We’ve never caught bigger fish than we did today!!

We went Halibut fishing today – they taste much like cod – but much better!! It was fantastic. Pictures have been added to the site. We headed down to Deep Creek on the Kenai at 10:30 sharp to grab our guide and our boat – meeting 3 older gentlemen, Larry, Gary, and Harold that have been Halibut fishing before. We were rookies, but easily trainable but our pro-guide, Rod, and his deckhand, Tim.

The weather was more than perfect – “It’s a blessing today”, said Rod, as we boated 45 minutes into the Pacific Ocean to find our sweet spot for the day. We dropped our lines in 235 ft of calm salty water with 4-5 lb sinker and 2-half haddocks attached to our hooks. Twenty seconds later, our lines were bouncing along the bottom of the sea as we drifted east at 2-3 knots - stirring up silt and waking up the awkward looking Halibut. Within 15 minutes, we found ourselves in a “chicken nest” (a patch of non-trophy sized fish) and all six of us had gotten bites and hook on. It was really quite exciting, reeling in your first sea fish ever caught. Bryan yells out, “FISH ON!!”, as you do when you’ve got a good hold of one, and reeled in our biggest catch of the day. We had to have caught at least 30-40 fish between the six of us – only keeping the biggest 12. At a mere 20 pounds – we were able to get the best tasting meat – and all 12 fish ranged between 14-21 lbs – we took home our share of 51 lbs of fillet – telling the fillet processor that we would be back with more come the following two days of salmon fishing.

These next two days are really going to be something else as we wake up tomorrow morning at 4:15am for breakfast and float down the Kenai River hooking King Salmon – a first for all of us.
Bryan’s dad, Dave, saw his first moose ever today; not only one, but two and two of the little ones. That was quite the surprise for him, as well as for Bryan and me. We took a trip 3 years ago to Newfoundland and back (view our photos in the photo gallery) and came upon a moose one morning – a good 12 feet tall; but that is nothing compared to the moose in Alaska. The wildlife here is so abundant, that where ever you look, you’ll see something that will blow your mind. On our trip today – we saw birds that migrated from southern Australia relaxing on the weathered kelp floating in the water nearby our boat. It just amazes me, and that I’ve never stopped to actually think about it, but birds migrate from all over the place – as do many other sea life. You know, you are always reading about it and seeing in on TV, but to actually see it first hand really puts you in-touch with what’s around you.

Alaska has proven to be the land that is one of the last to be touched by modern-man. The roads in this state are only so long – the wilderness here is just too huge to imagine. And I will probably say this a few times this trip – but if you haven’t been to Alaska – You have to visit. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves whether they are here to fish, hunt, bird watch, hike, bike, camp, or just on a relaxing cruise ship to few the mountains and the glaciers. I would totally come back here to do something that I have not done – and better yet, do something that I really enjoyed doing the first time around.

More to come – We have an early morning…G'night.

Matt and Bryan