Trip Recap

Trip Recap:
August 7th,

Now that I've been back for about 2 weeks I can look back on the trip and share some general overall thoughts on the whole experience.

Was it what I thought it was going to be?
Not really but to be honest that was only because I didn't go up there with too many thoughts on what I was getting into. I did know that it was going to be camping on a boat and that is exactly what it was. There were no daily hot shower, there was not much in the way of personal space and it was 6 guys on a 27 foot boat for 7 days. I kind of knew that we'd be spending the whole time fishing but I didn't put too much thought into it and I probably should have. It was 7 days on a boat fishing and I've discovered that I'm not that into fishing. A day or two on the island seeing more of what Kodiak is all about but that is for the next trip. I did think we would be eating more fish but that didn't happen as by the time it came to eat nobody was really in the mood to cook for themselves let alone the group of us. The fish that we did get around to eating was good stuff as you couldn't get it much fresher.

Would I do it again?
That depends on if I get invited back again? Doug and Chris are the regulars as well as Art and Reily as it is their boat. Everybody else are just visitors that happen to be in good standing with Doug and Chris, enough so that they'll ask you to join the trip.

What was Kodiak like:
The amount of area of Kodiak Island that is covered by people and businesses is pretty small. We didn't go much farther from the harbor but as we were motoring out to the fishing area the part of the island with houses on it ended pretty quickly. There was a Wal Mart, McD's, KFC and I think a Taco Bell but that is about it for recognizable establishments. The harbor had a couple of large buildings around it that were for fish processing and there were a few restaurants and bars there as well. The people were incredibly friendly, and it was not just because we were there with Doug and Chris who have become repeat fixtures on a yearly basis.

Did I get a lot of fish?
A lot is an understatement as the total catch was approx 493 lbs of filleted fish. If you totaled the entire catch before the fish were cleaned I'd say it was well over 750 lbs. My take was 114 lbs of frozen fish fillets of Lingcod, Halibut, and Rock Fish. Part of the take was fish cheeks as they're reported to be pretty good eats and we're ready to find out if that is true.

Did I see any wild life?
If you've ever seen a Discovery Channel show on sea life, that is what my week was like. We saw whales that were just swimming along and splashing around. On a couple of days we would be motoring in our out and somebody would say "whale" and we'd stop to check it out. There were about two or three sitings of sea otters swimming on their backs eating that day's meal. Bald Eagles are every where on Kodiak island and mostly sitting in a tree, on a rock or on the rigging of a boat. A brown bear made an appearance on the first day that I was there and it was about 20 feet across the river from us as we were fly fishing. Lastly there was one day when I saw a sea lion in the harbor and about 15 feet off the back of our boat. Art was telling me that it lives in and around the harbor and swims in as it feels fit. It was rather big ( about 20 feet long ) and pretty quick in the water so I think it was given the run of the place without much argument.

Did my back hurt at all?
For those of you that don't know, I had emergency back surgery about 12 weeks before the trip. How I don't know but I ruptured a disk and the fluid managed to lodge itself on my sciatic nerve causing insane amounts of pain. I spent the better part of 4 days flat on my back trying to deal with the pain and finding a comfortable position to be in. Thankfully there was not much in the way of back pain at all on the trip. I did have some pain in my upper back but that was because the fishing caused me to use muscles I never really used before. So all in all, there was not much lower back pain at all on the trip.

Today's Pictures:
I wanted to show the fish cleaning table there are two pictures where you can kind of catch a glimpse of it. One picture is me showing off a Yellow Eye Rock fish and the table is behind me. There is another picture of Chris and Art cleaning fish with Vinney at the end of the table screwing around doing something. There is another picture is of Chris resting on the trip back to the harbor but in the background you can see the beautiful landscape on the island. I don't know the exact numbers but there is only roads and people on a very small portion of the island. The rest is uninhabited. The last picture for today is of me looking kind of dorkish ( I was pretty tired at this point in the day) but in the background is some of the most increadible mountains you've ever seen. The cool thing is that they were everywhere you looked and I'm told that the snow never melts. Pretty cool.

