Combat fishing and preparing for the final push
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2008
1
4
7
Trip End
Jul 05, 2008
Homer,
Alaska,
United States
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Today, we drove from Seward to Homer, which was a beautiful 3 hour drive. We had heard that about an hour into the drive near Cooper's Landing we should stop to observe and possibly do a little combat fishing. Of course we had to stop. Apparently the Kenai River is the most popular place to catch Red Salmon and right now is the height of the spawn. So along this river, men, women and children line up about 15-20 feet apart and fish--long lines of people casting and reeling in. It was mostly men, and most had waders on and were standing in the swift moving river. It was a pretty funny sight. Scott half wanted to jump right in and half scorned the whole operation. As we drove further we got away from the rugged mountain peaks we had grown used to and got in much flatter country. Then we came upon the ocean on the right--more a really wide bay because there were huge snow-covered peaks on the other side.
Combat fishing in Cooper's Landing
In Homer we found the cabin we're renting. It's a little old one-bedroom affair with a terrific view of the rugged mountains across the bay. We went down to the Homer spit which is a strip of land in the bay just a bit wider than a two lane highway and about 2 miles long. On either side of the spit, except where there were wall to wall RVs, it looks like Gatlinburg, TN, full of tourist-type businesses. We checked in to get the final details with the bear guide service we're going with tomorrow. We will be taking a float plane across those rugged snow-capped mountains about 1 ½ hours away. Then Scott talked me into scheduling a halibut fishing trip for Thursday. I guess we're going to squeeze every bit of fun out of this trip. By then it was dinner time so we stopped at a place that said Mexican and pizza! It was ok--you just have to figure anyone who spreads themselves that far over the ethnic food scale can't do really well on either one and that's true. It's been a beautiful day today. It was about 68 degrees inland and the temp dropped about 15 degrees to about 53 degrees on Homer Spit -- they said because the wind coming off the glaciers on the other side of Kachemak bay. The swelling is down on my face and now I'm just red.
