Just a fishin'

Since Maryhelen and 'the girls' were not with us, I thought I would begin with the amazing fishing trip. When they say it is a always bigger in Alaska, they weren't kidding. We met-up with our guide in Ketchikan early Tuesday morning.

This is Capt. Rowdy. He is from the Caldwell, Idaho area (just a coincidence). He was chartered through my sister Angela not through the cruise line and boy were we blessed. We couldn't have asked for a better charter, captain or boat. They were very accomodating with my dad and his wheelchair. Capt. Rowdy is retired and now spend his summers in Ketchikan fishing and taking charters, then spends his winters guiding hunters in Salmon, Idaho. What a life

This is leaving the harbor - the Star Princess - what a beautiful ship!

Our fearless Captain! Just kidding, it is Chris, my brother. He decided to do his best impression of Captain Nemo. Rowdy was great. He turned the boat over to us and spent his day teaching us fishing, he let us drive, let us bait, run the equipment, and catch all the fish. He ran the net and tried his best to keep-up with the catching! At one point, we had four poles with 'Fish On!" We had a great time catching salmon. After about two hours and 17 keepers, we decided to move and try our hand at halibut.

We didn't have any luck with the halibut, but we did catch an assortment of other bottom dwellers. This was the catch of the day. Rowdy thinks it was a hybrid mix of red snapper and rockfish, also maybe some spine-back. Definately a fish he had never seen. Chris also broke Rowdy's record books by catching the biggest red snapper he had ever seen. He figures it is probably over 100 years old. Red snapper is a delicacy, and really good eating. Chris also caught the only silver salmon for the day. When I get the pictures from Chris and David, I will get them published.

At the end of the 4+ hour fishing trip, we came back with quite a mix of fish. We will be eating fish for a while when we get these home.

We had a great day of fishing. The weather was perfect, best Ketchikan has seen in years (so they all told us), the fishing was great, and Rowdy was excellent! Couldn't have asked for a better trip. We were all thrilled, especially that my dad was able to go and caught his share of the fish. Chris made a comment that really hit home with us boys. He told dad that he was very happy to be there fishing with him, because some of his best memories growing-up were going fishing with dad and spending the day with him. There was a time that we thought we would never be able to go fishing with dad again. This was probably the highlight of my trip and I would guess Chris' too.