Just for the Halibut!

We have been in beautiful Homer, AK for 4 days now. I am falling in love with this town. It could be compared to the small fishing towns of the east coast, only less developed, fewer people/tourists, and a landscape that appears as if it's on steroids. Most of the residents of Homer are only here for the summer months. They run small shops or fishing charters taking tourists out into the Halibut filled Alaskan waters. These businesses make thousands and thousands of dollars, allowing people to leave Homer during the 8 months of darkness to vacation in exotic warm places. It sounds like the ideal situation. I have decided that when I begin my real life, it will include only 4 months of work.

With fishing being the number one industry in Homer, we of course reserved our spots to go out months ago. We got a spot on Captain Mike's ship, an old cohort of Sophia's from her days living on the spit. We arrived at the dock at 6:30 am sharp, coffee in hand, anxiously waiting for our first fishing experience (well, me and Rachel's first. Sophia's fished loads of times. She used to live in Homer after all). Next came Terry, who would also be fishing with us. He was a man in his 60s from California. He seemed nice enough until he started bragging about his boats, his knowledge of law (he told Rachel they had to have a debate when she said she might go to law school) and then told us all about his brain tumor. Awkward.

Next up was Jerry and his son Zack. They were hilarious. They brought a giant cooler full of beer, which they started drinking as soon as we were on the boat (so like 7:00AM...a bit early for me). They were very entertaining with their father/son banter. Also, they didn't make us feel uncomfortable by immediately talking about scary medical conditions. Although, I guess their constant drinking was a little unnerving. Fishermen are an odd bunch, you never know what you're gonna get.

Finally, Captain Mike arrived. Captain Mike is the quintessential captain. He has been a fisherman forever; he made us feel very safe out in the Alaskan sea and made us believe that we were pros with a fishing pole. His face is leathered from years in the sun and he has a HUGE bushy white mustache. He was wearing typical captain attire: wind cap, sweatshirt, rubber overalls and rain boot. And his final accessory--a big fat cigar, which never left his mouth. Normally, cigar smoke really bothers me, but with Captain Mike I decided to let it slide. It would have felt incomplete without it. He was perfect. Rachel and I immediately fell in love with him and spent the entire day sneakily taking photos of him.

We all settled in on the boat, a 6 pack called "The Wild Thing". It was a perfect blue bird day. The ocean was calm and across the bay the mountains seemed to rise straight up from the depths of the sea. The early morning sun casted an incredible pink glow on all the boats and surrounding glaciers. It was the ultimate day for fishing.

We puttered out of the bay and spent the first two hours getting to our destination. We passed amazing islands covered in volcanoes, including Mt. Augustine which was steaming in the distance. We chatted with our new friends and (sigh...) Captain Mike. We reached a quiet bay and anchored down. We all set up our polls, Captain Mike showing us how to hold them and what to do if we felt a nibble. Then we waited.

And waited...

Just as I was starting to get bored and question the appeal of the sport, I felt a little nibble. And then a big nibble. I had one! I braced myself against the boat and began to reel it in, struggling with the weight of the fish and the slipperiness of my pole. Finally, after bringing up 100 feet or so of line, up popped my fish. Normally I don't like the idea of killing things. I prefer my meat to be filleted and frozen when I buy it. But this particular fish I did not feel bad about killing. Halibut are ugly! They have big sharp teeth and both their eyes are on one side of their bodies. Weird. Although my fish felt like the biggest halibut in the world, a whale even, it turned out to only be around 20lbs. Captain Mike said good job, unhooked it, and threw it back! I sadly watched as my first catch ever swiftly swam away.

The rest of the day went pretty much the same. We'd have long lulls and then all of a sudden we'd catch 5 halibut each. It was all very exciting. Rachel was the first person to catch a keeper. After a 10 minute battle, she pulled up a 36lbs halibut! Incredible. It was so large and feisty that Captain Mike had to hit it over the head with a bat to kill it.

In the end, we got to keep two each, all over 30lbs!! (I would just like to note here that although many might say fishing is a man's sport, our fish were far larger than all the boys...).
We then headed back to Homer. We had the fish filleted and frozen, the grand total of edible fish coming to 90lbs! We hurried home with our 5lbs of unfrozen fish and made the most delicious fresh dinner. I now understand the joys of fishing--there's something so amazing about catching, killing, and cooking your own food all in one day. I can't wait to do it again.

Note to readers: Do you love fish? We have wayyy more fish than we can possibly eat. If you would like some Halibut we will send you the fish for free if you pay the shipping costs. Let us know in the next two days if you're interested.