The Service
Resurrection Bay in the fog.
On Saturday, June 24th, Mrs. Animal and I had booked a day’s multi-species fishing with Miller’s Landing out of Seward, for fishing in Resurrection Bay and the Gulf of Alaska. It was a cold, drizzly day out on the water, but the fishing was pretty good, and the trip was worth every penny. If you’re ever in the area and want some great salt-water fishing, I highly recommend these folks.
(Note: I have no affiliation with Miller’s Landing, I receive nothing for my recommendation, we simply enjoyed the experience and I make this recommendation as one does to one’s friends.)
Seward is in itself a neat place to visit, as I’ve described before. It’s about two and a half hours from Anchorage, and it’s a beautiful drive down the Turnagain Arm past Portage, over the pass into the Kenai Peninsula, then bearing left at Tern Lake down AK Highway 9 to Seward. That alone is worth the trip, but fishing is a great bonus (there’s plenty of good freshwater fishing along the way as well.) You’ll get to see glaciers, vast forests of spruce and birch, the turquoise waters of Kenai Lake, and a lot more.
But the fishing was the goal of this day, so we drove down through mist and rain the night before, so as to be ready for an early start to a long day.
The Day
We left Miller’s Landing at 6AM, with our Captain driving the big flat-bottomed boat into a thick fog. Mrs. Animal and I were joined on the boat by four other anglers, and along with the Captain and mate, it proved to be a convivial group.
On the way to the fishing grounds we were treated to the sight of sea otters floating placidly along on their backs enjoying breakfast, which they ate using their thickly-furred tummies as dining tables. We also saw a young humpback whale ‘lunge feeding.’ That alone would have made the trip worthwhile, and we had not yet even reached the fishing grounds.
Our first stop was at a place the crew called “the Mountain,” a big underwater massif that showed up really clearly on the fish-finder sonar. We dropped anchor and started fishing in what the crew said was a good place for both black and yellow-eyed rockfish, which we pretty quickly started hauling in. Along with the rock we were hauling in plenty of Pacific cod, a trend that continued throughout the day. Another, less fortunate but still common catch was a critter called a “arrowtooth flounder,” a flatfish that has a mouthful of shark-like teeth and apparently is very poor eating; those went back over the side.
Mrs. Animal with a yellow-eye rockfish.
We soon limited out on rock (three each) and continued hauling in cod for a while. While our Captain had hoped to get some halibut action on the Mountain, it didn’t look like that was going to happen. So, after pulling in a few more cod, and with halibut in mind, the crew hauled anchor and we drove south, to near where Resurrection Bay meets the Gulf of Alaska. There we ‘drift fished,’ as in, letting the boat drift while dropping lines into the 450-foot deep water. The day remained cold and rainy, but we endeavored to persevere, and were rewarded with more cod and a few smallish halibut.
The lack of halibut was, in fact, the only disappointment in the whole affair. On our one prior Alaska salt-water experience, we ended up bringing in eight halibut (two of the kids were along) and ended up with about 160 pounds of that lovely, clean, white fish, and that was after sending about ten pounds to my parents and ten to Mrs. Animal’s folks. But they do call it fishing, not catching, and we still came out of it with plenty for the freezer.
The Haul
We took home a tad less than fifty pounds of fish, mostly rock and cod, maybe 6-7 pounds of halibut. We would have liked to have had more halibut, it’s one of our favorite fish to eat, but the big flatfish just weren’t out that day.
Neither me nor Mrs. Animal (despite her having grown up only a few miles from the Atlantic) have done much salt-water fishing. The fishing this day was in deep water, from 300 to 450 feet, and with rock and cod, most of what is involved consists of hauling big heavy fish all the way up the water column. My back was sore the next day, and Mrs. Animal, being much smaller and with some neurological issues, was hurting for a few days.
All those unused muscle groups, I suppose.
Both of us agreed that the outing, and the delicious stock of fish in the freezer, was worth the aches and pains and then some. If you are in Alaska and want a great fishing experience, Miller’s Landing can provide that.
The Haul (not all ours, total catch of six people on the boat)
And no, I’m not standing on a box. That is our actual size difference.
