Monday was spent mostly getting everybody on board, the boat situated and Tuesday was the first day of fishing. Over night the harbor emptied out of about half of the commercial fishing boats as there was work to be done and fish to be caught by those that live and work here. Those of us that are fishing for pleasure were leaving the harbor in dribs and drabs but we were getting out.

Fog covered most of everything in the channel betweenthe harbor and open water Chris has been in and out of the harbor enough times to navigate the Emerald Rose out into the open ocean. The new GPS navigation toy was doing its job and about an hour later we were on the top of the fishing grounds that Chris had decided on before coming to AK. A few quick lessons on how to work the rod and reel and we were fishing. The technique we were using is jigging which is letting the lead head jigs ( lure for those non fishers out there ) drop to the bottom and back them off just a little. Bouncing the rod in short jerks makes the jig come to life and hopefully look like lunch for a large fish.

Chris caught the first fish, I caught the second and third and it was off to the races after that. The picture posted is of me holding a Yellow Eye Rock Fish that Art estimated it to be 90+ years old and it came in at 27lbs. Everybody pulled at least one fish onto the boat and some caught multiple. Many hours and a couple of dozen fish later we were done. The 50 gallon trash can we were using to hold the fish was full with Lingcod, Yellow eye rock fish and Halibut all caught with jigs and a small amount of “butt juice”. To add insult to injury we nearly filled the 150 quart cooler as well. By the end of the day most of us tired out and the fishing finally ended at about around 4:00. Chris drove the boat home and we were back in the harbor after about an hour of motoring back.

Next was the cleaning, and we cleaned everything, the boat, rods, reels, fish, cooler, our gear, you name it we cleaned it. With the fish cleaned, and the boat back to order we headed to the dock for dinner at a local restaurant called Henry’s. Last trip of the night was the walk back to the boat and then it was light out.

That is all for Tuesday, I’m not sure what Wednesday will bring. More to come on Wednesday.

Right on.

J

Doug’s plug: www.cameralndny.com

By the way majority of the pictures I'm posting were taken with an Olympus Stylus 850 which has been a great camera. Waterproof as you can take pic's under water, shock and shatter proof. I might be upgrading around Christmas. Call 212 753 5128, ask for Woj and tell him Alaska sent you. He'll know what that means. Good luck.