Alaskan Adventure: Day 60. This is the official “half-way” point of both our 60 day AdventureTrekRV group and our 120 total round-trip days of travel from Indianapolis. Today, the all day fishing excursion from Homer, Alaska left the dock at 6:30am and got back to dock around 4:00pm. There were 6 people on the boat and everyone ‘limited-out’ with two Halibut and one Yellow Eye Rockfish.

Charter place on the Homer Spit.

Our boat “Tuff Stuff” and our Captain – “Wheels”

Leaving Homer Harbor.

Sunrise as we were leaving the harbor.

Captain up top steering us out of the harbor.

Elizabeth Island. We passed this island after passing Seldovia and rounding the end of Kachemak Bay State Park peninsula.

Phone screenshot before losing signal. That’s where we were fishing for Yellow Eye Rockfish out by Barren Islands. It took almost 2 hours to motor out about 45 miles to this location.

View off the back of the boat. Barren Islands in background.

First catch of the day was by Dennis. Shockingly bright orange Yellow Eye Rockfish – Captain said it was a really good size Rockfish and was probably over 150 years old!

Mike jigging for Halibut or Yellow Eye. Beautiful calm sea in the Gulf of Alaska with the Barren Islands in the background. Mt. Douglas is the snow capped mountain in the distance.

First Halibut catch of the day by Mark. Mike still in the background jigging…

Mike caught this “Lingcod” fish but it was just a bit too short to keep.

It had a whole mouthful of TEETH. He threw it back.

Mike hauling a Yellow Eye Rockfish up from about 1/2 mile deep.

Mike’s Yellow Eye Rockfish.

Moving on to the next spot.

Barren Islands. Named in 1778 by Captain James Cook. This is where the Gulf of Alaska becomes the Cook Inlet that goes about 200 miles all the way up to Anchorage. There are 6 islands stretching 15 miles. The islands are the northernmost part of the Kodiak Island Archipelago.

Area of Homer relative to Barren Islands, Kodiak Island and Katmai National Park.

Eastern portion of Barren Islands

Mt. Douglas. This is a volcano in Katmai National Park & Preserve.

Mt. Saint Augustine – Volcano on unoccupied Saint Augustine Island. Latest eruption was January 11, 2006. Not a big eruption but ash closed the Anchorage Airport 200 miles away.

Coming back into the harbor.

Another scene coming back into the harbor.

Lots of boats coming back into the harbor at about the same time.

Score keeping system on the back window. O=Over, U=Under, Yell=Yellow Eye, L=Lingcod. We could keep one Halibut Over 25″ and one under 25″. Mike caught a Lingcod fish but it wasn’t quite big enough to keep.

Our catch.

The Six Amigos and our catch. 12 Halibut (2 each), 6 Yellow Eye (1 each). Doug, Me, Mike, Mark, Brent, Dennis.

Me and my Yellow Eye Rockfish. Didn’t get a pic of the 2 Halibut but there was one just under 25″ and one just over 25″.

It was a fun day. I enjoyed the company and doing something very different. My respect for the ancient mariners like Captain Cook has risen substantially on this trip. My 3 fish, all processed and frozen weighed 11 pounds. I don’t know their weight before processing. After spending the day trying not to fall over in a boat rolling around on the ocean, I was whooped.