This post is long enought so I'll sign off for now.

Right on.
J


Doug's plug: www.CameraLandNY.com
Ina's plug: www.islandseafoods.com

Goodbye Farewell, Amen:

Today was the last day of fishing and we tried our best to have it end with as many fish as it began. Much to our dismay, that was just not going to happen as they were just not biting today. Art and Chris put the boat on top of multiple points that the fish finder showed large amounts of activity but we just couldn’t get them on the line and into the boat. There was a joke made that they seemed to be running in schools today and we’re hitting the nursery school. The first few fish we caught were embarrassingly small and needed to be thrown back so they could grow up big and strong to be caught at a later date.

The return to the dock had the normal routine, clean, clean, clean some more and then eat. By the time all was done and we were headed to dinner it was about 9:45 and the kitchen at our normal joint was closed. Kodiak doesn’t have much in the way of a booming restaurant scene and our choices at that hour were limited. We almost hit McD’s but at the last minute a phone call to one of the local hotels found their kitchen still open and we were set.

The rest of the evening was spent packing up our gear, clothes, and everything else that needed to be shipped back. We packed the van with the boxes of our stuff, the day’s catch and then crashed for the night. My flight is the first one out so I’m set to get up at 06:30 and head to the airport for a 08:00 flight.

The picture for today is the view from the back of our boat that we would see most mornings. This view helped me remember that I was in ALASKA of all places and you don’t see this anywhere else. The weather forecast came from the maritime daily report over a marine radio but all it took was one look outside to get the real scoop. If this was what we saw we knew there was promise that the weather was on our side.

Now that I'm heading home I'm going to keep the blog going but it won't be the daily fishing activities but more of questions that people have been asking. I'll run through some topics like, fish cleaning, the boat, the rods and reels we used, who went, the Kodiak harbor and town. If there's something you wanted to know and I didn't mention it in the blog, use the comment link at the bottom of the page and I'll see if I can't help.


Right on.
J

Doug’s Plug, www.CameraLandNY.com

Saturday July 24th,

You win some, You lose some.

Today’s start was like any other this week and we were all very hope full that if we returned to the last point we fished yesterday our chances of hooking some Halibut would be pretty good. It was the same point where I landed the 57lb Halibut. Man were we wrong, set after set we had nothing. We had two fish in the keeper bucket that were put there early in the morning and then we hit a major dry spell. Art picked some of our set points and the fish were not hitting. Chris then took a turn picking some points with the same result. At one point in time I even took a turn driving the boat and picking a drop point but still nothing happened. The fish were just not biting. Plain and simple, today was a bust when it came to hitting large amounts of fish. It wasn’t like we were not catching fish, they were just too small to keep. The day ended with Doug, Art and Chris catching a couple of very large Lingcod at our last set so the day was not a total bust with no fish.

There was a highlight once we decided to head in and that was I got to drive the boat back to the harbor. Earlier in the day everybody was unmotivated to do much of anything and we were drifting aimlessly so I asked if I could drive the boat and see if I could find a drop point. Art said “Yes” and much to the dismay of the other guys I managed to drive to a point on the GPS that looked somewhat decent. When it came time to drive back to the harbor Art asked if I wanted to drive. I managed to get the boat 90% of the way back to the slip and didn’t crash into anything. Art took care of the last part of the drive as it required tight maneuvers in the harbor.

The fish cleaning part of the night went pretty quick as there wasn’t much to clean. No surprise there. Dinner plans were for Henry’s a local restaurant right next to the harbor. Just as I was about to leave the boat for and walk up to Henry’s there was a special visitor to the harbor, a Sea Lion. An honest to goodness sea lion was swimming around inside the harbor. From what I understand it lives in the waters close by and from time to time comes into the harbor to things out. I couldn’t get in position fast enough and close enough to get a good picture so I have one to post. It looked as though it was about 15 feet long but that is only a guess because it didn’t come out of the water too much. It did splash and roll around while thrashing a halibut carcass around. It was pretty interesting to see one in the wild as compared to seeing one in an aquarium.

That is all for tonight.

