Boating Around
Well after a nights rest in a real bed, I was up and moving around 9 in the morning. Dad and I unloaded the truck from our stellar hunting trip and then headed out on the sound. The small boat harbor was pretty quiet being a Monday and all. It really is fun to walk the docks and look at all the different boats.
We were quickly out on the water with only a couple of tasks on hand. We brought with us 10 cans of cat food and 5 shrimp pots. “Dropping shrimp pots” being the first thing on the list. We skimmed across the calm water with mountain in every direction.
We went about 9 miles out towards the narrows and dropped our shrimp pots in about 350 feet of water. We will be checking them tomorrow with high hopes of some tasty morsels.
Our other goal for the day was to make a meager attempt at catching a halibut. We tried a spot near where we dropped the shrimp pots knowing that the best halibut fishing is yet another two to four hours boat ride out of Valdez. So we knew were weren’t going to have much luck. We found a nice spot and pulled out the tools of the trade for catching halibut. Here is what the majority of the equipment looks like that most widely used for reeling in the titanic sized fish.
Notice the knife in there for a little perspective on the size of things. To these hooks one usually attaches a whole herring. Here is what it the whole rig looks like before you drop it overboard in about 150 feet of water.
So we drop the line to the bottom and jig until we have a bite. I had some nibbles, but none were confident enough to take the big bite. Tomorrow we plan to head out with a little more serious attitude on the whole halibut catching subject. I hope to have an update tomorrow with pictures of the big flounder.
While we were sitting there jigging our lines up and down the clouds started to linger around the edges of some of the mountains that drop into the ocean. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water.
After a little over an hour of letting our bait soak that the bottom of the ocean we decided to head back. On the way we passed one of the many oil tankers and its two escorts on their way out to the open ocean. The two tug boats follow the big guy out 80 miles through the narrows ensuring we won’t have another mishap like the exxon valdez in 89.
On a side note, there is another poll up on the right side of my blog. So if you have a second let me know what you think.
Erin on August 28th, 2007
What a fun day! So glad you are having such a nice time. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the shrimp pots are full and the halibut are hungry. 🙂 I love you!