Yesterday we headed down to Seward with some friends to go fishing. We got up at 3:30 so we could be on the road by 4:30 so we could be in Seward by 7am. We decided that rather than going down after I got off work on Monday, we would just get up early and make the drive Tuesday morning. We probably would have gotten equal amounts of sleep either way, but would not have to pay for a hotel.
We arrived at the dock in Seward at 7, where we met John (JK, so he doesn't get confused with my John, JRW) and Beth and JKs sister and her boyfriend. We met Bryan on the dock (he is the person who got married at his cabin back in April) and off we went.
It was super foggy, but not very windy, and it was warm. I was most worried about spending the entire day on a boat because I tend to get seasick on small boats.
The ride out to the fishing spot was a little rough at times, and I had the hardest time when the fog was so low and dense that I had nothing to look at but water. It was disorienting and nauseating. I did use a scopolamine patch, which I think worked pretty well, as later on the ill feeling I had initially, went away.
Once we got to the fishing spot and stopped, I felt worse, but only for a little bit. Eventually I was fishing along with every one else. It didn't take us long to get the first couple of fish (we kept catching pinks though...no one wants those!). JRW caught several silvers, and I caught a couple of rockfish (they make tasty fish and chips!). I almost caught a king salmon, but the hook got dislodged from its mouth while we were trying to net it and it got away! It was a bummer, but I eventually got over it.
After we had our lunch and weren't catching much other than rockfish, we decided to change locations. We managed to find a sunny spot (the fog was still hanging around) with tons of fish.
Practically the moment that we put our lines in the water in our new spot, we started catching. JRW got on right away, but it managed to get away with his entire line. As in, it took all the line off the reel. So if anyone catches a fish, or sees one in a river with 100+ feet of fishing line, and a variety of hardware attached...that fish belongs to us! We also saw several whales breaching all around us, some quite close, and others far off.
I quickly caught my limit of silvers, and so did several of the other people who were with us. JRW caught another fish that got away with some more hardware, but it didn't take his whole line this time. At one point, we were losing more fish than we were catching. They were fiesty and made a break for it as soon as they got close to the boat!
Around 3:30 we decided to call it quits. We packed up our gear and headed towards Bryan's cabin to wait out the rough water that tends to develop in Resurrection Bay around 5. We cleaned our fish (well, JK cleaned our fish...thank you!!), visited, and ate some fresh fish for dinner.
After dinner, we loaded the boat back up and headed back to Seward.
It was a much rougher ride than the ride out. The wind had picked up and made things a little bumpy, but we made it back into Seward safely.
We ended up deciding that we were still hungry, so we stopped for some more dinner before hitting the road. We didn't leave Seward until about 10:30. John had to work today, so I drove home (so he could sleep if he wanted), but I was rather sleepy myself. We ended up pulling over about halfway home and taking a 15 minute power nap. I'm not sure it did much good, but I'm glad we stopped. We made it home shortly after midnight and went straight to bed.
It was an awesome day (although very long...I was awake for almost 21 hours), spent with awesome people! It's hard to beat a sunny day out on the water...especially if you are catching fish!
