The Meanest Fish in the Ocean

After weeks of overcast skies and a buttload of rain, we had forgotten what a real summer could be like. Then, last week, we awoke to a beautiful cloudless blue sky and it seems to have stuck- this week we have had AMAZING weather. Luckily for both of us, Matt and I have had a few more days off recently so we have had the chance to capitalize on it- and by capitalize I mean spending every day out on the breakwater or the docks fishing and drinking beer. We've done a lot of fishing on the breakwater, which is the jetty that protects the harbor.

Matt casting out at the breakwater

View of the city from our fishing spot. The green roof next to the pink building is the Lumberjack Show!

A very happy pup going out to sea

          We've met a few hilarious locals down at the breakwater, particularly Billy and AJ. Billy claims to be a boat salesman but we're pretty sure he's homeless. AJ is a proud Tlingit Native. He slurred a few words at us and when we stared at him blankly, he said "Oh sorry, I forgot you guys couldn't understand me, because I was speaking Tlingit- fluently." Pictures of these characters will hopefully be coming soon. We also met a super nice guy our age who makes a a hundred thousand dollars each year working on a fishing seiner in the Bering Sea in the winter- not exactly a glamorous gig, but he gets to do whatever he wants in the summer. I've already looked into applying but they're not looking for chicks for some reason.

           Kevin and one of his crewmates, Casey also discovered a new fishing spot on a low dock beneath the cruise ship berths. We went there one night when the weather was fabulous and watched the sunset while fishing. We didn't catch anything for keeps but observed and pulled up a lot of weird looking critters.

A jelly!

A sea cucumber! Check out the tubercles on that one!

A sunflower sea star, as identified by our resident naturalist Casey

         Our most exciting fishing excursion to date was Herring Cove. Over the past few months we've heard a lot about this mythical Herring Cove- the salmon jump like crazy and you can watch the bears fish. The only problem- it's about ten miles south of town and none of us had a car. Luckily for us, on a day we all had off, Captain Steve offered us a ride. His words: "Sure, I'll give you a ride there, but don't call me for the ride back." So off we were dropped, and sure enough it was awesome!

Fishing at Herring Cove

         When it came to finding a ride home, we were a little skeptical that hitch-hiking would get us far when there was four of us loaded up with fishing gear sticking our thumbs out on the side of the road, but within five minutes we had a ride from a nice older woman who was visiting from Anchorage.

To fit in her car, Casey had to wear the net over his head

        I bet a question you're all wondering is: how many fish have you caught, if you've been doing all that fishing? Unfortunately, none. We almost caught one - the one that flopped away, as Matt and I wistfully call it. It was one of the first few days we had gone fishing and Matt excitedly reeled in this huge silver salmon that looked like it had been through a few battles. Unfortunately, we had not gotten a net at this point so we had a bit of a challenge trying to pull it up on the rocks. Matt thought that it was wedged pretty securely among the rocks and was figuring out a method to kill it when it snapped the line and flopped into the water with his hook and six dollar lure in its belly. Definitely the baddest, meanest fish in the ocean- and judging from his scars we weren't the first ones to catch and lose him. Matt was a little frustrated that his first big catch didn't quite land.

      Although we haven't caught anything yet, we've been having a fabulous time- probably our best week in Ketchikan so far. We're going to keep enjoying our beautiful days and gorgeous nights- more soon :)


Love,

Bridget and Matt