Fishing Trip

Mark and I went on a halibut fishing trip with my parents this last weekend. I was so excited because I have never caught a halibut before and have heard what fun it is (and of course love to eat halibut as well). So we went up to Port Angeles Thursday after work, which is about a three hour drive from here when you are towing a boat. We checked into this super cute European style hotel right downtown near the water.

Friday morning we got up early (about 6 am) and took the boat down to the docks to launch it. It was a gorgeous day out, sunny and fairly warm, and the ocean was as smooth as a lake. We got the boat started and headed out to do some fishing, only to have the engine die on us three miles out from the docks. We ended up having water in our gas tank from sitting all winter long. Luckily we had the kicker motor to get us back to the docks. We ran to an automotive store and picked up some gas cleaner and put it into the boat. We were finally able to get out fishing by mid-day, but unfortunately caught nothing (it seems that everyone was catching fish in the morning).

Saturday we got up early again and launched the boat only to find that the motor wouldn't let us idle. So we called around and finally found a mechanic who was able to flush out the carburetor for us (apparently this was the issue). By the time we got back out on the water again, no one was catching anything.

Sunday we were able to go out first thing in the morning, but unfortunately no one seemed to be catching anything on Sunday. We heard about two people out of hundreds that seemed to be out fishing that caught anything on Sunday. Of course, the two people who did catch halibut Sunday caught huge ones. There was a 90 lb and a 156 lb one caught! I can't even imagine how difficult that must have been (and fun)!

So...after three days of fishing, we have no fish. Oh well, I guess that's just life. Luckily we'll be going Salmon fishing and hopefully bottom fishing in July when we go down to Coos Bay. I think we are also going up to Canada in August to try halibut again, so we'll see...