The first thing the fishing guide asked everyone was if any of us had brought any bananas with us. I'd never heard of this before and had to look it up on the Internet.
According to Snopes.com, “While the superstitions involving fishermen and their boats are almost too numerous to mention, one particular entry in that category appears to attach almost solely to those who engage in sport (rather than commercial) fishing.
Bananas are deemed unlucky by recreational fishermen and those catering to that trade. Usually this rumor takes the form of the fish not biting on the day when bananas were discovered onboard, but mechanical breakdowns and other mishaps are also pointed to.”
We left Seward and went south out of Resurrection Bay out into the Gulf of Alaska about 2 hours out to first go halibut fishing. The water was about 100-feet deep at the fishing spot and we used 3-lb weights on our line to get the baited hook down to the bottom where the halibut were. We also fished several different other spots on the way back for halibut and silver salmon.
Counting all of us, there were 10 people on our charter and everyone caught their limit of halibut (2 each), silver salmon (3 each) and bonus of a rock fish and 8-10 grey cod.
It was about a 12-hour boat ride plus an hour or so of photo taking and fish cleaning once we got back. On the way back we saw a pod of humpback whales “bubble feeding”, but more on that later. Afterwards, the four of us went to the fish house here at the Seward Resort where we took the skin off the halibut, cut all the fish into nice size filets and vacuum-packed it all -- our freezers are full.
Julie caught the biggest halibut, estimated at over 55-pounds, plus another halibut, 3 salmon and a rockfish. Lisa caught 2 halibut, 3 salmon and 4 cod. Vince and Steve each caught 2 halibut and 3 salmon.
Saturday we went on a full-day Kenai Fjords National Park
Northwestern Glacier cruise with Major Marine Tours. About an hour out of
Seward, we stopped to watch a pod of 12-18 humpback whales “bubble feeding”. It
was the most amazing thing we had ever seen in our entire lives, no kidding.
When we visited Seward four years ago, we saw two humpback whales work together
to “bubble feed”. This time there was a whole team of 12-18 whales working
together.
According to the tour booklet, “It’s a very unusual way
for humpback whales to catch their food. The make nets to catch the fish called
“bubble nets” with the air they release from their blow holes. The whales dive
deep, and then swim up in a spiral pattern, all the while releasing a steady
stream of bubbles. As the bubbles rise, they form a “bubble net” which traps
their fish or plankton that the whales are pursuing. Then the whales swim up
through the center of the bubble cage with their jaws open and capture a gulp
of food.”
You can see the humpback whales in a circle with their
jaws open in the below photos.
On Sunday, July 12th, we moved from the Stewart Army Resort to the Stewart municipal campground overlooking Resurrection Bay. It’s only $30/night with water and electric and we have a fantastic view out the front window. We had to move because the Resort didn’t have open sites on Monday night when Vince and I are going on another fishing charter.
Steve & Julie Cornelius
That Army resort is world class, we very much enjoyed the week we spent there in our RV's in 2008. Conversely there was an Air Force facility adjacent to the Army center that was an embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Julie! That's a monster.
ReplyDelete