On the way back to Ninilchik we saw this sign. Driving can be dangerous around here. I don't think they have updated the sign since last July 1st but 252 moose deaths in this stretch of road is a lot.
Last night after dinner we went fishing on the Ninilchik river. I had a blast catching and releasing trout on dry flies. Abby was fishing also but got moved out of her fishing spot by a cow moose and her calf. That got us to thinking. Does bear spray work on a moose? Do you identify yourself to a moose as a "human" like you are supposed to do with bears?
We left the campground this morning at 7 A.M. to go halibut fishing in the Cook Inlet. Eight of us boarded a pick-up truck with what would be best described as a "police paddy wagon" mounted on the back. I saw something very similar in Mexico 40 years ago but that is another story.
The Captain, "Buoy bottom Bob", introduced himself and gave us the safety briefing. Bob is a very personable guy and was fun to work with at sea but he does look like a Coast Guard sea buoy.
We drove down to the launch point at Deep Creek a couple of miles away towing the boat behind us. The truck is unhooked and the launching company hooks up a extremely rusted John Deer tractor and pushes us into the ocean. We motor out about 20 miles to the fishing grounds and anchor in 185 feet of water. The wind was light but the swells were such that we had to slow down and still got the crap beat out of us.
I caught the first fish of the day and immediately threw it back as I did the next 6 fish for being too small. Too small means less than 20 lbs. Abby did the same. Between us we caught over 20 halibut and cod in 3 hours. The cod is out of season so they were saved for bait.
Everybody caught their limit (can only keep 2 halibut). Luckily for me I caught the biggest and had bragging rights. Abby was impressive with her stamina. Captain BBB asked her after 2 hours if she wanted to stop fishing and she replied, "why? There has to be bigger fish out here". She was right.
We had 2 Army guys on board. Last night they attempted to drive from Anchorage to Ninilchik but had to camp beside the road due to 2 fatality auto accidents. Unfortunately a total of 4 people died last night on the highway.
The two Army guys apparently held their own party in their tent and paid the price today at sea. They were chumming for fish after about an hour on the water. Interesting guys. They fly UAV's on the battlefront when their units are in combat.
We also had 4 "Aussie farmers" on board. Thought we had "Crocodile Dundee's on board listening to their stories. Fortunately no one was named "Mick".
It rained while we were fishing but not too badly. Just enough to get wet.
We hit the beach at noon and got towed back to the campground. Below are some of today's pictures. Too busy catching fish to take pictures on the boat plus Abby's camera is toast after her session in the Kenai River.
A couple of pictures from 5 years ago show the "paddy wagon and the rusty tractors.
This halibut reflects how I have felt sometimes after a night of partying. Check out the eyes and the mouth. Both of us are sporting very tired arms from cranking 5 lb weights with 20 lb fish attached from 185 feet of water over 10 times each. It is even hard to lift a glass of wine but we are managing!
Tomorrow looks like a bust as we are having continuous rain which is supposed to continue through Monday.
