Day 4 – Halibut Day in Homer

Bill, Jeanne, Steve and Megan

Bill was kind enough to take us four amateurs out on his boat for a day of Halibut fishing on the bay.  This isn’t as easy as you might think. In fact, it is a pretty strenuous activity. We went about 18 nautical miles into Kechamac Bay, not far from where it joins the Gulf of Alaska.  Fortunately for us the weather cooperated as we had no rain and calm winds so the seas weren’t too rough.  You fish about 100 feet down to the bottom using cut-up herring as bait.  There is a limit of two fish per person and believe it or not, Jeanne caught the first two halibut within minutes of when we started.  The average fish we caught was about 10 lbs but they can also easily be up to 40 lbs or more.  It takes quite a bit of effort to reel in a fish that big and I can’t even imagine what effort would be required to land a 40 lb one!

Our Catch

The fishing was quite good and it really helps to have someone guiding you who knows how to fish.  We frequently had multiple fish on the lines at the same time.  After a few nice keepers, we got more selective and finished the day with 10 nicely sized ones, which Steve had cleaned and shipped back to NYC.  We are going to split the catch.  If you aren't familiar with halibut, the ones we were catching were about 2 1/2 feet long and about a foot wide.  They are a very flat fish with dark on one side and white on the other.

Another interesting aspect is that they tag some fish in Homer and there are prizes given out if you catch a tagged fish.  You buy a lottery ticket good for that day, which we did but unfortunately we caught no tagged fish.  Too bad, I could have used that 50 grand first prize.

After we finished fishing and said our goodbyes, we drove 4 hours back to Anchorage and everyone immediately just collapsed into bed.