Trip of a Lifetime!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Weather: rain clouds, low 60's

It's a trip that most only dream about in their lifetime, Fishing in Alaska! My family and I had the opportunity to do this while vacationing in this beautiful state. Ketchikan, Alaska was the location, and Salmon were our target! The Kings were running and the Silvers and Pinks were also in full swing. We chartered two private boats with 6 of us in each. On our boat was me, Cari, my mom and dad, and also my sister and her boyfriend Mike. The picture above was of our boat. On the other boat was my Grandpa and Grandma Houtz, Uncle Dick and Aunt Bonnie, and Uncle Alan and Aunt Sherri. We took a cab about ten miles to the outskirts of Ketchikan to a small marina where we departed towards the ocean blue. The great thing about this location is that we started fishing literally 100 yards from the marina. We trolled with spoons and dead herring. We had four poles out on downriggers from each boat and they were all staggered at different depths. It wasn't more than 5 minutes into fishing that our boat started landing fish! I caught the first one and finally found out what its like to reel in a true ocean Silver Salmon! Then before our guide could even get all our poles back in the water we had another one on and this time it was my dads turn. He also braught in a Silver. Then again before all our poles were out we had another fish on the line. This was some fast action, and Mike brought in his own Silver Salmon! Our guide was

getting flustered and even admitted that the action was not usually this fast. Meanwhile the other boat was yet to catch a fish! Finally we had a small lull in the action which gave our guide a little time to get all our poles in the water, but it didn't take long til Cari was tangling with one a salmon on the end of her line. She brought in the first King Salmon. She could barely hold the pole with this thing so she resorted to putting the pole between her legs! This was pretty funny to see, but she landed it and made me a proud fisherwomans husband! Mean while on the other boat they were bragging that grandma had brought in a 17 pound King Salmon. We pinned them as telling fishing stories, but soon found out that this was no lie and in fact she did land the biggest fish of the trip! Soon after on our boat my mom landed her first fish of the trip with with this Silver Salmon! Then after a lot of persuasion from all of us, Jess decided to get in on the action and caught a beautiful Pink Salmon.

The Rotation continued and we continued taking turns and catching lots of salmon. they were all in the range of 7 to 12 pounds and we had a blast! We figured we landed somewhere between 20 and 25 fish. The other boat only landed 5 fish total but had the biggest fish of the trip with the 17 pound King that grandma tangled with! It was a fun outing with the family and when we got back to the docks we all took pictures to show off all the fish that we caught!

The great fishing was not the only thing that made this trip a good one, the scenery was amazing and I can see why people can move to Ketchikan and fish the rest of there days forgetting that the rest of the world exists. This was a special trip with my family and I will never forget it!