2008 Journal of Events | 153 Fish Camp Weblog

We Had a full camp this week with 12 campers coming from all over. The continuing theme of Fathers & Sons held true in this camp. Larry Brown – Grandfather was in camp with his Son Scotty and grandsons Zeke & Buster. Dewey Bastedo – Grandfather was also in camp with his son Rick and grandson Josiah. John Brenton was in camp with his son Scott. The last 2 campers were Nick and Eli. Dewey was the only veteran. It was great to see him back again this year.

Although the fishing started out Monday a little slow, most of the campers were able to catch at least one salmon on the first day. Tuesday Mike Roberts took a group out to Red Bay and returned with twenty some odd pinks and chum. Those chum salmon really put up a fight.

Mike took another group to Red Bay Wednesday and they brought back 50 some odd pinks and chums. They started filleting the fish at Red Bay instead of bring them back whole to camp because of the warmer temperatures. What great weather we had this week. They finally caught their first red salmon at red bay on the last trip of the week. They are just starting to come in. We have caught 5 or 6 reds in front of our cabin at the neck lake outlet.

Scott Brenton with a nice pink.

Halibut fishing was good. Tuesday I took Dan, Larry, Scotty, Buster, and Nick. I was a bit nervous as this was the first trip since we had gone out last Friday and gotten Zero. Fishing was back to normal and we made it home with 12 halibut and a few rockfish.

Wedensday Nick, Rick, Josiah, John and Scott came and we limited with 12 fish and even through back 5 or so smaller halibut.

Thursday we took another trip and brought back 8 halibut.

The whale shows this week were amazing. The humpbacks were all around and we saw multiple breaches (whales jumping) and one whale layed on top of the water slapping his tail on the water repeatedly then rolled over on his back and waved his fins at us for a while.

Nick fighting one of his many halibut this week.

Josiah with one of his fish.

What a great week! Scotty Brown gave an outstanding series of evening messages that really spoke to my heart. It was a great week of fellowship and fishing with brothers in Christ.

This was our (Gunkels) last week this summer. Next week a group from Springfield Oregon is coming and will be in the capable hands of remaining staff Ed Shoemaker, Ed & Brenda Kimball, Mike Roberts, and Trent Morgan and two of his daughters Riley and Ericka.

We will be reporting on that camp as soon as we get word. Keep them in your prayers.

The first pink salmon of the summer was caught this week by Chuck Rogers on Wednesday. From this point on we expect to see the pink salmon increase as the silvers decrease.

What a great 5th week we just had! Arnie & Chuck Rogers (Father & Son) were up for their 4th year in a row. We’ve grown to love them & consider them family. Chuck is definitely the life of the party! He had us rolling on the floor Friday night relaying his bear stories for the week. I’ll have to share them in a separate post. Doug & Jared were another father & son pair here this week. Doug has a great sense of humor (fully tested when we lost his 250 lb + halibut at the boat) and Jared’s openness and willingness to share were very refreshing. Jared has his own bear story that had us rolling. Greg from way down in Texas was also up this week. At first Greg was not sure about going out Halibut fishing because of the cooler temperatures & rain but he ended up going out more than anyone else in camp. He also shared with us Thursday night and has a true love for the Lord. Steve & Connie (Husband & Wife) are the last of our campers. They worked our crab pots this week. It was great to see them relax up here. The facade was definitely stripped away this week. The sharing was open & honest. There were tears one minute & then rolling on the floor with laughter the next. Thanks guys for a great week.

We didn’t catch as many silvers this last week. 62 silvers were caught bringing the total to 869 for the year. Fishing didn’t seem to be the priority with the campers this week. We did go out halibut fishing 3 times. The first day we limited with 12 fish, the next trip we had 9 fish & lost our anchor & 600′ of line. The fish were larger though & it was a very successful trip (other than the anchor) Okay I’ll tell you. Mike Roberts was fighting this HUGE Halibut, in strong current. It was taking line like crazy, steadily going out. We released from the anchor to drift back so he could land the monster. It turned out to be maybe 20 lbs but some else had it line wrapped around the tail & they were pulling it flatwise against the current. Anyway the current had the buoy half submerged & when we tried to bring it aboard the one way slide slid off the end of the anchor line leaving the anchor & line out on the bottom. The last halibut trip we blanked. Yes, Zero halibut. First time in four years that we had done that & I’m not sure why, except that Chuck was on the boat. There is lots more to share but I’ve got to get back to camp. There were 4 birthdays in camp last week. Some of the campers went hiking & caving and we all gorged on a fish fry Friday night.

Steve & Connie