Halibut Fishing

We woke up quite early this morning (5am) to head to Homer to do some halibut fishing.  It doesn't get dark here until very late, so we went to bed while it was still light out (11:00pm).

When we got to Homer we met our guide, Keith, at the dock. Of course, it had to be RAINING! I wore a tanktop, t-shirt, long sleeve, sweatshirt, and raincoat and I was still cold! We took a quite a long ride out to our first spot. Keith said he usually doesn't fish here because the tide is too high and the waters are rough, but they were calm-ish today.  I am proud to say I caught the first fish. :)

Keith would put the bait (which was about a 10" fish) on a HUGE hook. Then he'd squirt herring oil in it to attract the halibut.  Then we'd drop the bait and weight into the water and wait for a bite. I could never tell what was a bite and what was the roll of the waters, but Keith would tell me when to reel.  Thom caught the biggest fish. It was 80 pounds. All of my fish got put back into the water, apparently they weren't good enough-but I'm fine with that! Drew got the second biggest fish.  We were having great luck right away, and then it really died down.  Three of us caught starfish. They were amazing to see. They were moving around- it was cool!

Thom (let me remind you, grew up on the river) was the only one who got seasick. He threw up off the side of the boat. I think it scared the fish away because we didn't have much luck for awhile.  There were birds who were following us because they wanted our bait.  They continually squawked at us.

After we gave up on that spot we moved to another one. On our way we saw a big rock that had a TON of sea lions on it! It was so awesome to see!! There were probably 15 sea lions on the rock.

We then moved to our next spot where we were really lucky right away! Thom caught 2 right off the back and Drew caught one. However, we only needed 2 fish so we had to put Thom's second fish back.  The rule with halibut fishing is that you could have one "over" and one "under" per person. It means one fish over 29 inches and one under 29 inches.  So I was told you wanted as close to 29 inches for your unders, and wayyyy above 29 inches for your over.  That is why my fish never made the cut.

After we docked Keith filet the fish and we made our way back to Sterling.  I slept the ride back. Then we stopped at Magpies for pizza. We got a 20" (extra large) meat lovers.  We are now back at the cabin and the internet is working which is why I can post. Everyone is a little exhausted from the fishing today.  Tomorrow we head to home. :(