Alaska Man Monday - Salmon, Halibut and Homer

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This week, we have something a little different for you. Last week, just in case you dear readers didn’t notice my absence, my wife, our oldest daughter, and her husband spent some time down in the Kenai Peninsula. The five-plus hour (more like 7 when you factor in stops for drinks, snacks, and "necessary") drive down was dreary and rainy most of the way, but it was a pretty drive nonetheless. We arrived in Homer about suppertime, checked into our lodgings, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed excited about the day to come.

Here's how those two days, so typically Alaskan vacation days, went.

Day One

The first day was spent out after king salmon. We took a chartered boat out of Homer. The fishing started slow, with only a few small rockfish and other odds and ends brought to the boat. Our son-in-law caught a Dolly Varden trout, which I had never seen before in salt water, but no salmon until about noon, when on a hunch, the captain of the charter boat took us to a new area. Our daughter caught a king running about 28 inches long, and I caught one between 29 and 30 inches.

It was a gorgeous day – sunny, with a pretty strong breeze on the water, high temps in the 60s. In addition to some great fishing, we spent some time watching a pod of orcas, which may have been after the same salmon we were.

King salmon are interesting critters. Many people know them as Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and they can be quite sizable. They are found in the North Pacific, along North America’s west coast, from Alaska to California, as well as in Asia, specifically in Kamchatka and Hokkaido, with introduced populations in places like Lake Michigan. They are one of the biggest of all the salmonids, with an average weight of over 30 pounds for mature specimens. The population in Alaska’s Kenai River is the largest, with the world record coming from that river – a 97-pound monster from the Kenai.

We expect some good eating out of our specimens.

Day Two

On the second day, we went out after halibut. This was a long-range trip, around the bottom end of the peninsula and into the Gulf of Alaska – but the seas were rough and the fishing difficult. We did see a humpback whale smacking the water with a flipper, and a few sea otters bringing their catch to the surface and using their tummies as a dining table. But we didn’t get into the halibut until we retreated into more sheltered waters, at which point everyone on the boat managed to limit out on middling-sized fish.

Our family came away with two good-sized king salmon, eight halibut, and a dozen or so rockfish. Not a bad two-day haul. I came away sore; the Midwestern rural kid in me still has a hard time dealing with a small craft in rough water, and I found myself being slammed repeatedly into the railings. A couple of the folks on the boat spent some time hanging over the rail. Still, it was worth it. No trophy halibut on this outing, just lots of good eating.

In addition to fish, whales, and otters, we saw a variety of birds, including the gulls that followed the boat in a cloud, eagles soaring at an arrogant height above the waves, puffins, murrelets, and more that we only glimpsed.

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We ended up bringing back about 75 pounds of filleted halibut, salmon, and rockfish, all of which is great eating.

Alaska is rightly famous for its fishing, hunting, and outdoor sports in general. Most folks know that (people living in the Great Land certainly do), but if there was ever any doubt, these two days would have cured that misapprehension.

Interested in seeing some of this for yourself? Watch:

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