Right on.
J

Doug’s Plug: www.CameraLandNY.com

Wednesday ( Day 3 )

The day really never did get off on the right foot nor could it right itself. The morning started out fine with the usual trip to the bathroom, coffee shop and today an added stop at the fish processing company. The fish that was cleaned yesterday sat on ice for the night and we dropped it off first thing this morning with the company that will vacuum pack and ship it to our homes. The total haul was approx 115 lbs of usable fillets from all the fish we caught. Not that bad a haul considering it was our fist day out and a two of us were rookies to AK fishing. A quick stop for coffee at our favorite coffee shop, the marine supply store for rubber gloves and a knife and then it was back to the boat. This is where we started to try to find out what the deal was with Bruce and the jigs that were shipped up here last year.

This is where the day was thrown off track and didn’t get a chance to get corrected. The deal is last year some new hooks were ordered and shipped to Art’s friend Bruce’s house. Bruce lives on the island year round and his address was used to ship the hooks to. If all went according to plan the hooks were arrive in time to be used on last year’s trip. The problem is they didn’t arrive on time and the trip ended before they could be put to use. Then they sat in Bruce’s house for a year so that when the return trip was made this year they could be put to use. That sounds well enough but we couldn’t connect with Bruce to get the hooks. I think he was out on his boat fishing/working. After many phone calls and juggling we connected with Bruce and made a trip to his house to pick up the hooks. A quick stop at another marine supply store and we had the remaining rubber parts needed so we could make new jigs to use today.

The departure from the harbor didn’t happen until about 1:00 this afternoon at which point we motored in a different direction than yesterday and went to a cove to drop two crab pots. Once the pots were in the water we headed back across the cove, past the harbor and out to our fishing grounds. We did manage to get in three or four hours of fishing but didn’t get much of a haul of fish. The wind was blowing, the seas were about 2-4 feet and as soon as we would drop our lines the boat would begin drifting. Most of the time we would drift far enough in 15-20 minutes that boat would need to be positioned back on top of where we thought the fish were according to the sonar. After moving a half dozen times and fishing for about 4 hours we decided to head back in.

As we did the other night we cleaned everything, the tackle, the gear, the boat, the dishes, and the fish, everything was cleaned. Since we didn’t make it back to the dock until 8, the fish cleaning didn’t finish until about 10 and by then we were dead beat. Dinner tonight was Art making sushi rolls out of the Yellow Eye Rock Fish from yesterday. Now it is about 12:30 and the boat is down for the night and I will head to la la land myself in about 10 minutes. We plan to be out of the harbor at about 7 or 8 am on Thursday so we can get in a whole day of solid fishing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that plan.

The picture for today is the view from right out the back of the boat when we’re in the harbor.
That is all for now.

Right on.

J

Doug’s Plug: www.CameraLandNY.com.

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.

July 9Th (T-9 Days)

Stuff to take and stuff not to take, that is the question. Obviously I'll need jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and all that junk one needs to get dressed and stay warm when on a boat. The question I have is what about the toys I need to bring. The GPS, a cell phone, binoculars, a leather man tool, Ipod and any other thing I could need or not need. This is an opportunity to use all the cool tools I've been collecting over the years, thinking I'd go camping or something similar. Now I've got a chance to actually use all that stuff. Who knows maybe the Loran (GPS for boats) breaks and my lowly Garmin will save the day. The engine could blow a head gasket and I could use the Letatherman tool to make a new one out of a wetsuit. There is huge potential here for me to bring the right tool to do the right thing to save the day..... Yeah right, who am I kidding.

Here is some of the swag I'll bring and maybe I'll use it or maybe it will just be dead weight. The blackberry is coming as it will do double or triple duty as a phone, quick camera, game boy, Ipod, or send the odd email during the insanely long flights. I've got a couple of knives to bring, one straight edge and one serrated. I don't know two different blades but now is the chance to find out if there really is a reason for each to exist. A small flashlight as I've got a feeling I don't want to wander the dock at night without knowing where the edge is and where the water begins. I'll be bringing a digital camera (Nikon Cool Pix) so I can snap a quick shot of our daily mistake or triumph. Lastly a waterproof digital watch that has a light or is back lit. This is actually the one item that was suggested to me by a friend who has been on a trip of this sort to Alaska. My buddy Bernie mentioned there will be a time when everybody is asleep and I'll need to check the time or use a small light to find my way around the boat (bathroom break) where a flashlight will be too much. The suggestion was to get a cheap watch at Wal_Mart that I won't worry about if it gets trashed, but has a good light to it.

