Call me Ishmael

Fishing in Alaska is something I was extremely curious about, and I hoped I would be able to actually "drop a line", as they say in Wisconsin.  Thanks to good friends with a boat, we were invited to spend the weekend on the water on their "live aboard" to go halibut and salmon fishing.  I was envisioning lazy days spent on the water in northern Wisconsin, hooking the nite crawler or

View from the water

Inside cabin of the Carbon Footprint

using one of those cute artificial worms at the counter in the bait shop, pulling in a medium-sized perch or sunfish (big enough to keep? we'll have to measure!) and having a glass of baseball

The dinghy on the back of the boat

dolphins following our boat

lemonade or a "shot" to celebrate the first catch!  Putt-putting around North or South Twin Lake in Wisconsin was the most fishing I'd ever done - I didn't even fish Lake Michigan like some of the men did quite a few years ago (a story unto itself!).  I had been out on the channels here in Southeast Alaska, and Bill had gone out for the weekend a month ago with the "happy hour" bunch.  Let's start by saying that the summer weather here in Juneau has been difficult by most standards, and this weekend

our 'buts!

Kathy with the haul

was forecasted to have more of the same rain and gloomy skies.  However, the "Carbon Footprint" was very comfortable, with a nice "head" and a galley complete with a wonderful head chef (actually, that was Kathy, who worked magic cooking on a small stove without the amenities most of us are used to).  We left Stattler Harbor on Friday night just about 6 p.m., hoping to get to the crab grounds so we could drop the pots before nightfall.  The boat rides so nice on the water and, despite the clouds, the scenery was breathtaking. 

We anchored for the night, had a Tullermore Dew (Irish Whiskey) night cap, and went to bed, rocked to sleep by the ocean waves.....    6:00 a.m. TIME TO GET UP!  Fishing wasn't going to wait, and there were crab pots to check before going out.  Two nice dungeness crab meant crab rolls for lunch!  Tim, the boat owner/captain, had poles already prepared and I learned quickly that I wouldn't have to cast (thank goodness!) but we would release about 100 feet of 80-pound braided line with a 12 ounce weight with a herring on the hook until it hits the muddy bottom of the sea floor.  Being a flatfish, halibut have both eyes on the upper dark side. Their upper sides tend to assume the coloration of the ocean bottom, while the underside, being as whitish as it is, tends to blend in well with the sky when

Tim helping with my fish

viewed from below. These color adaptations allow halibut to avoid detection by both prey and predator.  Halibut can be monsters, over 80 pounds or more, but we wanted the "dinner plate" size

Yes, Bill did catch one (or two)

since they are much better eating.  It didn't take long for the line to tighten, and Kathy taught me the fine art of "wax on wax off" or, in this case, "pull up, reel down" until the fish was visible just under the surface.  What happens next is not for the faint of heart - you've been warned!  As soon as the fish is close to the boat, out comes the gaff hook which is swung into the fish and the fish is hauled aboard.

It had to be done....

Then, WHACK WHACK .... WHACK as the fish gets a "hickory shampoo" with a bat-like stick.  Once the fish was subdued, it was strung on a line off the stern of the boat and it was back to fishing.  Between the four of us, we caught our limit of nice-sized halibut.  While not the trophies that you might see in tour magazines, our fish are really good eatin'! During our Saturday of fishing, we saw jelly fish, long fronds of sea kelp, even dolphins swimming with us as we motored around finding the perfect fishing grounds. That night, we bivouacked at a floatinrg dock in a quiet cove where we enjoyed some of our catch with a few beers.

our home for the two nights

As we chatted on the dock with some friends on another boat, we saw two float planes go overhead to gather their charter patrons after a day fly fishing on a nearby island.  Ahhhh - Alaska!

  

                                                                  

Finally - clear weather!

A view of an iceberg in Mendenhall Lake

 

A moss-covered landscape

the glacier in the fog

Sorry for the delay between posts - while life is Juneau is interesting, I guess I think it's nothing to write home about (literally).  Then again, I guess if you don't live here you might find even "normal" things interesting.  The weather has been unpleasant, at best - incredibly rainy, foggy and cool even for Juneau in July.  We've had flashes of sun (remember the sucker holes?) and at times we can see the tops of the mountains, still covered with snow. The daily weather report states the temperature at the airport and at the "top of the tram" where it is usually around 45 degrees as we drive to work.  There can be three distinct areas of "weather" as we drive to work - out the road where we live could be cloudy, cool but dry; half way to work in the valley is driving rain and clouds, then downtown can be completely socked in with low clouds obscuring views across the Channel to Douglas.  We're never sure what we'll find!  Then there is Greg, working at the top of Eaglecrest Ski Hill at the zipline ( www.alaskazip.com) where he leads tours rain or shine (mostly rain!).

the mountains in the mist

However, after three straight days of all-encompassing fog (we couldn't see the mountains and you can always see the mountains) and rain, the sky cleared and the air warmed (to about 68 degrees) so Bill and I ventured out after our Saturday errands to

Mendenhall Glacier to see the "pinks" spawning and

maybe see a bear.  Tourists still crowd the area,
and some walking paths are closed due to increased bear activity.  In fact, one of the signs along the trail said "Bear encounters are highly likely"!  Sure enough, the bears were in a tree, high off the ground, probably taking a nap after gorging themselves with

Salmon actually do swim upstream!

salmon.  The naturalist on the trail said it was a mother and cub.  They were very hard to spot and impossible to photograph.  We plan on going back out after our swim class some night this week hoping the bears are more active!  For now, enjoy the pictures.  If you have any questions, or want me to talk about something you are interested in, join this "blog" and I will follow up!

A small lake near the glacier

Or follow the blog on my facebook page (I'll friend you!) and ask me questions there, too. Next up:  we've been invited to spend next weekend overnight on our friend's boat, fishing and pulling crab pots.  THAT will be a story worth sharing, I'm sure!