Day 31 Ninilchik fishing!

“Nobody has any bananas do they?” asked Captain Jesse.

“Yeah, I brought one in my lunch.”

He looked at me with panic on his face.

I guess the local superstition is that bananas are bad luck. I immediately dug it out of my cooler and threw it overboard.

I don’t know if our luck changed right away, but not too long afterward Aris caught the first halibut.

We were about 15 miles due east of where we were launched in one of the most efficient ways of getting a bunch of boats in the water I have ever seen. You line up, disconnect your tow vehicle, load your passengers in the boat, and a big tractor with a variety of tow balls hooks on your trailer and pushes your boat in the water and then parks your trailer.

There is a driver and a hookup man and they move pretty fast. The line of boats waiting extended about half a mile up the hill.

There was only the four of us fishing(Cathy, Bill, Aris, and me) with Capt. Jesse and deck hand Rick.

The weather was unbelievable! Very calm seas, no wind, and the sun even came out a few times.

We fished in a few different places at depths of 180 to 285 feet (55 to 87 meters), with weights ranging from 3 to 5 pounds. It was a lot of work just reeling in to check bait. Cathy hooked something really big that ended up breaking the line. That happened to her three different times during the day.

They told us when we signed up that the trip would be around six hours depending on the fishing and the tide. We left the park at 8:15 and didn’t get back until after 5:00. You are allowed to keep two halibut, one under 28” (71cm) and one over. It is the Captain’s duty to monitor who has what and each fish is marked with a cut on the tail. The decision about throwing back a small fish can be hard. You want to get as close to the 28” mark as possible. We all threw back some small ones that the crew called ping pong paddles, that towards the end of the day we were wondering if we had made the right decision. We all got our two fish. Aris caught the first fish, the biggest fish, and finally the last fish which measured at 27-7/8”

Perfect day!

They filleted them out for us and vacuumed packed them for us and we were able to squeeze all of our 25 pounds of fillets (except for enough for Sunday dinner) into our freezer. Bill and Cathy had theirs shipped home.

The girls had Nasi Goreng ready for us and all of the clothes washed when we got back. We are lucky guys!!!

I took the girls for a ride and showed them the beach where we launched the boat and some eagles.

Molly and I went down to the beach and saw the sun breaking through the clouds shining on the commercial trawlers drifting in the calm waters. Of course I didn’t bring my camera. When we climbed up the many stairs to the state park there was an eagle sitting on top of a tree squawking, and I still didn’t have my camera.

It was a beautiful day!