Friday, July 4, 2014

Fishing in Alaska

For the past few years, Eric and his family have gone fishing in Alaska every summer at the lodge that Nancy does paperwork for in the winter.  I will admit to some jealousy, so it's a good thing I finally got to go along.  

Sportsman cove lodge is in an absolutely beautiful place on Prince of Wales Island.  the lodge itself is an old saltery.

It's a pretty intense trip, so the first night was the only time we really had any energy to explore.  Eric and I hiked above the lodge to a little lookout point.  Beautiful and wet.



Sunset was beautiful.  Little did we know tho was the best weather we were going to get. 


 Day 1 of fishing
Excited

 Not our boat obviously, but basically the same thing

My first catch was less than impressive.

It was a little wet and miserable, but we had the gear.

Eric caught the first halibut

What was most fun was 'fishing' for eagles.  Fish that blew their bladders so couldn't be released, but too small to keep make great eagle bait.

That night we went on a little tour up a neighboring fjord.  


The cool part, other than the stunning beauty, was how many bears were out.  It was just before the salmon run, so they were hungry and wandering the shores looking for anything to eat.  Now, long distance photography on a boat makes for blurry photos, but these are the best I've got.





 Day 2
On the second day we had a little better luck fishing.  We caught salmon and halibut as well as rockfish.

And lots of eagles!






These cuties stank.

More eagles



It was a really lovely trip.  I love the Pacific North West!

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