Up early again (are you seeing a trend here?), we dressed in several layers for fishing. We had to meet at the dock at 7:00 so we left at 6:20 to give us time to stop and get a sandwich (and coffee for me). We lucked out and found this little hole in the wall (everything was a hole in the wall in Homer) called Spit Sisters. They had awesome food! I was really happy to see there was another woman on the boat. I’d have been fine if there wasn’t but it’s always nice to have another female around, ya know? It didn’t take long to meet everyone and get underway. Captain Mike was wonderful. We later found out the man is almost 70 and we just stunned. As Bob put it, “he’s like the Energizer Bunny.” It was a little choppy and I was a little concerned. Thank goodness I had something in my stomach. It took well over an hour to get our far enough to start putting the lines over and I was concentrating on the horizon to keep the nausea under control.

Once we started actually “fishing” it helped. Being outside on the deck helped. Of course it was pretty cold out there but whatcha gonna do? Be sick or be cold? I took cold. The salmon weren’t cooperating very well. It was just too rough. After probably an hour and a half, Captain Mike decided to pull up the salmon lines and put out the halibut lines. I could do no wrong. Within minutes I had a bite. And what’s so funny about this is I had no bloody idea what to do about it! I did manage to reel that baby in though (with Mike’s help of course) and it was somewhere around 18 lbs. Not bad!! As soon as Mike baited my line again and I dropped it down, I got another bite. Reeled another one in! Bob’s standing over there looking a little forlorn – he hadn’t even had a nibble. It seemed like everyone else was pulling halibut in but Bob. Mike baited my line again. Within minutes of dropping it I had another bite. I pulled it in a little then handed it to Bob to finish. There is a limit of two halibut per person anyway so I gave my line to him. I wasn’t watching the clock but I’d bet within an hour all six of us had our limit. They were biting like crazy! Linda brought in a big guy, weighing in at 37 lbs! I think I had the second largest one at about 18 lbs.

The salmon weren’t nearly as cooperative. In fact, it got quite boring at times. Captain Mike would put the lines out and after about thirty minutes of limited activity move to another location. He worked his ass off. Salmon fishing isn’t easy, especially when there is only one person to drive the boat and handle all the lines too. The man was a wonder.

Bob brought in a King Salmon weighing about 17 lbs. I got a couple of bites and pulled in some kind of bass, which Bob just gave to one of the guys in our group. Still haven’t figured that one out. WTH? About half an hour before we had to head back in the water calmed down and the salmon started biting left and right. We had five bites in the last 15 minutes. Bob and I both had bites but they let go before we could bring them all the way in. That sucked.

At some point trying to shoot Bob pulling one of his fish in, my camera died. ?? How does that happen? I didn’t charge it the night before, but I hadn’t taken very many pictures yesterday either so while it wasn’t fully charged, it was close. The only thing I could deduce was that it got turned on by accident and I didn’t know it. Every other day I/we have carried my camera backpack around – with the extra battery, cards, etc. Today I didn’t. Can you believe it? The only camera I had to use was my iPhone. At least I had that.

“Buttwhackers” is the name of the company that cleaned and filleted our fish. The name itself cracks me up. Their motto is, “We pack ‘em, rack ‘em, whack ‘em and sack ‘em.” Too funny! All in all we ended up with 25 lbs of halibut and 8 lbs of salmon. We were hoping for more salmon but it helps knowing we’re going salmon fishing again in Ketchikan. By the time we headed back my reflux was killing me. My stomach was hurting so badly. I couldn’t eat much earlier because the boat was rocking so much. I did try to graze a little just to put something in there but it wasn’t much. We had box lunches that weren’t very appetizing either. I needed food. I needed some bread to soak up some of that excess acid. But, guess where we ended up instead?

The Salty Dawg Saloon just happened to be right next door. We’d heard it’s a pretty bawdy place, so you know we had to check it out! When you walk through the door you are hit in the face with probably thousands of “autographed” dollar bills tacked everywhere! And I mean everywhere! They’re on the ceilings, walls, bar, etc. You know we had to add ours too! Pretty cool stuff. Linda and Dale joined us for a celebratory beer and it was wonderful just to sit and unwind, getting to know new friends.

OMG, guess what? We’re starving again! Damn that eating thing! We spotted a little pizza joint at the mouth of the Spit and turned into the parking lot. At this point, anything sounded good. Unfortunately, it took forever to get our pizza – at least it seemed like it. And would you believe Linda and Dale sat two booths behind us? LOL Guess we had the same idea! We later found out that one of the ovens had broken so they were behind getting the food out – of all days. Ugh! While we were eating Bob spotted an eagle out in the marshy area eating something. That bugger had caught himself a salmon and was pigging out. Before too long his mate (we assume) joined him in sharing the meal. It was amazing watching them. Of course I didn’t have a camera. That would’ve been the perfect time to get some amazing shots!

Bear viewing tomorrow.