Homer Alaska - Time to Fish

Out of the Wilderness and becoming the Last Summer Tourist in the Kenai



Glenn Highway to Achorage

Mullis on the Russian River

Before Homer, we travelled across the Glen Highway to Palmer (Home of Alaskan State Fair, which we bailed for fishing), Anchorage, and south along the Turnagain Arm to the Kenai.  North of Saldotna, it was about 8:00 p.m.and we found a camp site at Russian River State Park.  Like in Katmai, which is explained later, the September salmon run is the last yeehaw for the bears.  The Russian River is famous for spawning salmon, and once spawning is complete, salmon are singing their swan song, and the river is littered with carcasses in different stages of decay.  The bears gorge themselves for winter and chances of sighting a bear is high.  Kevin decided to test his fishing skills and I went along for bear patrol.  In the end, Kevin caught no fish, we saw no bears, and it got dark.  Next morning we did a short 5 mile hike to Russian River Falls.  This is a fairly easy hike to an iconic location to watch salmon trying to jump the falls to spawn.  Once again, no bears, but it was spectacular to see the river red with salmon trying their best to make it up river, jumping obstacle after obstacle.   



Salmon with Expiration Date Stamped

Salmon waiting to jump the falls

The falls

Homer Alaska

Harbor at Homer Spit

Our Campsite at Beluga Lake

We arrive to Homer with wind and rain, and watching Hurricane Irma gaining strength and aiming at Florida. We had scheduled our fishing trip for Thursday and were brainstorming on the way down as to the best way to end this adventure.  Since we had only seen 18 bears in Denali, we thought “Let’s go see some more bears!”.    Kevin had mentioned from the getgo about going to Katmai National Park.  You can sense the theme of this trip.  The only way to get there is by float plane, but it is one unique area with the highest concentration of bears in the world.  There are two  best viewing times.  On is in June, when the bears are hungry from hibernation and the first run of salmon come to spawn.  The second is in September when the last run of salmon is occurring, the weather is cooling down, and the bears are gorging on salmon for the winter. 



Anyway, we googled the best ride out and found Bald Mountain Air.  It is a 1.5 hour trip out and back,  and they stay in the park for about 4 hours.   Other float planes have less time in the park and more restrictive weight requirements.  Tried to do this on Thursday, but the weather was predicting 60 mph gusts and rain, so we had to reschedule for Friday.  More on Katmai later.

 Halibut Fishing

Donna, Ted, and Fritz

Kevin had kept a business card for Captain Greg from 6 years ago.  We had called him earlier and reserved spots.  This trip there were six people on the charter.  James and Donna from Texas and Ted and Fritz from  Oregon.  Well not exactly, Fritz was a young doctor from Germany who was an exchange student from Germany.  He and Ted were getting together for the first time in 11 or more years and were spending a week in Alaska.  They had planned their trip in two weeks (we had planned ours for about two years).  Ah youth.

Kevin raising money for breast cancer, the hard way.
I paid the $10 for this reel holder upgrade while Kevin
was reeling in his big halibut.  He had no options.

 



 

With Halibut (kind of like a giant flounder) you can catch two a day, but one has to be less than 28 inches.  This brings up the dilemma, do you keep your first fish you catch that is over the 28 inches or throw it back to try to get a bigger one.  This was no dilemma for us.  My first fish was 27 ½ inches.  Kevin’s first fish was a 40 pound monster that was definitely a keeper.  This didn’t work out so well for Fritz, who kept his first big fish and then caught a 30 pounder which he couldn’t keep.

Captain Greg thanking Donna for her good luck

If you want to catch fish, make sure Donna is in the boat.   She was the first to catch a fish, and it seems she was always reeling them toward the boat.  I didn’t say she was a great fisherperson, so a lot of these fish didn’t make it into the boat.  At one point I needed one more fish to limit out for the boat.  Everyone but Donna has a line down to help me get the big one so we could start salmon fishing.  No one was getting a bite.  I yelled down to wake her up “Donna, get up here and get a pole, we need the fish to start biting again.”  She did and within 5 minutes we had halibut hitting nearly every line.  Kevin had the largest one on, so I reeled it in and we shifted gears.

The Catch

Clay showing off his filet skills.  Note the
propeller wash

Salmon.  Fishing for salmon was different.  Lighter tackle, lighter weights, and less time fishing.  With the Halibut, you are bottom fishing with 2 lb. lead.  The bottom here is 250+ feet and it was a real effort to reel in the lead.  Salmon fishing consisted of four reels connected to outriggers at depths of 30 to 65 feet.  We rotated at 20 minute intervals in groups of two.  We drew the short card, so we were last in the rotation. 

First twenty  minutes and no fish.  Ms. Donna  and James missed a few.  Donna had trouble reeling fast enough and James thought he was bass fishing and would just crank and jerk till he lost the fish.  Salmon have delicate mouths and  it is easy to lose the fish.  You just have to keep the tip of the rod bent and reel steadily.  Our turn.  A big silver hit and I reeled it in.  First salmon and I was proud.  It was also our last salmon, since neither Kevin or I got another hit for the rest of the time.  Still fun.

All in all we got a boat full of fish.  Kevin and I had 40 pounds of Halibut fillet off 4 fish, and 6 pounds of king salmon from one fish.  The deck hand was named Clay from Powder Springs, Georgia and could fillet a halibut in 1 ½ minutes.  Impressive to watch, and that was while the boat was heading back to dock at a good clip.

Fresh Salmon for Dinner

Kevin with Big Willy

Kevin and I had Clay hold out a fillet of salmon for dinner that night.  Ted and Fritz were doing the same, so since they were staying in a small room, we invited them to join us at the RV to use our grill.  We had been camping at the Bald Mountain Float dock on Beluga Lake and it was like a private camp ground.  We ended up eating Silver and King Salmon, baked potatoes, corn, and a sticky bun to top it off.  Once again Kevin talked politics with Fritz, Kevin loves developing his international skills, and we dazzled them with the adventures of two old guys enjoying life.  I think their next adventure will be a RV trip to the Alaska outback.

  Next up, Katmai.