The Perfect Day

Have you ever had a PERFECT day? If so, consider yourself lucky. I have had one or two, and yesterday was one of them. Let me tell you about it…

It all started at the Alaskan Angler RV park in Ninilchik, where we picked up our boat for a halibut fishing trip. Clear blue skies, man, this is going to be great! On the boat are Bob, Mark H., Wallace, Bennett, Me, and a fellow name of Ralph who probably wonders how he got inserted into the looney boat!

  

We ride down to the beach, where a loader hooks up to the boat trailer and shoves us into the water. Easy launch!

Man, the water is smooth, and the scenery includes several active volcanoes. Just being out here is a treat!

  

We stop in relatively shallow water, about 175 feet deep, and fish for our “small” halibut. The regs say you are allowed 2 fish. One must be under 29 inches, the other one can be any size. We get some lines in the water, and within 20 minutes, we all have our small keeper.

  

Out we go, into deeper water, looking for the big fish. We are fishing in about 300’ of water, and we’re using a 5 pound weight and a leader that is about the size of clothesline. Big circle hooks baited with herring, down they go. We catch a few small sharks, and some cod, which are considered non-keepers, then the slack tide is here and we start to get some action. Several fair sized halibut come aboard, then Bob gets a big one on the line.

  

It’s like he’s winching up a sunken battleship or something. He finally lands this beautiful 90 pounder. Man, that’s a fine fish! Took 2 people to hold it up for the photo!

Meanwhile, we are all fishing hard… and let me tell you, winding up 300 feet of line with a 5 lb. weight at the end for a bait check will tire you out.Mark Hall lands a really nice 70 pounder, then it’s just me and Bennett still fishing. We both hook up at about the same time, and I bring in this sweet 50 pounder. Can you say “shit eating grin”?

The ride back is just the nicest scenic boat excursion you could ask for.

  

Soon we are back at the beach. There comes our trailer! Thanks to Molly for some of these great pix from onshore, by the way….

  

Back at the park, the catch is hung and pictures are taken. That is a wheelbarrow full of fish!

  

  

  

The captain and crew fillet our catch.

  

My fish is being bagged, vacuum sealed, and flash frozen. They have a professional processing plant right at the park! They also can ship fish back to the states, and if I catch some more, I’ll probably be doing exactly that, as my freezer is only so big.

  

But wait, there’s more! Our neighbors, who come here every year and fish with their own boat gave us a bunch of their fresh caught halibut! So, we were able to freeze all of ours and have a big halibut fry with their generous gift. They said they already have like 300 lbs in the freezer, so they like to give it away. What nice folks! We whip up some beer batter and fry up a mess of fish.

  

This group has a bunch of great cooks in it… for dinner we had halibut chunks, fried taters, coleslaw, sweet corn, hushpuppies, deviled eggs, and homemade tartar sauce with Jalapickle from Texas in it. The fish was perfect! Crispy outside and juicy inside. Top all that off with a rhubarb crumble made from fresh rhubarb that grew right here in the park. All under a perfect cloudless sky. Damn!

  

  

We be stuffed! I don’t think I have ever had better fish anywhere, anyhow.

Alas, even a perfect day has to end. I sure hope to live long enough to have another one like this someday.

Stay tuned for more fishing adventures from Ninilchik!