Fourth of July Weekend

Fishing - I woke up on the Fourth at 3 am and was exhausted plus it was drizzly so we had cancelled our picnic and fishing at Point Louisa. Then at about 11, I decided I did want to go fishing so we drove to Amalga harbor to catch this 31 inch chum. As you can see it's not a perfectly silver, but it'll do for curries - which is really all Mr. X wants anyway. We'd not taken the net so it was a little bit of a challenge landing the fish but we finally cornered the fish in shallower water and Mr. X flipped the fish onto the rocky shore. Not bad for 20 minutes of fishing.

On the way home my brother called and after dropping Mr. X off, I drove downtown to pick up our guest for the weekend.

At four we had Mr. X's brother-in-law join us for an indoor picnic. And then we braved the weather for a campfire on Point Louisa. We had intermittent rain, but lucked out and had a pod of four to six Orca whales swim by followed by a raft of eight to ten sea lions. The chums and reds are in and we also learned that we also have had a sizeable herring return to Auke bay (the herring fishery closed here in 1982); lots of good food for whales and sea lions and bears.

John enjoyed the s'mores - even though graham crackers never made it on my list, in the cart or to the park. 

Dan Moller Ridgeline - Saturday John suggested we hike on the ridgeline above the Dan Moller cabin. We'd been up there with John a couple years ago in winter and he wanted to see what it looked like in summer.

We got a nice view of Oliver Inlet and Seymour Canal. We might have to try that portage sometime in our rafts.

We scrambled our way up the hillside, I switched from rubber boots to my hiking shoes halfway up - when it got too steep for boots to be sensible.

We looked around the this ridge over to Eaglecrest ski area. It'd be fun to hike down that way some time.

Toward the Juneau Ice Field

Admiralty Island

Sunday morning Mr. X wanted to walk at Eagle Beach. We'd heard that there lots of fish and crab around, but we didn't see too much activity - except for fishing boats. We also spotted a bald eagle sitting in the water. I thought he might be in trouble, but it turned out he was just taking his Sunday bath.

July 4th

On Sunday, the third we wandered over to Point Louisa for just a little walk. While we inspected some tidepools, two young brothers hiked by, set down their tackle and cast into the water. On the second or third cast, the six year old reeled in a big one.

Mr. X looked at me. I looked at Mr. X and said together, "We can do that".

On the Fourth we packed up some snacks, reading material and Mr. X's tackle. On Mr. X's third cast he caught a salmon. He was fishing from an awkward rock, though, so before I could get to him, the fish jerked it's way off the line.

With the surf pounding in, we relocated to a less steep approach. Again, Mr. X caught a salmon. Before I had a chance to open my book or enjoy those snacks, Mr. X was beating a line for the car.

We had a tasty fish fry for our Fouth of July dinner. In fact, we had fish all week because we realized we'd caught a Chum - which are fabulous for cavier but less great frozen. Pan fried, curried, tacos all week. Yum.

Fishing and Whale Watching

dropping the crab pots

Looking for Sea Lions

Friday morning we loaded up the rental car and headed for the dock to go fishing. At the last minute Mom whispered that we had to stop at the Glacier, because they'd been in town three days already and hadn't been there yet.

After a quick stop we headed out the road to Amalga Harbor to meet E. We hopped in his boat to try our hands at halibut and rock fish. The fishing was slow (it was a little early in the season), but the whale watching was spectacular.

Mendenhall Glacier from Favorite Channel




Check out the sore spot on this sea lion's neck. He had a nylon net there last year. T reported it along with his tag number and this year the net is gone.

Fishing

Double Ugly

Monday morning we had a date with a friend to go fishing. E has a really fantastic little boat and he's never shy about sharing it with landlubbers like us. We took off from Amalga Harbor - out the road near the Windfall Lakes Trail.

The weather was pretty iffy. Fog kept rolling in bringing wind and rain. We'd find ourselves in some rather bumpy water. A few times while Mr. X was bringing in the anchor, I thought for sure he was going overboard. Then that cloud would pass and the water would be smooth as glass.

Mr. X caught a rock fish, a halibut and a double ugly. E caught a couple halibut, a double ugly and lots and lots of tom cod which he threw back. I was in the boat, but without a license, I was eating twizzlers and listening to the Coast Guard channel on the radio. Listening for the rescue out in Icy Straits.

At the end of the day the guys tried snagging chum at the hatchery stream but had no luck there. One man was leaving the spawned out fish for the birds. A tender was working the bay collecting the fish for the hatchery. Mr. X said it was smaller than the one he was on in Kodiak.

E taught Mr. X how to clean the halibut and then gave us his catch. I'd say we have four months worth of fish in the freezer right now. Not bad for a fun morning on the water.

Wildlife: eagles, seagulls, ravens, murrelets, sea lions, seals, humpback whales