Halibut Cove, AK

This past weekend will be remembered as the weekend of the "lost king salmon." I think Gus was more upset about it than me. We sailed across to Halibut Cove Lagoon on Friday. We had a steady SW breeze at 10 mph and sailed 4-6 mph, using both the main and the jib. When we arrived at the lagoon, king salmon fishing appeared to be hot. Spotters from higher up were watching and directing fisherman where the big school of salmon were circling around. Fisherman were casting lines left and right and across from each other. As it turned out, this particular scene was the high point of fishing. Three people netted nice sized kings in about a 10 minute time frame.

I started out optimistic, but as the evening wore on and hours went by, only one other person caught a fish. We made an unfortunate mistake of leaving our good casting rods in the truck at the dock and the only thing on the boat were salmon trolling reels, which are not so easy to cast. Firm placement of your thumb on the rod where the line spools is crucial otherwise the line is in a tangled mess. Learning this new technique was quite the adventure in itself.

By midday Saturday, I would only goof up if I needed a good cast into a school of fish that were swimming nearby. Otherwise it seemed as though I perfected the technique. By this time, the fishing seemed to dwindle to nearly non-existent and I entertained myself by looking at the counter on the reel and seeing how many feet of line I could cast out successfully. It was about 3 pm and only 2 fish were caught all morning, but the weather was nice and we didn't plan on leaving the lagoon until the 5:00pm high tide, so I continued with my game of casting the rod for as many feet as possible without a tangle. Surprise . . . It must have been my lucky chance because once when I casted out, my line immediately was being pulled away. I shrieked, "It's a fish. Gus get the net."

Seeing as this was the most excitement the dock had seen all day, the few persistent people still milling around the dock came to watch and the fisherman casting from the boat nearby, casted with a bit more umph and hope. The fish fought and I tried reeling. I would make progress and then watch my rod counter move from 25 feet to 76 feet when it spooled. Unfortunately I was standing in a bad position on the fish pen, where I couldn't even hope of landing a fish. I had to move off the pen and get the rod around a piling in order to land the fish on the dock. Somewhere in this process, I also must have loosened the drag too much and the fish got a little more line than one would ideally like. And of course like the half-hearted fisherman I am, I didn't know how to tighten the drag. All and all, I did enough things wrong and in the end, the spirited fish succeeded in wrapping itself around the anchored fish pen under the dock and freeing itself. My chance at a first every king was replaced with a snag in the fry filled fish pen awaiting their release into the ocean.

While disappointed, I wasn't crushed. Gus was crushed. He said that he'd have rather I not even had the bite if he knew I was going to loose it. Apparently, he thinks king salmon is much better than halibut, so he wanted a little of that for the freezer as well. He must have been enjoying his meal the whole time I was in fish frenzy chaos, and fish frenzy turned into a story instead of a meal.

We left the lagoon early that evening and decided to practice sailing in Kachemak Bay before docking for the night. Bryant and I always try to switch jobs so each of us get practice managing the sails and navigating. In general, we are learning that we need more practice remembering all the little details that go with sailing. It seems like eventually the act of getting ready to sail should be as smooth and flawless as moving a clutch on a car to 2nd gear, but now I feel like we are stuck in the jerky movements of a beginning driver. Eventually we get to sailing, but it isn't without the "Oh yeah, remember the . . . ." After beating upwind a bit, we turned around into a less windy bay near the community of Halibut Cove and practiced reefing the main sail. We hadn't reefed our sail before and Bryant had recently read that sailors should reef the sail before you need it. While we've never been in the position of reefing a sail in harsh weather, we both suspected that it is easier to let a reef out than reef in foul weather conditions. Practice . . . practice . . . practice.

We decided to spend the night at the public dock in the small community of Halibut Cove. While in Seldovia last weekend, another sailor told us of this public dock and we scouted it out before we entered the lagoon yesterday. It works out good for us because we are self-contained with bathroom facilities. Because of the lack of facilities and public land off the dock, the dock by default becomes a private dock for a few who live there or have summer cabins, which prompts one to think about why state funding was ever allocated to build this dock in the first place. Hmmm. . . . . . .

