Fishing

We have been fishing the past two days.  At the end of the spit there is a place where all the fish processing places expel all the fish waste.  There are tons of fish processed here every day.  All the carcasses are ground up and pumped out into the bay where fish and birds eat it.

Every once in a while a huge blast of water boils up from the bottom when they flush out the fish waste.  The birds swarm around diving for morsels.  You can see the fins of fish swimming around having their dinner also.  This is a good place to catch fish,  It is so good they say, "if you ain't catchin, you ain't fishin".

We went down there yesterday to fish.  Every cast you caught a fish.  Most of them are pollock which we threw back.  I did catch a cod which I kept.  We had it for dinner tonight.  It was very tasty.

The fish cleaning station has been very busy with people cleaning hundreds of salmon.  They are coming from the Kenai River.  It is the largest salmon run in history this year.  It is reported by Fish and Game that over a half million fish entered the river in one day.  People are having record catches.  I have never seen so many fish being cleaned anywhere.   I wish I had gotten to see the run.  We were a couple of days too early.  It will be past its peak when we go back up that way.

Car ferry leaving Homer.

Today we went out on a half day charter boat for halibut.  It was a fun trip.  On the half day trips you don't get the monster halibut this area is famous for but you still catch lots of fish.  As soon as your line hits the bottom you have a fish.  They are very hard to reel in.  They are big flat fish that do a good job of resisting capture.

Our Catch

Each person is allowed two fish.  We had our limit in no time.  You can continue to fish but you have to throw them back.  After landing several fish I was pooped.  I decided to sit and watch others.  A family from Mexico City was on board.  They had never been fishing in their lives.  They were having a great time.  One of the deck hands was teasing one of the daughters.  He told her it is tradition that you kiss your first fish.  She almost fell for it but she was afraid of the teeth.

We sent our fish off to the packing house to have it packaged and frozen.  We think we can get all of it in our little freezer.  If there is room left we might go salmon fishing.  We have been using everything in the freezer to make room for fish.  It is empty now.  You can have your fish shipped home.   The more you ship the cheaper the rate.  Fifty pounds of fish would cost $150.00 to ship overnight to your door.

After we got back to the motor home, we built a fire and visited with our neighbors for a couple of hours.  They are from Florida also.  They sold their house a year ago and have been traveling since.  They are getting tired of living in the motor home all the time.  They are thinking about buying a smaller one like ours then buy a house back in Florida.  They say you always accumulate things and before you know it you have too much stuff.  They miss being able to stretch out too.

As we sat outside this evening, a guy went by on water skis.  He had on a wetsuit but still it is cold.  He skied by all the tourists in the RV parks.  I think he was showing off and giving us a photo op.

Deadliest Catch....am I talking about Darlie?  No, she was a good catch.