Thursday, July 1

I did it - I caught a halibut! No, I did not squeal, however, I did grunt and groan quite a bit. Let's just say, it was quite an adventure! But, before we get to that, let's get you updated.

Jesse picked us up yesterday about 1:00 p.m. and we headed for Seward, Alaska. What a gorgeous drive! The landscapes around here are incredible - more mountains and this time with more vegetation than previous with the snow still down the mountain and inbetween the trees. Beautiful. We stopped right outside of Seward to see Exit Glacier. You can walk right up to this glacier and, if you take the 8-mile hike, can walk right on it and the ice fields leading up to it. We opted for the 1-mile and just walked up to it. Breathtakingly beautiful. The blues and whites in the glacier are just amazing. Really glad we stopped.

On to Seward to get our fishing licenses, some food for on the boat and check into our room at the fishing lodge. None of us could believe how gorgeous the room was. Like Jesse said, it's more like a honeymoon suite than a lodge. Yeah, it was really nice. Too bad you don't get to hang out there long - you can't check in until 6 p.m. and we had to be at the fishing lodge at 6 p.m. I'm not complaining - better than being in one of those nightmare places.

The boat leaves as soon as everyone gets there or not later than 6:30 a.m. - we had 12 people in our group. They make sure no one has a banana along (they told you the night before not to eat one) - bananas are bad luck. (Fishermen are so superstitious - they were serious.) The boat was 58 feet long and came complete with a cabin with tables, coffee maker, bathroom (yeah) and lower sleeping area (which we didn't use - that's where they stored our food, rain gear and stuff). On our way to the fishing site and while fishing, we saw more glaciers, eagles, sea lions, porpoises (they looked like little killer whales and swam right with the boat), puffins, all kinds of birds and humpback whales about 100 feet away from the boat. Amazing!

So, on to the fishing. The first thing we fished for were halibut. Now, that all sounds easy, tut what you don't understand is the equipment they use. We were fishing for "normal" size halibut, not the 300+ pounders, so we didn't have to use harneses. BUT, they hand you this rod and reel that has to weigh easily 10-15 pounds. Then, they put a big (I mean big) weight on it. That weight was 3 inches by 1.5 inches by 1 inch (Duane says they were 15 pound wieights). I could barely lift the whole rod and everything. Then, after people kept getting their lines caught all the time, the captain said to his crew (of 2) - Ok, boys, get the big weights on now so they don't get caught any more. What? More weight? Yup - an even bigger weight. That whole rig had to weigh 20 pounds. Then, you get a fish on the line - a halibut, which are flat and are notorious for just laying there and letting you pull them up from the bottom of the ocean. Good grief! Well, I got my first one and I cranked and cranked on that reel, grunted and groaned, panted and took a break for a few seconds and kept on cranking and grunting. I finally got that darn fish up to the boat only to look up and see Duane snapping pictures of me - the poop! I look like I'm in pain or something - like trying to deliver a baby or something like that. Oh, well, I got the fish! The three of us all got our limit of halibut (2). Jesse had no trouble with them - he limited right off the bat.

On to Silver Salmon (aka "Silvers"). They were more elusive to everyone (except Duane - and yes, I am bitter), but WOW, were they fun to catch (and I could actually manage the weight of my rod, although still heavy). I only caught one, but he was a big one and had the most fight in him of any. He ran, jumped out of the water, tried to go around the boat, ran some more, jumped some more until I finally conquered him. Yeah!!! It was a thrill! Duane limited out on those right away (3 is the limit) and Jesse only got two.

The last thing we fished for were rock fish (some kind of bass). They were just plain fun. Put your line down to about the bottom of the ocean, play around with your line a minute or two (jig) and shazam, you have a fish. They put up a nice fight and are simply fun. Jesse and I limited out on them right away (4), but Duane only got 3 (poor Duane). Fun fish to catch.

With our group of 12 people, we came home with 44 rock fish, 28 halibut and 25 silvers. The average weight of the rock fish was about 5 pounds each, all the halibut were between 15-25 pounds and the silvers were between 7 and 20 with most being 20. Wow - what a day of fishing.
Duane, Jesse and I ended up with 65 pounds of fillets.

So, we're done fishing and on the 2-hour ride back to the harbor. My lower stomach hurt so bad! Not kidding - it hurt! I'm sitting there thinking what could be wrong. Well, maybe I had to go to the bathroom. No, didn't think so - besides, we had a bathroom right on the boat. Maybe it was gas. I hope for the sake of the boat, that's not it. If it is and I can't control it, this boat is going down with all of us on it. I can't be having a baby! I didn't just have surgery! I could not figure it out. I had to stand up some of the time my stomach hurt so bad. We get back to the harbor and I finally figured it out - it's from pulling on those darn halibut with the gear that weighed a ton. Yup, that was it - my muscles were so sore from fishing I thought I was having a baby! The guys got a bite to eat - I couldn't eat a thing my stomach hurt so bad. But, I caught fish!

We left Seward about 8:30 p.m. and I warned the guys there would be crazy things going on in the back seat. I had to get some of those clothes off! You know me - I'm always cold, so I wasn't taking any chances. I had on 3 shirts (one was body armor), 3 jackets, my hunting boots, women's linen long underwear and my bluejeans. Whew! What a relief to get some of that off (while driving in the car), but I was completely comfortable while fishing on the ocean. It was a great day. All of us were just ecstatic and thrilled about the whole day. We got back "home" about 10:30 p.m.

So, I slept in this morning until 8:30 a.m. I am getting very concerned about my sleeping habits and the transition to home. Let's put this in perspective - this morning I got out of bed the same time as Shonden (my coworker) is going to lunch. Yikes! Today we're helping Jesse with prepacking for his transition to Chicago. It looks like he'll be moving around July 16 or so. It will be nice to have him closer, but we also are very thankful for the experiences he has had here and that we could get a taste of it.

Sorry for the long blog - I get a little carried away sometimes. Thanks for checking. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Gayle - BOTB