Day 3 was unarguably the best day of the three (though my oldest brother will argue anything). We were on the four Aces with Capt. Drake and 1st Mate Dave. We pull up and pay for the day parking ($10) have to drive down the last ramp to the docks and as you pull back to the docks the view just opens up to a harbor surrounded by mountains like a post card. We get on the boat and meet our Capt. and 1st Mate. Both great guys and fishermen to boot!
I'd be happy to never pull up another dogfish, cod, arrow head flounder, or skate (one was over 150lbs) @ 350 feet of water ever again. We were targeting the halibuts again but this time in much deeper water surprisingly right next to shore. In Ninilchik we were only in 250, and 150. Using from 2lb to 5lb weights with cut herring on huge circle hooks, I don't remember if I explained the regulations before. You can keep one over 28 inches and one under 28 inches. Under's today were hard to get, and we spent most of our 10hr charter looking for the buts. I got one over 1st it was maybe 38" and one under at 26" but boat only limited out on over's and none were like BARNDOOR I caught in Ninilchik with Capt. Sam. Of course the last over was the toughest to get.
We spent easily 8hrs pulling up fish left and right (mostly dogfish, cod, arrow head flounder, or skate) and had some old timers with us that needed assistance reeling/fighting half the time on top of all the "catching" we were doing. This poor old guy from PA, caught the biggest and possibly most of all the non-eating species species mentioned above. He was fighting all kinds of fish but couldn't keep any for a while. Throughout those 8 reeling hours, it was hands down the best nature experience I've ever had up to this point in my life.
Picture fishing in the ocean surrounded by close beautiful snow capped mountains. Glacial waterfalls everywhere flowing down through the tree lines eroding the land making deep trenches flowing with icy cold clean water. Water will always fine a way. After a short just under an hr ride to the fishing grounds, we get set and see a strip of green evergreen trees from one side of the mountain to the other just vanish in to dust. We're fishing and start getting some fish on and I look up and see a huge plume of dust in the air where tree just were and we missed the land slide a whole section of trees from the tree line to the ocean just gone within seconds. After a short time there we could see a group of humpbacks bubble feeding about a 1000yrds away with seagulls and other birds dive bombing bait a the surface around the sights of white water on the horizon from whale ports. We could see full whale breaching over the next few hours as they came right within 75 yards away and passed us only to turn back around and do it all over back out into the ocean. These sights definitely made the 350' 5lb weight, bait checks a feel a little less like work lol. I have some videos of the whales I'll post an Imgur link of. is that the best way?
So we had about 2 hrs left of the charter and we head the the rock fish spot and I don' think the Capt thought we'd limit out that fast but man next thing you know we had 24 fish in the boat. These fish were hitting the weight, skirt, hook, and fish. Once we got them to the surface they would hit on the surface and chase each other around. we pulled up one out of season lin cod (thrown back). We were given the option to go back and halibut fish ( we already had 150 lbs of halibut or head in a bit early and sight see. The old timers were spent and I surly didn't wan to reel in another cod or big skate. So Capt Drake went to see some sea lions in the rookery and soon after the 1st mate Dave went to work filleting all the boats fish while at sea on the way in. Dave was the man and made quick work of filleting that fish to have ready for us when we got in after a 10hr day and 2 +hr drive back home...
"If the fish had not opened its mouth, it would not have been caught."
MLB