The next morning we woke up to rain. We decided to motor back to Homer and call it a weekend.

Big, Wild, Weekend

We experienced the big and wild of Alaska this weekend. On our way to Homer, we saw all the fisherman casting lines into the famous Kenai River/Russian River confluence for red salmon. Not too surprising . . . but none the less exciting, Bryant saw bears from the road side. We pulled into the first turnout and scrambled down a path to the river's edge. Across the river, Mama and her two cubs ate salmon carcasses from the bank, while nearby fisherman fished, rafters floated by, and tourists, like ourselves in this case snapped pictures. People often ask me if I've seen bears in Alaska and while I have seen them on occasion, I have never really cared to see them because of the potential danger that exists. However in this case with a fairly wide fast flowing river separating us from the bears, I was drawn in to this particular scene, and thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

Earlier this week we decided that this weekend was a fill the freezer with halibut weekend. Being the fair weather fisherman that we are, we kept on sleeping Friday morning when we heard the steady drip of rain on the boat cabin roof. Fortunately in the summer months when the weather is cloudy and rainy, the day breeze in Kachemak Bay doesn't kick in, so we could start fishing on our "crack of noon" schedule and still have calm waters. On our way to the fuel dock, we saw the popular crab boat the "Time Bandit," from the Discovery's Channel's Deadliest Catch, taking up all the space. Luckily, the other fuel dock float was open and we didn't have to wait at all to fill our little fuel tank and be underway.

This time of the year, there is usually a large area right outside of Seldovia where the halibut bite is steady. We dropped lines in the water and it wasn't long before Bryant reeled in a keeper. At first he was having all the luck, and he definitely caught more fish that me that day. At one point even Gus came up on deck to start hooking some fish. When the fishing is steady, he's interested in fishing, and up to that point, he was proud to have caught the largest fish aboard the boat. To his dislike, the 52 lb halibut I hauled in late Friday afternoon became the new record holder for the boat. The MacGregor isn't a fishing boat, but we're in the process of making it work for fishing. The biggest problems are there isn't much deck space to fish, and it sits high off the water making it difficult to gaff big fish without loosing them. After Bryant landed my big fish, it made such a mess and it took up most of the fishing space so we decided to call it a day.

The next morning/afternoon we headed back out to our same spot. Gus must have decided he needed his record back, because he didn't stop fishing until the very end of the day. I became bait girl and kept herring on Bryant's and Gus's line. I also help Gus reel in fish when he gets tired, and he had lots of reason to be tired as he kept hooking fish, some were keepers others we threw back. He ended up with the largest fish of the day. While we were fishing, the "Time Bandit" nearly ran us over (not really), but the kids were excited to see the boat and waved frantically. We regularly watch that show on TV, so the boys are familiar with its popularity and thought it was pretty neat to see it in person. About midday, Bryant handed me his pole while he used the bathroom and I managed to catch the largest skate any of us had seen. Although I wished it into being the world record halibut, I knew by the way it didn't spool the reel and shake that it was a skate. I reeled it in until Bryant's zipper was up and then handed him the pole to finish it off. When the skate surfaced and all dreams of record halibut faded, he handed the pole back to me. By swinging it around to the transom, he managed to wiggle his way down closer to the skate and unhook it. As the day progressed, fishing slowed down. Gus handed his pole over to me. Eventually, Bryant and I used up the rest of our bait up on the nibblers 125 feet down and ended up calling it a day. We had four decent fish in the box, and a good run yesterday, so overall our goal to fill the freezer was successful. We ended up spending another nice evening in Seldovia.

On Sunday after we pulled into the Homer harbor and started loading gear into the car to return home, we saw a lucky fisherman weighing in a 295 lb. halibut. The halibut must have been at least 6 1/2 feet tall. The unfortunate event here was that he didn't have a Homer Halibut Derby Ticket. Each year someone, who has purchased a derby ticket, and catches the largest fish wins around $25,000 that number depends upon the amount of tickets purchased each year. The winning halibut is anywhere from 250 lbs -350 lbs. Even private boats can participate in the fishing derby, maybe we need to think about that next time we go fishing to fill the freezer?!

