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Alaska - Homer and Fishing
by Rena Harris on July 29, 2010 |
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Ahhhh laska!
Those that know me know that I love Alaska! Doesn’t matter what time of the year I go, it’s always breathtaking. My wonderful brother lives in Anchorage and he owns a fishing boat, so the yearly trek up there usually is in summer and usually involves at least some fishing.
This past trip included another short trip to Homer - one of my favorite ports of call! Homer is a about a 5 hour drive from Anchorage, south along Turnagain Arm in the Cook Inlet. Because there is so much to see, I’ll start at Homer and work back towards Anchorage.
June is my favorite time to go to Homer…it’s the summer solstice and true to form, it’s daylight for 24 hours. Well, the sun isn’t shining that whole time –it does get kind of “dusky” around 2 am to about 4 am. So it’s always lots of energy time and who wants to go to bed when the sun is still shining at 1 am?
There are lots of places to stay in Homer – Resorts and lodges, hotels, motels and Inns, cabins and cottages and alot of Bed and breakfast options. Although I've stayed in a couple of these places before, we usually take my brother's motor home (although one year we rented a motor home of our own) and end up staying at the Homer Spit RV park. Although the park is total gravel – the views are to die for! Kachemek Bay with 5 glaciers opposite of where you are parked, watching the fishing boats go out in the morning, back in the evening. The Alaska Marine ferry comes by and on this trip we even watched Holland America Oosterdam dock. She is one of the very few cruise liner's allowed inside the bay.
The Homer Spit has a lot to offer – Besides the Alaska Marine Highway and Holland America passenger terminal, there are a multitude of fishing boats – some commercial, some private and a lot of fishing charter boats call this home. The most famous boat moored here is the “Time Bandit” of Deadliest Catch fame. They even have a souvenir shop on the boardwalk.
And speaking of the boardwalk – there are several shops along the boardwalk on both sides of the roadway. These shops boast all kinds of Alaskan goods from home made ready wear – the normal t-shirts and hats souvenirs to Alaskan art work that is certifiably made by native Alaskans.
Let's not forget - some of the most wonderful restaurants – Captain Patties for incredible seafood , (and they will cook your catch if you’d like) some spectacular Pizza houses and everything in between!
Never to be missed is the world famous “Salty Dog Saloon”. I’m proud to say that I found my business card from my first visit here about 20 years ago! Surprising considering that the walls, ceilings, rafters and anything attached to anything inside this bar has money (a lot of money) with signatures all over, a lot of underwear – some autographed – and if walls could talk – my! the stories that could be told. Best time to be here is in the afternoon when the fishing boats return and the fish have been cleaned and put away….then you hear some real stories!
Speaking of fishing – Homer Spit has a Fishing Lagoon – well depending on the tide, and although I’ve thrown my share of casts into the lagoon and only snagged the tail of a salmon once, I usually see at least one king and several silver’s come out of the lagoon by some lucky fisherman or woman. From children to folks in wheel chairs – everyone has the opportunity to fish in this lagoon here. The average King weighs 18 pounds with a range from 8 – 30 pounds. The average silver weighs 7 pounds with a range of 4 – 14 pounds.
But the best fishing that Homer is famous for is out in Kechemak Bay and beyond. We always take off off bright and early morning –one day, the fog was pretty thick, but burning off. As we got several miles offshore and past several sea otters that were out for the morning breakfast – and finally shut off the engine to get ready to set the bait on the halibut hooks – I heard the whoosh… we became dead silent, soon, you could hear the next whoosh and another and they were so close….here comes a whale - right by the boat, so close you could smell it! On another morning - far out to sea, we can hear and then see a very large gray whale – we watch her make a circle as she is feeding in the Inlet. It is a sight and sound I could never get tired of.
Of course, the best part of fishing is actually hooking one of the big ones. Halibut are bottom feeders and when you get one and start reeling in – it feels like you’re bringing a barn door up….they fight, they stop, and they fight and stop. Eventually you get it up to the top and with luck it’s a big one. This time, my husband was the lucky one – he brought up the first large girl – 165 pounds, the next ones on the boat were “chickens” the ones that weigh between 25 – 40 pounds (and the best eating ones) The second large fish was a 110 pounder Halibut. After all the years we got the chickens, he finally is a member of Homer's 100 pounder club. A few rock fish, and a few cod, a few more chickens and it’s time to call it quits and head back to Homer.
Brother Gary is an excellent fisherman – he filet’s better than most pro’s. So off we go to the fish cleaning station to clean the big fish – but first we wait in line, while other fisherman who were also lucky clean their catch of the day. Before long, we have visitors – not the same old seagulls that always are around waiting for the scraps – but Eagles – big, beautiful, and big incredible, did I mention BIG? Eagles – and they are hungry. I’ve never been that close to a Bald Eagle in the wild – it was exhilarating as I snapped the Nikon as much as I could before they moved because people kept getting so close to the birds.
So what if you want to go to Homer and you don’t have a fabulous brother to take you there, well there are options and I’ll tell you about those and more in the next Ahhhhlaska installment…
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