hali-booty fishin!

The morning started early around 6:45 am, as Bruce, Brett and I raced out the door to meet our ride. A friend of Kaitlin's family has a fishing boat and offered to take a group of us out. Normally, halibut fishing on a charter costs quite a bit, so everyone was obviously pumped for this opportunity.

There are so many fisherman on the Kenai Peninsula in the summer, it can be absolute chaos. In order to evade the complete madness that comes with launching a boat, we arrived early to the launch. Once we were at the launch, the boat was unhooked from the truck, attached it to a tractor which then proceeded to pull us down a super steep, and wet hill, then backing us up into the ocean.

Fishing was a blast! Everyone was excited and happy to be out on the ocean and we caught lots of Halibut! The seas were calm and the sky was overcast; perfect for spending the day on the boat. Bruce was the first to catch a fish, it all happened so fast. Within the first 10 minutes of having his pole in the water he was reeling something in. I was shocked when all of a sudden he threw it back into the water because it was too small. It looked huge compared to the fish we get from the lake back home. However, after we started catching the bigger fish, I understood what a good size halibut was.

The guys explained to me the basics of dropping the weight to the bottom and letting it drag until you feel a bite. At first, I thought every time the weight hit a bump on the ocean floor I had a fish and I would get excited and start reeling it in only to find my untouched bait. But, I did catch on pretty quick after everyone telling me that I would definitely be able to tell if I had a bite, or a fish. And then before I knew it I was reeling in a halibut! Talk about a work out, those guys are heavy and reeling it in 150 feet takes awhile. I thought for sure I would loose the fight to the halibut, but I was victorious! We got it on deck smacked it and stuck it in the hold. The day continued on like this, and we ended up catching our limit and going home happy.

Aside from the fabulous fishing adventure, I appreciate being a part of the Vadla family. I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend the summer with such an incredible and loving people.