Grandkids visit Kodiak

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Kodiak Wildlife

Puffins are a very interesting and colorful sea bird. Most often viewed on the ocean feeding on small needlefish, they can often be seen as in this photo, nestled among the cliffs and rocks close to the water. The Horned Puffin is a very common type of Puffin. I wish I could say I took this photo, but must give credit to someone else.

The Kodiak Brown Bear is a trademark of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Here on Kodiak, about 3000 of these magnificant animals exist. Mostly seen on the National Wildlife Refuge lands, but also on most outlying areas of Kodiak, especially around streams and rivers where the Salmon come in each year to spawn.

A day fishing with my son

It was Saturday morning July 22 2006. Our Son Jon had come to Kodiak with his two daughters Lily 5, and Lauren 3. They would be staying with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Alan for about three weeks. And so the Halibut fishing trip was on with a friend offering to take us out in his 24 foot aluminum skiff. We left the dock at St. Paul's boat harbor around 9 am, and headed to Cape Greville, over very calm conditions. The forecast was for two foot seas - virtually "flat calm" - on Chiniak and Marmot Bays. Yes!! this is my kind of fishing weather. As the hours we going by, and no Halibut, we decided to troll for King Salmon, which also didn't produce any fish. After trying a few places off Greville for Halibut and Salmon, Jim said, "let's reel in and go down by Ugak Island, off Narrow Cape". This was a spot that Jim had done good in the past. About 35 minutes later, we were dropping our anchor and our freshly thawed out Octopus bait I had been given from a commercial Halibut "Longliner" friend of mine.

We dropped our baited hooks in about 100 feet of water, thinking "okay, this is the place".....Well it didn't turn out to be the place, so we pulled our gear once again and cruised over toward the beach on the outside of Narrow Cape. You may have heard of Narrow Cape, as the place where the test missiles are launched. The shoreline actually looks quite deserted in this area, except for Burton's Ranch and Hotel, and then the Kodiak Launch Complex, with it's missile silo.

Once close to the kelp beds, and with a depth of 50 feet of water, we decided to try 'our luck' again. Time was running out on our day's fishing with no Halibut on board yet, when the fish started to hit. The first one was about a 25 pounder, and then the next three were about thirty-five pounds. Jim landed the biggest one at about 50 pounds. All together we had our limit and then headed back to Dog Bay.

We had good tide and conditions coming back to Kodiak, and made it to St. Paul's boat harbor in under an hour. It was a very good day on the water. The work of cleaning and processing the Halibut was just beginning. Jon was not disappointed on this day of Halibut fishing, and took quite a bit home with him that evening as he caught a later flight back to Anchorage.

Oh, and one more thing of interest. Octopus is some of the best bait there is for Halibut fishing. The reason being, it stays on the hook a long time. Can you believe I used the same baited hook the whole day to catch my Halibut!!

Catching and Processing Alaska Sockeye Salmon

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