Just for the Halibut

Today was halibut fishing in Homer.  Last night we bought our licenses and the Homer Halibut Derby tickets in hopes of landing a prize winner.  They have released 100’s of tagged fish that can win you up to $50K.  I am not sure but the odds of winning are probably similar to the Lottery.

Anyway we set the alarm and woke up bright and early to be at the dock by 6:00 am.  We knew right off that it would be a good day as it wasn't raining.  The “Wild Thing” was just pulling up to the dock when we arrived.  It was a good sized catamaran that would provide us with a stable platform to crank up those bottom feeding halibut.  After stopping in the harbor to catch a few Pollock for bait, the captain decided to take us quite a ways out to a favorite fishing spot.  It was a good two hour ride past several sea otters and numerous diving birds.

The first spot we stopped at proved to be not very productive.  We caught just one halibut and after about 30 minutes the captain decided to move and boy are we glad he did.  He anchored us in about 235 feet of water, hooked up some bigger sinkers and added some larger bait to the hooks.  For the next hour and a half it was non-stop action.  You would barely get the bait to the bottom and a fish would hit.  In about 90 minutes we had caught (and lost a few) our two halibut each.  The fish were not record breakers but the six of us on the boat had 12 halibut that were between 15 lb and 20 lb.  Even stopping to watch several whales along the way, we were still the first boat back to the dock.

Of course getting back early meant that there would be more time for shopping.  There are plenty of craft and gift shops all along the Homer “Spit”.  We ended our day at the Salty Dog saloon.  A small bar with low ceilings and dollar bills tacked to the ceiling and walls.  People would write their names on the bills and sometimes add “colorful” comments or where they were from.  Quite the place.