Nice catch. Is Seward Army Recreation Camp still there? I spent three days there as part of my tour of duty. They provided boats, equipment, and a cleaning house.
Cod is ideal for beer-batter and the fryer – as is or into tacos.
mmm, fish tacos
I bet Blackberry concurs.
Nice haul. I never went deep sea fishing, but lots of bay and shore fishing in TX near Port Aransas and Corpus.
I also never fished in salt water before moving to TX.
Picture Timeloose pulling his first specked trout out of the water and grabbing it with my fingers and thumb in its mouth to pull out my hook.
Alaska has always been on my bucket list. I was all set to ride my motorcycle there until my accident in 2017.
The clot-shot requirements to enter Canada have put that trip on permanent hold.
Maybe, someday.
They haven’t dropped that yet? Even Europe dropped it.
Looks like they have dropped it.
Alaska this fall!
Hobbit’s new theme song.
I knew it before I clicked. Thanks!
Delighted to have a thin excuse to drop this favorite which may please one or two of you lot who knows.
Me too! Not disappointed.
Johnny Horton is an American Treasure. I hope he doesn’t get forgotten about as time marches on.
He’s the first musician I remember getting into when I was a little Pudster. My Grandma was a fan and I’d play his 8-track Greatest hits on her record player / 8 track giant rectangular music thingy. My Mom then bought me a copy to play in her hip little portable 8-track player.
He was an early favorite of mine, as well. Mom and Dad had his greatest hits on vinyl. I bet I wore out this ring on the album.
I just listened to that! My favorite. Johnny’s singing in that song is bad ass.
I could listen to Johnny sing that over and over an over.
Wait, I have!
So you admit to condoning Alligator abuse? You Monster!
I don’t want to distract from Animal’s fishing article, but has anyone today mentioned the perfect marketing theme song for Musk’s Twitter reboot?
I’m sure DMX’s estate would let him license it in a second for some scratch.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vkOJ9uNj9EY
That’s a great idea. Tweet it to musk.
That’s been running through my head every time I read something about Elon’s latest move.
I want to get out to Alaska sometime. I’ve got a friend that goes on a fishing trip to Alaska about once a year. He usually is there for salmon season.
I’ve been with buddies running out of Venice, La for tuna. That’s big fun. We always do a couple of days of inshore fishing out of Port Sulfur when we are there. Speckled trout and Reds for the win.
I was planning on being a deck hand on a crab boat in Alaska in 2022 until the season got cancelled. Fly-fishing is fun; I’ve done that a few times. On the whole, I like aquariums and feeding fish more than catching them. There is some great salt and freshwater fishing near me, but I can’t do any of that til my car is fixed. Something went wrong with its transmission on Saturday.
I say pizza counts as seafood if you put anchovies on it. I’ve been trying to eat more fish as part of my shift to a Mediterranean diet. Sardines packed in olive oil are ideal for that.
I’m enjoying some Genesee beer now. It’s not great but it is cheap. I’ve had the cream ale before so I’m trying the regular kind tonight.
If you’re going to drink a lite beer, Genesee may be the best of that breed.
YOU SHUT YOUR FILTHY WHORE MOUTH!
Milwaukees Best Light is the premium light beer. Hell it even says so on the labels.
/drinking Coor’s light cause I cant find it at Hy-Vee in Des Moines
If you like cajun food, go to Buzzard Billy’s one night for dinner. It’s kick ass. It’s close to the river and big indoor arena.
Cajun Combo is a favorite. Seafood Gumbo, Jambalaya, and blackened catfish with hush puppies.
My stepfather drank that by the case.
Going home to Ra-cha-cha during college breaks I got that experience and it was like the tiniest of buzzes punctuated by frequent trips to the lav.
G Lite is 4% ABV. I bought the regular, which is 4.5%. The cream ale is 5.1%
I once drank Coors Light when there was nothing else available. Guinness draft has the same ABV as Bud Light, yet I like Guinness and have never tasted Bud Light.
I had an Arabic teacher named ‘Abir, which means fragrant and is also a girl’s name. When she lived in Texas, she got tired of people mispronouncing her name as “a beer”, so she told people to just call her Bud Light.