For more pictures, including the 295 lb. halibut click: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/BigWildLifeWeekend

Halibut Cove Lagoon

The wind was perfect for sailing across Kachemak Bay to Halibut Cove Lagoon. With only the main sail, we cruised at 6 - 6.5 mph in a steady SW breeze of 10-15 mph. We debated playing around a little with sailing, but there was a dark rain cloud chasing us and we didn't want to sail in the rain unless necessary. As we neared the entrance of Halibut Cove Lagoon, we lost our wind and the rain caught up with us, so we dropped the sail and motored. This weekend, we timed the tides better and we were able to get into the lagoon quite easily.

Upon docking the boat and to our disappointment, we learned that nobody has caught or seen any kings swimming around the lagoon. Halibut Cove Lagoon is host to one of the many state run enhanced sport fishery programs. The State Fish and Game sets up pens with salmon fry from wild stock eggs and after they imprint to that area, they are released. In 3-5 years, the kings return to this area in hope of finding a fresh water stream to reproduces and finish their life cycle. Unfortunate for the salmon and good for the sport fisherman, there aren't any fresh water streams conducive to salmon spawning, so the kings circle aimlessly around the lagoon, while the fishermen try their luck. Near the end of June when kings loose their bright fresh color and no longer bite at any piece of metal thrown their way, the area opens up to snagging. Two years ago and one day before snagging opened, Bryant caught a king, but mostly it seems we've found ourselves either too early or too late to take full advantage of the good fishing.

In spite of the lack of kings, the area kept us busy for the weekend. Wyatt and Gus had their usual beach exploration going on at low tide and they even found kids at the nearby cabin, to join in on their fun. On Saturday, we broke up the day by hiking up to China Poot Lake, a 5.6 mile round trip hike. The trail was in excellent condition, only a few minor mud holes and not too surprising, the buds were just starting to come out on the trees. Last night, Wyatt picked a big container of fiddleheads (a curled up young fern), and I cooked them for dinner. While on the trail, they were sampling raw ones and determined they weren't really that good. Throughout the day, I was reminded about how cool China Poot Peak is and decided I need to prioritize a trip to the top sometime. I thought it would be to early in the year to climb it. Then, I met a couple on the dock and they said there were patches of snow on the trail, but not enough to stop them from summiting. One of these days . . . .

The next morning we went against our natural weekend instinct and woke early to catch the high tide. While deflating the dingy, which Wyatt uses more than anyone, we boiled water for coffee and then headed out of the lagoon. There was absolutely no wind, so we motored to a new halibut hole that was on our way back to Homer. For about 2 hours, we fed fish at the bottom of Kachemak Bay. Beside catching a record size irish lord with a mouth the size of a cantaloupe and a bunch of deadly spines, I caught 2 small halibut, a couple of cod, and a few other more normal sized irish lords - not likely to become a fishing place we return to, as Bryant's luck wasn't any better.

As I was pulling anchor to head back to Homer, a wicked mean cold wind attacked. Instead of pulling the sails out and making our way to Homer like real sailors, we acted like true fisherman and motored back the 1/2 hour to port where the Sol Searching now awaits for another adventure.

For more pictures click: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/HalibutCoveLagoon

Kachemak Bay, Homer, AK

Cruising Kachemak Bay . . . . We spent 3 days based out of the Homer Boat Harbor, fishing, sailing, and socializing with friends at the campfire. Then we ventured across Kachemak Bay to overnight first in Jakolof Bay, then further west to Seldovia (2 nights), and back east to Jakolof Bay. We sailed to Halibut Cove and attempted to enter Halibut Cove Lagoon to stay there for the night. The tide was too low to enter the lagoon and it was getting late, so we motored back to Homer for the night.




For more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/CruisingKachemakBay