Day 32 – Halibut Fishing in Homer

We woke up to an overcast day but the excitement for the day’s activity was high. Today was our halibut fishing in Homer day!

We met our boat down at the docks. The trip we signed up for was as half day trip – so about 4-5 hours. The boat was how I pictured it would be: a small to mid-sized boat with about 15-20 passengers, two deck hands and the captain.

We set out to the fishing spot, about an hour from shore. The seas weren’t too bad and although it was still overcast. But, at least it wasn’t too cold or rainy.

Once we made it to the fishing spot, we were given instructions and fishing poles. The deckhands baited our hooks and we dropped the lines in the water. The bait was a combination of heads and bodies of a couple types of hand-sized fish. The poles were long and had chunky three pound weights.

As we dropped our lines in the water, we had to keep a finger on the reel so we would know when it hit the bottom of the ocean. Once we felt the “clunk”, we turned the reel a couple times and waited for a bite. Many bites happened within five minutes. As the current started to pick up and the waves got bigger, it was sometimes hard to tell a bite from just the water pulling on the line, but in no time at all, we each had caught our first fish!

We were allowed two halibut: one had to be under 28 inches, and one could be any size. Mike caught his first fish and the next couple he threw back, waiting to get a bigger one. Braxton quickly caught his two halibut. I caught one, then was taunted by some bait thieves for awhile, but eventually reeled in my second halibut.

The captain had to reposition the boat as we had drifted five miles from our original spot. The waves were picking up. Braxton and I were very glad we had motion sick patches, you know, the kind that stick on behind the ear. Mike and many of the other passengers were turning green and traded there fishing poles for the boat side rail. Mike had hooked a big fish and Braxton was nice enough to reel it in so Mike could focus on, well, anything other than moving.

There were a couple people who felt sick the minute we got into open ocean, some only once the waves started picking up. Some gave up on fishing when they turned green, others powered through. Speaking as someone who has been very seasick before, I felt for them. The rocking was so bad the bait crate was sloshing back and forth across the deck. That alone would be enough to make some people sick.

Once everyone had caught their allowance of halibut, the captain turned the boat around and we headed back to land. I was lucky enough to have front row seat to the two deck hands filleting all of the fish. I was very impressed with the speed and precision they had even though the boat was being tossed around. They are truly skilled at what they do.

On the topic of the deck hands, they were fantastic. Zoe and James took great care of us and the captain also was on deck helping while everyone was fishing. They made it a great time.

After all the filleting was done, they cleaned the deck. Like – industrial cleaned it. No one would ever know that just moments before, it was covered by fish guts and blood.

By the time we arrived back at the docks, many of the people were feeling a lot better. Mike’s color was back to normal and he was smiling again.

There was a company at the dock that would take your fish and process it for you, if that’s what you wanted to do. They can package it in whatever size package you want, freeze it, and ship it or you can pick it up later the same day. We had then package it, picked some up to have for dinner and had them freeze and ship the rest.

After getting back to the Airstream to change and shower, we gathered all the fish covered clothes and went back to Washboard, the laundromat we had been to yesterday.

I made some brownies for dessert, but the real treat was the freshly caught halibut. It was delicious!

Braxton and I put this halibut fishing trip at the top of our list of favorite things. It was a bunch of fun and we would totally do it again – but only with the motion sick patch!