Last time I drank Coors Light, it was because a roommate got a keg for NYE and then we ended up going out to a bar instead, so the next day he told me to invite some friends over so it wouldn’t to to waste.
We tried, but could not physically drink enough to get buzzed, let alone drunk.
Heh, I used to work with a chich from Rah-chesta, and she would talk about Genny being the go to beer.
One of the few things we have left to be proud of.
Yup.
Although I’ve never liked it myself. When I was down on my luck and not in the buffalo area, my go to was Miller, I think that’s the best of that set. In Buffalo I would drink labatts or Molson…
Get me a lite beer!*
* not the actual lyric.
No seafood tonight. I had mozzarella with basil and tomatoes, and now having a glass of port. My monocle is being shined by one of the more competent orphans.
Derp. Genny makes some really good cheap beer. I liked the dry hopped lager and my favorite is their Ruby Red Kolsch.
I like Kolsch beer, though I need to cut way back on alcohol. Fortunately, I’ve been making progress on that front, and my last blood test showed that my liver function is normal. That was a relief. It’s good thing my ancestry is mostly Irish with some German mixed in.
Is shark cage diving kind of like the reverse of fishing?
Shark breaks into then escapes from cage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz4bPQmqUrM
My favorite part: when the guy on the boat says “uh, was anybody in there?”
Nice haul!
Good fishing, Animal
We did that a few years back, day one was about 25 people, we fished deep and got skunked. Some people stayed in the cabin and got drunk, @ $175 a day. Day two we went on a 6 pac (6 people), caught salmon and what were called black bass, looks like the same black fish you caught. Late August. Mrs Fourscore got sea sick, though there wasn’t a ripple on the water. Day 2 was mostly calm but she was OK.
Halibut is my favorite eating fish, I’m not much on salmon, other than the smoked kind Pistoffnick brings to HH
My good friend, Dan Seavey, of Seavey Racing, lives in Seward and arranged everything.
Salmon is the one seafood I ordered on purpose one time during a work anniversary shindig (remember those?) when steak was available.
More to come this year!
The funny thing about salmon is the more it’s cooked the
more fishy it tastes to me. I’m happy with salmon sushimi.
Salmon baked, not so much.
Cooked right it’s amazing. I’ve fucked it up a few times. Usually leads to rubbery meat with that oozing white stuff.
Problem I have with fish in general. Too soon it’s raw. Too late
it’s rubbery.
Yeah, the main reason I don’t try to cook it very often.
nom nom nom
Halibut is one of the wifes favorites, and I grew up on west coast salmon, as my dads office partner had a commercial licence and boat for it.
That yellow-eyed rockfish looks fake.
Why are you catching fake fish?
Deep(sea)fake
Looks like something from The Simpsons.
Blinky!
Nice. I am not a big fan of sea food – except for fish. Yum!
If it smells like fish…its a dish!
Get your face in there!
So what does rockfish taste like? That thing looks awesome!
It’s the bug-eye, right?
The guy in the red hoodie looks so sad. I hope he’s OK.
Heh.
I love the seagulls behind him, just chilling.
Hitch’ would approve.
Even Jonathan Livingston S. needs a break once in a while.
That sonofabitch is still around?!
*racks shotgun*
Jonathan’s fate sealed,
In shadows they lurk, intent clear,
Hate seeks to end him.
One time drunk zoom with nw. No tie.
Get it now while the tie is gone.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81821531364
Ties are like masks. They’re terribly comfortable.
I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.
…
Well, boat drinks.
Maybe Wednesday. Contra-sans-tie. As one does.
In Chicago’s embrace,
Lawyers don silk neckties, pace,
Cocktails in their chase.
The Alaskan experience is not complete without having a kidney stone at a remote radar site, being medivaced out in a Cessna, missing the plane to Anchorage and spending a night in a Native Corp hospital.
Bah. Back in my day kidney stones had to fly their own way out
to the hospital.
ChatGPT:
Alaska’s embrace,
Fishing midst icy streams’ grace,
Kidney stones misplaced.
