fishing for the day. We boarded the Whistler, a 50 foot fishing yacht, and hit the water. 

Upon getting on the boat, Becca and I both managed to sit in huge puddles. At that point, I was really thankful for my Columbia hiking pants that dry rather quickly. It made for a funny start to the trip though. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for fishing. The weather was great and the water was perfectly calm, so no one got sea sick.

I caught my first fish fairly early after anchoring and dropping lines in, but Jenna was the first of us to catch one in a couple of minutes. It got pretty crowded and chaotic at points with how many people were fishing. The crew was running around like crazy every time someone yelled "Color" - meaning you had a fish near the surface. Once we got our limit (2), we hung out and got to know the rest of the people on the boat while the remainder of the people continued to fish. Jenna and I explored the boat some which you can see in the pictures I posted. We didn't do a great job at staying out of trouble, but those are stories for another time. 

Around 10 am, we started heading back to the harbor while the deckhands began filleting our fish. We started timing them and it took an average of 55 seconds to filet one halibut. They were crazy fast! I don’t know how they don’t cut themselves. Around 11 am we made it back to the harbor after a really nice ride back. The total fish caught between the 6 of us was 50+ lbs of halibut. We had them cut into 1 lb filets, sealed, and flash frozen in order to take back to Anchorage on Sunday.

Me and my halibut

After fishing, we headed back to our hotel to shower. After cleaning up and washing the fish/sea smell off, we headed to Bear Creek Winery for wine tasting. We sampled a variety of wines, and I was surprised how good they were. My two favorites were Blue Zin and Pomegranate. So I’m going to find a way to bring a bottle of each back home.

After wine tasting, we met up with the whole group of pharmacy students for dinner. We headed to Captain Pattie’s on the Spit. We were able to bring in some filets from Mallory’s fish (106 pounder) that she caught and have it cooked up in various ways. We had more than enough food for everyone and it was delicious! I also enjoyed a glass of Blue Zin which tasted great after fish.

The whole group with our feast from Mallory's monster catch.

After dinner, we hit up the Salty Dawg Saloon. The deadliest catch guys were still not there, and they won’t be back until August. It was definitely great to sit and relax after the long day. I also found that I really like Alaskan Brewing Company’s beer. They have a “summer” that is a wheat; I also tried their “white” and the “amber”. All of which I really enjoyed. After Salty Dawg, we headed to another place that had a live band playing and played some pool. I found out that I’m a little better at billiards than I thought, but still no professional. I think I’ll stick to pharmacy. By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted.

On Sunday, we headed to the Spit to pick up our fish from Coal Point Trading Co. I ended up with 13 one lb fillets. I'm going to be eating a lot of fish once I figure out how to get it back to Kansas City. While on the Spit, we also did some last minute souvenir shopping before grabbing some lunch and hitting the road back to Anchorage. On the way back, we stopped at Indian Valley Meats where they sell Alaska wild game meats basically anyway you want it. You can also bring them what you hunted/fished for and they will process it for you. I’m keeping that in mind for salmon fishing next week!