Some days you just feel like you should have slept in and let someone else run your boat.
But then... there are those incredible days where everything goes just as planned. I call those the brochure days.
"Wow, this is just like the lodge writes it up in the brochure!" I will exclaim, as fish come pouring into the boat. "Well, except in their brochure they have sunny Sky's, blue ocean, and girls in bikinis. All I have today is you scroungy guys and rain!"
We all get a good laugh out of that one. I've found that it really doesn't matter what I say if the fish are hitting every hook put down.
Nearing mid season, the King Salmon are still found in abundance, Silver Salmon are showing up, Pink salmon are here. The North Pacific Ocean is in full bloom.
We take a moment in the day to watch a pod of four humpback whales bubble feed on a huge school of herring. It is a sight that never gets old.
I have a woman on board who is a good fisher person. She has been reeling in salmon after salmon working on her daily limit.
She catches her King for the day, then a nice silver, and of course several pinks.
We limit on our Kings and head to the halibut grounds. I drop the anchor and clean our salmon and bait their halibut hooks.
I always let the clients pick the place on the deck they would like to fish halibut from. There is usually one or two places on the boat that will out fish the other places, due to ocean currents and where the fish smell the bait and approach from.
When I have children or women on board I will usually cater to them and arrange for them to get one of the down current rod holders. I never mention it to the clients just bait a hook and then suggest they come and grab this pole.
Today I just let the men and women take any place they wanted.
I did warn the men that the women will always out fish them. Guiding has really opened my eyes on the difference between men and women. As a group, us men will always think we know the better way to do something. I will tell the men to let their lines to the bottom and then reel them up until there is no slack in the line, making the bait hang a foot or more off the bottom. I can stress it over and over, but as soon as I turn my back they will drop the line completely to the bottom like fishing for catfish back home. Many times I hear them whispering to each other, "Get it on the bottom. These fish are bottom feeders. He really doesn't know what he is talking about." What they don't know is that we fish very rocky bottom and almost immediately after laying a two pound weight on the bottom they are snagged tight. I just leave them snagged while the ones who listen catch fish around them.
Now, get women on board and tell them the same thing. They will drop their weights to the bottom then crank them up four or five cranks and then almost every time they will call me over to check and see if it is the right distance off the bottom.
Who do you think is going to catch the fish? I have hunted these bottom dwellers for fifteen years and tried every way known to us to catch them better, quicker, and easier. I fish them one hundred days a summer. Every day. I can tell you by the tap on the rod when the fish starts biting what species it is and if it is a halibut, can usually guess within a few pounds of how big it is going to be, just by watching the tap of the first bite!
So now Mr. Attorney or business man, or whoever that fishes maybe three times a year is trying to improve on my methods... good luck, my friend.
It is not long until the lady is hooked into a good fish.
"That bit like a Yelloweye Rockfish," I tell her as she reels it up.
Sure enough, it is a nice yellow eye.
I bate her hook and send it back to the bottom.
Another bite. This one just eases into the bite like a fish above the bottom hanging onto the hook.
"Give that a little time," I instruct her. "Now go ahead and reel it up a crank. Another crank..." The rod bends over and I cheer her to, "reel, reel, reel".
A nice keeper Ling Cod comes aboard.
"You probably don't realize this, but you are one fish away from and Alaska Grand Slam," I say to her as I re-bait her hook. "If you can get a Halibut you will have a grand slam with a bonus.
Many years ago we used to conduct the Pen International Pacific Tournament with the host Ronnie Kovach ( he passed away this past year due to cancer.), and the anglers got a 40 point bonus for the grand slam of a King, a Ling, a Yelloweye, and a Halibut.
We needed one more halibut for a daily limit. My lady was still needing to catch one to finish her grand slam.
Her rod dipped towards the ocean. "There you are, get it, get it, get it!" I shouted out the door of the boat. I had been catching up on my log book paper work.
I could tell instantly she had a halibut on her hook. I didn't' want to spoil the surprise so I just let her reel until I could gaff it on board.
We had a good time high fiving each other as her grand slam fish lay on the deck.
I did have to dig the guys a bit on the way home, reminding them that I had warned them that the woman would out fish them that day.
I was proud to lay out the grand slam, plus a silver salmon, for a nice photo shoot.
Well done, and I guess what they say was true this day.... Girls Rule!!
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