That's it for this posting, I really need to get to packing my clothes, all my toys and ship the goods off.

Right on.
J

don't forget, www.CameraLandNJ.com

July 6 ( T - 12 days )

The 4th of July weekend has passed and it is time to get ready for the big trip. I spoke with Doug today about shipping our gear and junk to AK and I need to get on the ball. I guess the fog can roll in pretty quick and prevent deliveries so the farther ahead I can send my stuff the better. I hope to ship most of my clothing so all I've got to travel with is my laptop and an extra pair of boxers. The weather links have it cooler than I thought so it is going to be more jeans and sweatshirts (thanks to Doug I'm covered on that subject) than shorts and t-shirts. A current low of 41 and high of 51 degrees is not anywhere near the current 94 degrees it is in Knoxville so its going to be cold.

I've found out that in past years the boat needed some work to get it sea worthy so I might pack the trusty leatherman tool, not like that is going to do much but it makes my inner MacGyver feel better. Fishing gear and tackle is being provided by those on the trip that have more than me and some to share. I'm also borrowing a set of foul weather gear so I can try to stay dry while fishing. I don't think we're talking massive waves like on the "Deadliest Catch" tv show but who knows...... I certainly don't have a clue.

The roster for this years trip is the following: Art, boat owner, captain and all around boss. If he says it then it's the law. It is his boat after all. Riley is Art's son and second in command as if he says it then his father probably told him to. Doug, mastermind behind the annual trip and the only person I could choose out of a police line up, not that we'll be in one but he's the only person I know. Chris, a friend of Doug's and I think he's been on this trip in the past. Year 2, 3 and 4, I've got no idea but not a rookie like myself. Vinny, fishing friend of Doug's and again I have no idea of how many other trips he's been on but it is more than me. Lastly there is me and if you can't figure it out by this paragraph, I've got no idea who these people are and how many times they've been on this trip. I'll let you know more when I get to Alaska and can't turn back.

That's it for today's posting. If you've got comments and want to add something, there should be a link at the bottom of the posting for you to use. I'm going to try to start adding pictures so you can see my stuff, such as the smoking sweatshirt I received as part of my experience. More to come....

Right on.
J

again my favorite link, www.cameralandny.com

July 4, 2010
(T-14 days)
It’s been about a week or so since my last post and not much has transpired on the trip. I’ve been a little busy with work travel so I have not had much extra time to post to the blog.

My trip to Kodiak Island is a bit here there and everywhere so I’ll attempt to bore you with my itinerary: Start in Knoxville on Sunday July 18th at approx noon and drive to Atlanta airport (4 hours).

Fly from Atlanta GA to Phoenix AZ, 4 hour flight with a 50 minute layover until next flight.

Fly from Phoenix AZ to Anchorage AK, 5 hour flight and arrive at Midnight on the 18th.

Fly from Anchorage AK to Kodiak Island AK, 1 hour jump (yeah for a short flight) and arrive as some insane early hour of the day on July 19th.

Once in Kodiak I’ll probably walk to the harbor and wander the docks until I find the boat I’m on. The name of the boat and length of walk escape me and by the time I get there I’ll be running on caffeine, sugar and airplane sleep, so the walk and search might do me some good. Of course the part of the trip from the Kodiak airport to the boat can be planned out by my buddy Doug but at this moment I’m not so sure so I’m expecting to walk. It’s either walk, more walking, or even more walking, or catch a taxi, if they exist on the island again not so sure of what to expect.

That’s all I’ve got for now, stay tuned for more rambling blog to come, when time permits.

Right on.
J

I can't forget a plug for my favorite camera shop: www.CameraLandNY.com