Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

I never thought I'd actually enjoy fishing. I mean, seriously. Who likes sitting on a boat for hours, with a piece of string in the water, waiting for the CHANCE to actually catch a fish? Why would anyone do this when there are mountains to climb or planes to jump out of, hikes to go on, people to meet for coffee? I don't get it. Let me rephrase that...I didn't get it.

Then I went fishing for the first time in my life in the wide open ocean on Sunday! No, it wasn't "Deadliest Catch" style, but it was crazy. I actually have a licence and everything! So Amy and I get on the boat with Dick (captain) and wait for the rest of his family to get there. We start up the boat to get it warmed up. Pretty soon, there is white smoke/steam coming from the back of the boat. Dick looks at the boat, the engine, etc, and can't find anything wrong, but decides to turn off the boat until his family gets there. And we wait...And wait...And I'm thinking, "The waiting has begun even before we get in the ocean!"

So the family gets to the boat after some time waiting. Dick goes to turn on the boat and it doesn't start. No good. All the lights and radio and GPS things work, but the engine won't start. (Sound familiar? I think this problem follows me...) After dinking around with a few things in the engine compartment, there is still no engine starting. So, they decide to use the little engine that goes on the back of the boat - the reserve engine - instead. That one works just fine, but it can't make the boat go fast and it's much more difficult to steer. But hey, we're going fishing, and nothing can stop us!

We leave the harbor, and immediately cast the lines. I've never done that, and it was quite entertaining to learn the "fishing jargon". They baited the hooks (I wasn't about to get smelly right away...) and we were off...at about 2mph. We trolled our way towards a few islands around Juneau with not one fish biting. This was going to be a LONG day...

Then, we started to see some eagles flying around and diving down toward the water. It was very cool! Then Nicole (one of the family) yelled, "WHALES!!!!" Way off in the distance, there were lots of spouts going off, and we could see the backs and tails of many Humpbacks. Very cool. Immediately, Nicole and I became much more interested in the whales way off in the distance than the fishing going on right below us. Nicole begged her dad to get closer to the whales (at 2 mph, mind you). So we trolled toward the whales. We realized that they were feeding - I have yet to see bubble feeding up close, but from far away, it looked very cool! We followed the whales (at 2 mph) for a while, and then they left. But in their place was a small pod of porpoises! They were pretty cool to see too. Nothing like what they have at Sea World, but very cool to see in their natural environment.

Still no fish. It's been about four hours, and we've seen some beautiful islands, whales, eagles, fish, and are just enjoying the sea breeze. I'm up top of the boat when Dick yells, "Laurie! You've got one!" I tell him that he can reel it in, but he says I have to do it. So I hurry down the ladder, grab the reel, and start reeling. I have no idea what I'm doing and have about four different people trying to explain to me what I should be doing. Pretty funny. The fish gets so close we can almost net him, and his gills rip and he gets away. It was fine - it was only a pink - and I can say I've reeled a fish! It was pretty intense! I then began to think that fishing is kinda like working in an emergency room: it's hours of nothing to do followed by minutes of intense, fast-work to do! Pretty fun.

So we continue to troll around islands (I learned a lot about the islands and the ocean on this trip!) and saw a few seals, more eagles and whales, and just enjoyed the time on the water. About three hours after my near-catch, Dick yells out, "Amy, you better get down here!" So Amy, being the experienced fisherman she is, goes down and proceeds to reel and net a pink salmon! It was very cool to see the entire process all together.

All in all, it was a very fun day! I think I enjoy fishing! At least, I enjoy going out on the boat and relaxing on the water...

Hope you are all doing well! Love you and miss you!