Deck-hand Jeff on how not to reel in a fish

This last weekend was the Honniball annual salmon-fishing excursion, upon the Butchie B. If you’ve never tried ocean fishing, the steps are pretty basic. First you get up at 4 am to get dressed up (dress for Alaska in the winter), caffeinated, fed, doped up with dramamine, bonine, or anything you can to help with sea sickness, and to the boat by 5:30 am. You pick a rod and stake your claim on a rod-holder along the boat’s railing. Then there is a 2 hour ride out to the fishing grounds. You bait up and wait. If you are lucky, the boat won’t rock that much. But don’t count on luck. Better to eat a light breakfast (yogurt) and lose it early in the day, than to feel nauseous all day. When a salmon bites, the rod jerks down and you have to carefully give it some line and then follow the fish around the boat over and under everyone else’s rods, slowly reeling it in. If you are like some people, you do what ever you can to get leverage against the boat to keep from being pulled overboard by the fish. This of course, I learned from observation as I didn’t get a single bite all day. But that’s okay. Jim and Beth both did, so we got our fish. More photos…

Jim and Beth

Jeff doing the dirty work of gutting the fish

Yummmmm

13 salmon caught, 27 people fishing