We made it to the Kenai Peninsula on a Sunday afternoon after passing car after car driving in the opposite direction towards Anchorage! This was a shock to us after spending two weeks in remote areas in Alaska! The Kenai Peninsula is famous for fishing for King Salmon, Halibut, and Silver and Red Salmon. This was their busiest week of the summer! The fishermen were lined up on both sides of the river. We continued down the highway to the fishing town of Ninilchik (named by Russian fishermen), which is about 50 miles north of Homer. Jim and I spent the next day fishing for King Salmon on the Kasilof River. Jim was determined to catch himself a King! This time, we did what is called flat trolling (floating down the river, your line drifts ahead of the boat and the guide slows the boat by oaring upstream ). Interesting concept, but not enough action for me! You basically sit in the boat, watched your line until a strike and then reel the fish in. After 7 hours on the river, Jim was the only one out of 4 that caught a fish! We celebrated with a Salmon dinner with roasted veggies, salad, bread and the most beautiful Sunset (sun doesn't set until approx. 11:30) looking out the mountain range!
The next day Jim went fishing for Halibut on a boat out of Ninilchik. The Morgans and I headed to Homer, the " Halibut Capital of Alaska!", where we took a water taxi to the state park on Kachemak Bay with the Morgans. We left the Homer Spit (a 4.3 mile long, narrow bar of gravel) for an 18 min. taxi ride across the bay to the park. We spent a lovely day hiking the Glacier Lake trail and the Ridge trail to another bay where the taxi picked us up at the end of the day. Glacier Lake was beautifully with the backdrop of a Glacier dropping into the water depositing iceburgs. The only sounds that we heard were the seagulls squawking and the iceburgs cracking with pieces splashing into the ice cold water. Along the hike, we saw definite proof of "Do Bears Shit In the Woods?" Well, if you need an answer to that question...we have a digital picture to prove they do!!!! We were obviously following the bears preferred route to berries, grubs, fish, bark, etc. were happy to reach our destination withour a bear encounter this time!
Jim had a very successful time fishing for Halibut! After an hour high speed boat ride they arrived at the fishing spot just in time to watch two pods of Orcas feeding on Salmon. He was the first one to catch his limit of 2 fish... one 50lbs. and another 25lbs. Dinner last night was delicious with smoked salmon on crackers, fresh halibut cheeks sauted in butter, garlic , onions and spices, grilled fresh halibut, orzo with pesto and tomatoes, and sauted snap peas!
We now have 45 lbs. of halibut and salmon being shipped to Kelly's house! Thank goodness she has a freezer! We'll be cooking up Alaskan Halibut and King Salmon for the next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment