Week 5 has been a great week, with several old veterans and some new guys as well. The salmon are in thicker than they have ever been in camp history…every camper has limited out every day so far (most within 1/2 hour). The first halibut trip went out yesterday as well.
When we pulled in to the dock after the halibut trip, there were two Alaska State Troopers waiting for us. We’ve known that there are several locals who don’t like us because of what we stand for, and the fact that we catch so many fish, and the Troopers were there in a response to some calls that have been made. We explained to them what we were about and how our non-profit organization worked, and it sounded like they understood and were fine with it. Anyways, they were checking fishing liscenses and two of our guys didn’t have them (one accidentally dropped his overboard), so the Troopers followed us back to fish camp to see the rest of the liscenses. Apparently, on the way, one of the Troopers changed his mind, and they ended up taking our fish and putting us under investigation for illegal guiding. We assure you all that we have done nothing wrong and we have checked the laws and made certain that we are just fine. Please pray this all gets worked out quickly.
Thankfully, the Troopers gave us a receipt for the fish they took, so if the ruling comes in our favor, we will get the equivelant halibut meat back from them.
Although we had to go through that experience, the halibut fishing was great. We caught 15 halibut, a couple around 40 lbs. The best part of the trip was the whale that gave us a show. It came up to within 100 yards from the boat, and he would slap his tail on the water, roll around, stick his fins in the air, and ultimately, jump out of the water and do a full 360 in midair.
It’s too bad the picture was blurry, but this is the whale. No, this is not a postcard.
It was awesome.
