Alaska 38. Road Warriors August 16

Alarms went off at 5 am. It had rained all night long. The only good thing? I had bought myself some PopTarts for the occasion of the 5 am wake up call. Apple flavor. Much standing in front of the PopTart aisle was spent contemplating my choice. I used to be a Brown Sugar and Cinnamon girl. But my kids always wanted Strawberry. Dave CONDEMNED PopTarts on all fronts but, oddly, declared himself to be a Strawberry guy one time… In a bold move, I selected Apple. I haven’t had a PopTart in YEARS. Maybe longer than even a Twinkie. And I wondered: would the PopTart disappoint like the Twinkies*?

They were better than the Twinkies*, but they weren’t great. 

But I was hungry, so I enjoyed them.

I guess the OTHER good thing was that they hadn’t called off the charter due to the forecasted winds. 

(And the other OTHER good thing was that it wasn’t raining any more.)

We met our captain, Lowell, who was a youngish guy and who was being VERY dramatic about the forecasted winds. He sounded like a drill sergeant telling us how we were gonna “Go out there. Get our fish. And get back here by 8:30 am” There would be no “throwing fish back” and “being picky about size.” We’d get our “one under” (28”) and “one over.” All that was missing was a “drop and give me ten.”

So off we went in a paddy-wagon-like people-hauler pulling the boat on a trailer behind us to the rocky beach, where they use TRACTORS to launch the boats — right into the surf. Not even on a concrete launch.

Fascinating.

And also, now more obviously, a big reason why wind is such a factor for the Ninilchik charters. There is no harbor. And the waves can strand a boat out at sea or even on the beach until the tide changes. It actually happened to a boat the day before. It can be a pretty dangerous game for the boat, the tractor driver and the guy in the water.

We had our usual characters to laugh about fishing with us. But it was all good. Everyone was very nice. Just one bossy lady who was pretty funny. There were six of us on the boat, so we were looking to catch 12 fish.

Dave caught his two in literally the first 5 minutes we were out. He’s a seasoned halibut fisher, having gone once before, many years ago.

I had to work a little harder. I caught my first one — a BABY HALIBUT — that had the distinction of being the only fish thrown back for being too small.

But then I caught a big one! Lowell was very excited. “Nice fish!” And “Nice job!” But there is literally not one bit of skill involved. You reel it in when they tell you to. But not before. But *maybe* before because you might have missed a bite. But not too soon because then you pulled it out of its mouth. Then you have to reel in and rebait (no small feat). So I just did what he told me to and got the big one of the day. 170’ of line. 45” 45lb?

So that was my “over” fish and I still needed to catch an “under” that wasn’t a baby… It took a one more fish, but then I caught a 24” – the smallest “under” that we kept. There were still two others fishing when I finished but they quickly followed suit and we were, indeed, out of there and back to the beach by 8:30 am.

Weatherman Dave was baffled by Captain Lowell’s wind forecast. Weatherman Dave forecasted that the winds would not become significant until 1 pm. Lowell said 9 am. 

Weatherman Dave was right again.

But Captain Lowell DID give us some good advice about fishing some of the smaller creeks for trout and Dolly Varden (with a dash of reality that “these creeks don’t fish in high water”) after he finished cleaning all our fish. We paid more insane amounts of money to ship the fish home (but worth it: 40 lbs of fresh halibut!).

We headed back to the campground to regroup and eat before heading off for, yes, more fishing. Based on Lowell’s advice that the creeks “don’t fish well” after heavy rains — and Lord knows we have had HEAVY, RELENTLESS rains — we headed further south to Anchor Creek, closer to Homer, as Lowell speculated that area had gotten less rain. 

And right at 1 pm, the wind started HOWLING! Score another one for my sexy weather man.

Anchor River was beautiful! It was a REALLY NICE day. We saw golden eagles and moose calves. We thought we might have heard a bear… 

Are you picking up on my subterfuge here?

We didn’t catch fish.

Wait. I take that back. Dave caught two. I didn’t even have a bite. I am SO over it.

I might have weeped a bit while walking through the river. Not because I wasn’t catching fish — I have stopped expecting to catch fish, to be honest. I think I’m just over it. I need to point my boots toward home. I was expecting to do that when we got off the ferry. But then we had to stay to halibut fish. And then we had to stay because it was “too late to leave.” Tomorrow we want to fish Lowells “super secret spot” … I just want to get in the car and drive. Towards home.

Well. Catching a DAMNED FISH wouldn’t be bad either. 

We wrapped up, headed back to the car and ran into a local guy who gave us a spot to fish for big grayling on the way home in Delta Junction. When we asked him how he did fishing Anchor Creek, he chuckled and said “Oh, I’m not fishing. It’s way too high and blown out. I’m just teaching my friend how to cast.”

*sigh*

I mean… we are in Alaska mainly to fish, so we are fishing. But it’s a bummer to be here — not just in-between salmon runs, but also at a time where all the rivers are blown out. 

But it’s really nice out. And it sure is beautiful. 

We headed back to camp and made some delicious FRESH halibut that we held back from being shipped. Really, REALLY  good. Very exciting to have that to look forward to at home.

We also mapped out a rough route home. Knowing we are officially starting back helped my mood tremendously. Don’t get me wrong: I have really enjoyed this trip. I’m STILL enjoying the trip. But we are going on six weeks on the road. Add to that a lot of rain and cold and living out of the car and camper. It starts to wear on you. I still like it, but I am ready to start heading home — remember we still have another two weeks on the road.

And to be fair, crawling into the camper at night feels as good as crawling into my bed at home. I love it and look forward to it. I truly did not think that would ever happen, but it did. I told Dave I didn’t even want to stay in any hotels as a “special treat” because I like the camper better. 

So put that in your pipe and smoke it!

*I completely forgot to chronicle the lunches that Jack brought for us on our ATV/fishing trip. They were HUGE and included a twin pack of TWINKIES. It was the BEST SURPRISE I could have dreamed of. And it MADE MY DAY. I ripped into that package like a kid on Christmas. …and they were truly AWFUL. Nothing like my brain had remembered. I still powered through them, though. Dave threw his away.