Homer - Week II

Another week has slipped by in Homer.

I've been writing and writing and writing.... With a little fishing session thrown in for good measure.

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I won't prattle on about the fishing, most folks couldn't give a hoot.

The locals like to 'snag' or 'snatch' the king salmon by allowing the river current to sweep the fishing line across their mouths. Once they feel this resistance the rod is snatched in to the air, pulling the hook in to the outside of the salmon's mouth.

I'm more sporting than that, nor am I trying to fill my freezer with protein.

I'd rather catch them fare and square. I used a little lure fishing set up. A 7ft rod and little fixed spool reel loaded with 10lb test line and a large spinner. Everyone thought I was insane. The locals were loaded up with long heavy rods and reels loaded with 30lb monofilament.

Whilst the 'snaggers' caught plenty, I managed to land one of the fish of the day. Almost 25lb! This king salmon took me over 10 minutes of
running up and down the river to land. On returning the fish to the river I had to keep an eye on the eagles who are always keen to grab a recuperating salmon regardless of the size. Apparently the day before one eagle was seen 'surfing' a salmon down river! Talons were locked in to the silver scaled leviathan but he wasn't willing to succumb. Maybe it had a fear of flying.

Hmmm... How the hell to I get this home???

Gary celebrating another king salmon!

Gary my guide and owner of 'Fish On Alaska' was set on his group catching themselves some fresh king salmon. I wanted sport. He laughed at me.... I seemed stubborn in the fact that I
would not 'snag' fish, wanting to catch them fare and square, 'Come on' he said, 'Join the dark side.' then laughed. Gary is a great guy, and he'll definitely put anyone on the fish!

He also has a beautiful lodge out in Sodatna an hour drive from Deep Creek where we were fishing that evening. That night he suggested I stay at his place rather than us heading all the way back to Homer. I agreed. His wife Darlene had a fresh bowl of chilli waiting in my room for when we finally returned at 11.30pm!

Gary's Fish On Alaska Lodge

This was the view from my sliding patio door!!!
Not bad eh?

The next day a guide who was helping Gary with his group had the orders to give me a ride back to Homer.

Young Felix was interested to hear my story after asking how I'd managed to get away travelling for so long when I was married. He went on to say, during the 45 minutes we shared in the truck on the way back that, 'This is the deepest conversation I've ever had. Most people just aren't open.' He then said, 'I bet you just bring a beam of love and light in to the lives of everyone you meet don't cha?' The incredible thing was that Felix was being totally sincere. How lovely.

At 2am on Saturday morning I leave Homer. I get aboard the good ship Kennicott and head 9 hours south west to the island of Kodiak. Whilst searching online for accommodation I stumbled across a B&B named Celtic Mist.... Well my Mum is Irish and the rest of us are Manx so I thought I'd better check it out. I dropped on to the 'About Us' section. It read as follows, 'I was born in England and brought up on the Isle of Man....' BROUGHT UP ON THE ISLE OF MAN!!!!? I couldn't believe it. I dropped Rowland an email immediately introducing myself. That was that. Saturday night I'm residing at Celtic Mist B&B and on Sunday Rowland and I are hopefully getting out for a spot of sockeye salmon fishing!

Today Catie kindly lent me her Subaru Forester. I wanted to get out and do little 'Homer Photography'. I headed up along the back road which provides a huge vista of Homer from above. The glaciers clearly visible under the stormy rain filled clouds on the other side of the bay.

Across The Bay to The Glacier.

I headed out the spit to get among the old ship yards.  I love these old weather beaten boats.

The Hulk!

Later on in the morning as I drove down along the spit I spotted a log bobbing in the water... then quickly realised it was a big ole sea otter. I parked the car, grabbed my camera and ran along the beach to get ahead of it. The sea otter was porpoising it's way along the water's edge, then bobbing along on his back, as sea otters do. It was only 30 feet from the beach. I wished I'd brought my Olympus with it's little 100mm lens. I only had the Canon with the 50mm so much cropping was involved to bring you this image, hence the low quality.... All in all I just wanted to share some more Alaskan wildlife with you guys.

Black bears and Whales is all I need now! Maybe on the 19 hour journey from Kodiak to Whittier I'll see the Whales, and maybe in Whittier I'll see the black bears.... whilst I'm camping!!!

I have much cycling ahead of me starting on the 19^th July. As I typed that sentence my arse began to twitch nervously on the chair....

Love to you all.

Mark.