Use of Haiku
Abuse of AI
I am doubly disappoint
AI’s cold embrace,
Scorn for asking words to flow,
Nature’s warmth now lost.
I’m just glad you got a better hat!
Thanks, Animal! Glad you guys are loving AK!
The entirety of my Alaska fishing has been the king salmon run at Ketchikan with a million other tourists.
I’m hoping to get back in the next couple-three years, but this time to a fly-in camp southwest of Kenai Fjords National Park to do the same multi-species trip as Animal and his bride.
My dad used to take us fishing in Cordova, a nice little drinking town with a fishing problem. It has ruined me for fishing anywhere else. As long as we’re doing endorsements, I recommend the Orca Adventure Lodge.
If Twitter is to be believed, the LGBs are starting to dissociate from the Ts.
Overdue. The Ts have been actively claiming that L and G don’t exist, they’re just straight people in the wrong body.
That aside, the L and G don’t much care for each other, which always made that grouping a bit odd. AFAIK, the L and G are both a bit dismissive of the B.
Whats a bit odd to me is how many trans men go on to date XY men, and trans women dating women. Lia Thomas is an example of the latter, but I think he/she is just trolling us until his swimming “career” is over.
This article reinforces my biases, so I like it.
It’s the same as their cheap labor advantage. As long as it’s out of sight, you can pretend it doesn’t exist.
The Environmental Turk
Alaska is on my “places I’d visit” list.
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us!
Totally second it.
X (X11 Tweeting System) sucks donkey balls.
Rise and shine, y’all!
🌞
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W4VpE-0zitU
🎶🎶
Good Morning, have to go work in the office this am.
I am spoiled.
Hope everyone has an awesome day.
Good morning, Sean & ‘bodru!
I would just as soon NOT have a day like yesterday at work – nothing earth-shaking, just that almost everything was not quite right and definitely more complicated than it needed to be, one damn thing after another. 😕
Mornin’, reprobates!
Good morning, ‘patzie! How’s your corner of the world? Clearer running streams?
Heh. I’ll reserve judgment until climate change delivers the next deluge.
Speaking of deluges, on the way to work yesterday, just as I was pulling on to the interstate I drove right into one of these. I should have taken it as a sign, turned around, gone back home, and gone back to bed.
Thanks! I heard a lot of LH&R during the two years I spent with my aunt and uncle (asshole, but also an accomplshed jazz drummer) in the fifties. I still love me some vocalese.
I was taking a crochet class at a fancy downtown yarn shop, making a “loop” scarf. The initial chain of stitches had to be connected into a loop VEEEEERY carefully to avoid mishap. Just as I reached that point in the process, a favorite tune came on the cable jazz music channel the instructor had on, and I started happily singing along. You can probably guess how the loop scarf came out.
LOL
Did it make you crochetty?
😄
Not really, but after that I was hooked! 😉
A little sunshine on a beautiful morning.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/maskless-churchgoer-settles-lawsuit-2020-arrest-calls-liberalism-modern-day-cult
“Our mayor was breaking social distancing and masking rules. He went and played golf and drank beer with his buddies the day he shut down our town in March 2020,” Rench claimed. “He was officiating open-door – excuse me – outside weddings a month before he had me arrested.”
The mayor won’t be on the hook for the $300K. Still a happy ending.
Good morning to you all especially Sean, GT, gross and robo.
Go have a real one.
Good morning, Lack!
Mornin’, and right back atcha!
Good morning all.
Just a quick drive-by post to let you know I’m okay. I very much appreciate the expressions of concern I’ve received.
The main thing burning nearly all of my attention and emotional energy is the series of unfortunate [massive understatement] events that have taken down, but not out, 3 of the 4most important people in my life.
I shall return, sooner or later 😉
BTW, the Venture Bros. movie is pretty awesome. Buy & watch the series, then the movie. I have spoken!
Shirleyyyyyyy! 😃😍😁
Glad to hear you’re okay, hope things get better for those who’ve been knocked down.
Hey! Better days ahead, I hope.
Nice. Now that it’s over I can buy a box set… some day. The individual blurays are pretty pricey at the moment.