August 16 We were up and at 'em, anxious to go fishing. Because we are camped in the charter's RV park we walked to the office at 7:30. There we hear that the boat captains had reevaluated the tide charts and postponed leaving until 8:30 to try and optimize our chances. We were able to check in so will not have to do that later. They actually check your license to make sure it is valid. Back to the camper we went to wait out the hour.
We no longer got in the camper when we could hear the plink, plink of rain drops on the roof. OK...we'll take the rain but keep the wind reasonably calm, please! I checked the weather radar, and it look like one small area of rain moving through. And as indicated, the rain stopped a short time later, and for now, at least momentarily.
We met again at the Ninilchik Charters at 8:30. There was little wind, but it was heavily overcast. We were assigned to Captain Nick and the fishing boat Arctic Expedition. Nick loaded our gear which included rain suits, gloves, hats, food, and drinks on the boat. We rode in the crew cab pickup pulling the boat down to the Deep Creek Recreation Area which was only a 5 minute drive.
Once there we climbed a ladder and boarded the boat while it was parked high on the beach. Nick unhooked and parked the pickup while the skidder boat launch crew hooked up to the boat's trailer. Once Nick was aboard, he did a quick systems test, and gave the skidder crew the OK to launch us.
As soon as we had moved away from the shoreline Nick gave us the safety rundown and procedures for the boat. When he finished he pushed the throttles forward to the twin Yamaha 200 hp motors, and we were off for about a 25 mile ride which took about an hour to make. Around half way through the ride he suddenly cut the throttles and came to a stop.
Off to the starboard (right) side of the boat was a mink whale. Of course by the time I rummaged the camera out of our backpack the whale had continued to swim rapidly away from us. I quickly snapped a photo when it surfaced to breath, but all I got was a faint glimpse of its dorsal fin. Oh, well, at least we officially saw a whale in person.
When we reached the halibut grounds Nick set the boat's anchor. He then went over the operation of the tackle we'd be using. The tackle included Penn Senator saltwater reels loaded with 100 lb. test braided line. The rod was a 5', extreme duty/fast action whose manufacturer I can't remember. Terminal tackle included a large brass swivel connecting the braided line with about a 3' length of parachute cord. At the end of the cord was a large circle hook about 3 inches in diameter, and about 2 feet above the hook was a snap with 6" of cord to which a 4 lb. bar of lead was hung. The hook was baited with cut herring.
We were fishing in about 250 feet of water. Halibut are bottom feeders so you had to get your bait to the bottom. The idea was to get the sinker just barely in contact with the bottom. The ocean swells would then jig the bait up and down and entice the halibut to bite.
The first fish was caught by Jodi from Minneapolis, and it happened to be a cod. Nick gaffed and removed the fish from the hook, and after getting Jodi baited back up, cut the cod up for additional bait. After the cod the next catch was a skate, which is related to rays like the sting ray, and considered to be non-edible. Nick doesn’t even want them in the boat as they can put up quite a thrashing fight. It is released.
And then it started to rain, sprinkles mostly, but it persisted the rest of the day. A front had moved through which was vastly different from the bright blue skies of the day before. We were fortunate that at least it was not overly windy, although the wind did pick up some creating white caps and somewhat larger swells.
Finally, Jodi’s husband Craig caught the first halibut! It was about a 20 pounder. With the limit at 2 per person he decided to keep it. Over the course of time everyone in the boat had caught a fish of one kind or another. Peggy caught a skate. I caught a cod and a skate. But the halibut fishing was very slow!
The other 2 persons making up the 6 clients onboard were Bill from Soldotna, AK, and Gordon who used to live in Alaska but now resides in California for 9 months of the year. The other 3 he lives in Alaska. Gordon and Bill are friends and get together to go fishing.
About midway through the afternoon we had only boated 4 halibut, so Nick decided it was necessary to fish another place. The anchor was brought up and away we went to continue our quest on new fishing grounds. Nick took us to another area, but this time we were going to try drift fishing.
Lo and behold, I had a bite. As I reeled I knew this was different from the skate which when caught becomes immediate dead weight by turning its wide body perpendicular to the direction you are trying to reel it. Now mind you, just the act of reeling in a 4 lb. weight that is 250 ft. down is a hard chore. Now put a 25 lb. fish who is trying to swim away from you on the hook 250 ft. down, and you get a workout! But I persisted and got him up to the boat to be gaffed and brought aboard. Whew! Another item checked off my bucket list!
Although the boat did not succeed in getting all its clients their halibut limits it was not for a lack of effort. Nick worked tirelessly cutting bait and baiting hooks. He would check your line to make sure you were properly presenting the bait on the bottom. If you tired while reeling, he would take over to give you a rest. He untangled our lines (yes, even adults get their lines tangled!). He would re-rig your tackle if it was lost. He always did so with a smile or a joke. And, we were on the water from about 9:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Now I understand why these charter boat captains are so young as I put Nick's age at about 20 years old. They need that youthful energy to do the job!
All totaled, our boat caught 7 halibut the largest of which was about 30 lbs. But none of us complained. As I said, our lack of catch was not because of a lack of effort! Everyone fished almost nonstop and in a continuous rain. (I do have to say that Peggy’s and my rain suits purchased at Cabela’s worked well to keep us dry.)
When we arrived back at the charter office Nick set about the chore of cleaning our fish. If there is some good in not catching your limit, you don’t have to put out the big bucks to have the fillets vacuum sealed, flash frozen, and then shipped to someone back home. And, another charter boat that we were paired with and fished in the same vicinities as we did had the same fishing luck.
If I do have a regret is that Peggy did not catch a halibut. But I give her kudos because she fished as long and as hard as anyone. And, she probably whined the least (actually not at all) of our group about the lack of halibut. But in the end, all of us walked away knowing that is the way fishing goes, and that the best part of this day was making new acquaintances, enjoying a new experience, and knowing that we tried as hard as we could. Like Tom Osborne would agree, it was the process and not the victory.
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