The road to Homer, like all the roads we have traveled was beautiful. We traveled along side the turquoise Kenai River and saw many, many salmon fishermen. This area had mountains on both sides with the river running along side of it. We stopped in Soldotna for lunch in our rigs and continued on the way to Homer. Passing Anchor Point, there was an old Russian Orthodox Church sitting up on the hill as Russians originally settled this area. Several of our group saw Eagles, but we didn’t. There was a large turnout just before entering Homer, where you could see the spit. The spit is a long, thin strip of land that juts out into the Ketchemak Bay and where all the fishing boats are harbored. It is also full of souvenir shops and restaurants and is a fun place to spend the day.
Our first night in Homer, the staff had a Margarita and Mexican party for us. It brought back good memories of our Mexico trip however; it was early to bed as 16 of us were carpooling at 6 AM to go Halibut fishing.
Even though we left very early to go fishing, we were all in high spirits. Only Phil, our wagon master had done halibut fishing before and we were really anticipating this event and had talked about it our whole trip. Our captain’s name was Captain Dave and his deck hands were Manny and Samantha. Samantha was 18 and had just finished high school. Her father was a cook in the Coast Guard. She proved to be every bit as capable as Manny and Captain Dave. I should know, I needed her more than anyone. She really liked my polka dot galoshes and because of them, Manny said I had to kiss a halibut for luck. I think they were picking on me J After a 2-½ hr. trip out to the mouth of the Gulf of Alaska, we settled down to fish. It wasn’t long before everyone was catching fish, except meL Finally, I pulled in my first halibut, which took Samantha and me both to reel in. He weighed about 25 lbs. I was very proud and exhausted!!! My next 2 catches were equally exhausting, but had to be thrown back. One was called a dogfish shark because it wasn’t good to eat and the other was a 15 lb. halibut. Denny had caught one good halibut and was working on another. Halibut are bottom fish and we were worn out from reeling in and re-baiting. When I say worn-out, I really mean it-the last time I tried to reel in, four guys were holding the reel while I reeled the hook in L Four of the guys caught Lingcod, which is a great eating fish and the crew was so excited, they made pictures with their cameras as well. One was even what they called a trophy fish. Since we were only legally allowed 2 fish a piece, everyone had their limit by noon, but yours truly. I had a staff of 5 trying to catch a halibut that I could snatch up and secure it to the hook, and then I could claim I caught it and they would reel it in. It took a while, but finally we had one and after much picture taking of all our fish, we headed back in. Manny cleaned the fish on the way back and after we docked, we took them to a fish processing plant to have them filleted, packaged and frozen to pick up the next morning.
Back at the campground, we had a lot of fish tales. Stuart won our pot by catching the largest fish, which was the Ling Cod. He and the other 3 cod catchers shared their catches with us. We had a nice evening of grilling out steaks with Maddie and Dave but were so ready to fall into bed.
Sunday morning, we watched church service on TV and then headed out to the Caribou Family restaurant for sourdough pancakes and omelets. Delicious. Phil picked up our fish for us and we had 28-1 lb. packages. We will eat well this fall. Our group had a total of 316 lbs. of dressed fish . I had an appt. to get my hair cut at 1 and then we walked around the spit. I was so excited to see Captain Jonathan of the Time Bandit on Deadliest Catch had a souvenir shop there and was signing autographs. He captains the Time Bandit during the King Crab season and his brother Andy does it during the Opilio crab season. They both were raised and live in Homer. He was very gracious and signed a book and tee shirt and had 3 pictures made. The last one he asked me if I wanted a picture with Rudy and of course, I said yes!!! Thrill, thrill, I have never met a celebrity in my life and in one month I have met two! We also made some pictures at the Salty Dog Saloon, a landmark consisting of 3 historical buildings put together. Very old and interesting. Inside is covered top to bottom with $1.00 bills.
Back at the campground, we had a hot dog cookout. The weekend was catching up with me and I had stirred up my osteoarthritis in my neck fishing, so it was another early evening. We aren’t having our drivers meeting till in the morning as we have a really short drive. As I have said before this being a tourist is hard work!
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