Friday, August 19, 2005

Gone Fishing

The third stop that we made was Ketchikan. There, both of us when Salmon Fishing.



Carolyn didn't like it as much as I did.





It was really funny. Carolyn didn't have a problem with reeling in the fish. She had a problem with the fish bleeding all over the deck. She never thought that the fish would bleed red blood. She also had a problem with bringing the King Salmon on board. Since it was such a big fish, you have to do something to kill it before you take the hook out of it and put it on ice. The method of choice for most fishermen, bludgeoning it with a small bat.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Together we caught 12 pink salmon and one King, our limit. At the time, the fishing guide said that King was going out of season and heading upstream to spawn. Well, a King tag cost an extra $10, so I was debating buying one. Another gentleman on the boat decided to buy one so I decided to see if he caught anything first. It took him about one and a half to two hours to catch one and it weighed 12 lbs. I decided to go ahead with it. Not 30 mins. Later I'm reeling in a 22 lb King Salmon. We must have hit a sweet spot because the third gentleman on the boat got a 20+ pounder right after I did. Anyway, that's just one of my fish stories and here are the pictures.












Halibut Fishing in Prince Rupert, Canada

Well you know what Carolyn did in Prince Rupert. Well while she was looking at the fuzzy wuzzy bears, I was halibut fishing with a Canadian named Moe. He was a fun guy. He was the stereotypical U.S. view of a Canadian, complete with the accent, eh. This was a really fun trip. There were just four of us tourists on the boat. When we got to the spot, each of us had a pole to watch. This was much more difficult than salmon fishing. Going salmon fishing, we trolled for the fish, which means we were moving very slowly and dragging the lines behind us. Halibut are bottom feeders, like flounder, so we set anchor and dropped a 5 lb. Weight with a hunk of salmon on the hook down about 200 feet. Now keep in mind that halibut there in Canada can get up over 100 lbs. However, most of what you catch is under 60 lbs. Well anyway, we started fishing and I reel in the first two Halibut, my limit. However, I still keep getting bites on my line, so I start passing off my rod to the others to give them a chance. Wouldn't you know it though, the first time I pass off my line, the fish at the other end is a 40 lb. Ling Cod, which is fair game for me to catch. Well, we just had a lot of fun and I think we all brought in something. Of the 10 fish that we caught, 7 of them were off my pole. I guess I had the lucky touch that day. I ended up with a 20lb and a 12lb halibut and a 15lb Ling Cod. Here are the pictures. The first two are my halibuts and the third is the cod.







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