Tuesday July 13

Today was rainy and chilly. I was scheduled to go fishing at 12:30 so we had a big breakfast and chilled out. I got out the fleece, boots, and rain gear. I went down to the dock around 12 to meet everyone and board the boat. This boat carries 16 people, it is 54 feet long. The Captain was from Whiteville, NC but has been in Alaska since the 70's. One of his mates was his grandson who is 16, the other was a 16 year old girl who is the Captains nieces daughter. Both of them were very good at their job and did a great job. He told us it was going to be tough because today was going to be the highest tide of the year making current difficult since we were fishing the incoming tide. As he put it 26 vertical feet of water has to move into the bay in 6 hours. We ran 1 1/2 hours before we put lines in.
We were using 16/0 circle hooks and 3 pound weights because of the current. You let your weight hit bottom and constantly jig it to make sure it is hitting bottom. If it is not hitting bottm you let out more line. It was around 160 feet of water most of the time. By the time you hit bottom the rig would be well behind the anchored boat. You would have to let out more line every few minutes. Then you had to reel up to check your bait. Let me tell you, reeling in a 3 pound weight with half a spool of line out on 50 pound class tackle will whip your butt. After a few times my arms were like rubber. We were slow catching fish at first. Finally a few came in but they were not big at all for Halibut. We hit another spot and things picked up. Finally yours truly hooked up. It was easier to reel in the fish than the 3 pound weight!
Before long I caught my second one. You can only keep 2 per person per day. I kept fishing and caught something very similar to a sea Robbin. By the end of the day almost everyone had two halibut to bring home. One lady fishing beside of me hooked a giant sting ray. That thing took off and drug her past me where she wedged herself in the corner of the boat. I laughed at her, she was hilarious. She was a small lady but she wrestled that thing to the top after about 30 minutes. The captain pulled it up for everyone to see and cut the line as he said it was too big to put in the boat because of the danger. It was easy 50 inches in diameter maybe more! On the way in the mates filleted the fish and when you left the boat you got your fish already cleaned in a bag, mine netted 10.5 pounds. I had them vacuumed sealed and frozen. Next week they will UPS them to the house for Mike to put in the freezer. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I got to experience that type of fishing. I had a good day and enjoyed being on the water as I always do. Fishing for big red drum in the Pamlico Sound with Mike is a whole lot more fun though.