Hat Tips

Hello,

Well, after the fiasco at the airport we did make it to Alaska. Flew into Juneau, then on a floatplane to the fishing lodge. Missed most of the days fishing, but dang sure caught enough fish to get us excited about the next four days!

Now, you know I don’t care to travel much. Medora is thirty miles and I hate to venture that far. Reva is 105 miles and that really tests me. I used to be a hotshot driver you know.

But the trip to Alaska was a once in a lifetime, at least at my age, trip with my son, three grandsons, a nephew and his son, and a brother-in-law. That’s four adults and four kids. We were worried about the kids. Turned out they behaved better than the adults. That will happen.

I’ve watched TV shows that will show Alaska. Now granted, we only saw a sliver of southeast Alaska, but just seeing that little bit makes you realize how huge and how wild Alaska is. The spot we were in is actually a rainforest. A rugged rain forest. In five days, we never did see the sun. Rain four days and cloudy the fifth day.

But we did fish. You couldn’t imagine the fish we caught. Halibut, salmon, rockfish, cod, and an octopus. Yes, an octopus! Evan caught a big octopus. It was quite an experience for a kid, or even an adult. And then the boys played with it on the deck of the boat, letting it wrap its tentacles around their arms and legs. Not this guy. I don’t care to have slithery things grabbing me by the arms.

The lodge was wonderful. No TV. That was one of the best things. The food was out of this world. Breakfast at seven. Supper at seven in the evening. Pack a lunch for on the boat. And fish from eight until five. That’s a lot of fishing for a landlubber like me.

If you are interested in where we were, go on youtube and search “Alaska’s fishing paradise.” Or google Whalers Cove Lodge.

After the first day on the boat, you could see where the lodge got its name. You were always in sight of at least one whale. We weren’t whale watching, but a humpback did spend about twenty minutes fifty yards from our boat one afternoon. And it kept slapping the water with a huge fin. One guide thought it was trying to stun baitfish. Another thought it was a method of communication. I just know it was a big and wonderful sight to behold.

I was visiting with a neighbor about our fishing trip the other day and gave him a package of halibut.

He told of when he was rough necking and was working with a brother-in-law. This relative had never been too far from the farm. They had stopped at a restaurant to eat and the in-law ordered the halibut steak. Nice. When the waitress sat the halibut steak in front of him and turned to leave, he exclaimed, “Wait! I ordered the halibut steak! This is fish!”

Later, Dean