Text 37642, 75 rader
Skriven 2006-08-27 14:52:04 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
     Kommentar till en text av Carol Shenkenberger
Ärende: Alaska
==============
> Thats what Don wants to see.  Salmon isnt the only type either.  He says
> Halibut?  Have you tried that and if so, got  a recommendation on where
> best to go?
 
Halibut? I've seen sportfishers pull 7 feet long, and I don't know how wide,
halibut from the waters there. They're not small fish. Catch one of those and
you've got a year's supply of Halibut-steaks as they call them.
 
The trouble with halibut is they're so big that if you catch one or two of the
better sized suckers your fishing is finished due to the sheer size of them. In
that respect salmon fishing is different, you can catch a pile and still catch
a couple more. Fresh wild salmon from those waters is a delicacy, they are a
deep deep red you don't see with the ordinary farmed salmon, also a lot less
greasy, finer taste whichever way prepared.
 
Most fish-locations have things set-up in such a way to allow you to clean the
daily catch right away prior to putting it on ice or freezing. It's a pitty
sometimes to see how much is thrown away of a fish, how badly people make
filets. All the eggs are thrown away as garbage while in fact they are so
tasteful.
 
You cannot bring-in a halibut there however and need to go to specialised
places for cutting-up. There the are hung-up on a tripod very much as the
carcas of a deer or other big-game animal prior to skinning. It takes a set of
tools and knives which the amateur does not have and one fish can yield so much
it may fill-up your pre-assigned packing-space.
 
I've been to many locations there and the one I really advise is Seward on the
Kenai-peninsula, about 120 miles of scenic driving south of Anchorage. You can
rent a boat there, with or without skipper (I advise "with") and go
halibut-fishing. When you're succesful you will return to port and there are
professional halibut-skinners who will do the job for you (for a fee of course
but hey, they know their trade). The fish can be flash-frozen for you there and
taken along. Or, if you desire, shipped by FedEx to whichever location in the
US by a specific given date when you return from vacation. It all goes for a
fee, of course, but if you want to go halibut-fishing and later impress your
friends with your self-caught high-quality fish then I think this is the way to
go. There's no way you will be able to get your fish anywhere otherwise in an
edible form on your own.
 
Remember, driving there is not much of an option unless you've got a sea of
time. My friends there told me it takes about 7 days leasure-driving from
Vancouver in order to reach Anchorage just to give you an idea.
 
Things to avoid are the 4th of July. Seward has a population of 3,500 but on
the 4th swells to over 50,000. They have an incredible celebration with all
kinds of things going on and on the day itself a memorial mountain-running race
that atracts people from afar. The city capitalises on this and prices double,
tripple, quadrupple or worse. The average motel room goes for $220 then instead
of $40-50. There are several campgrounds for tents and RV's but they tend to
get booked solid a year in advance. We were able to spend 4 summers there
because we had friends living there whom we could stay with, otherwise you tend
to spend a lot those days.
 
Should you ever get to that point of going there, get in touch with me and I'll
point you to the Belgian inn-keeper there, it's better than the best luxury
hotel.
 
Get these websites to Don so he can already start drooling:
 
    * www.sewardak.org
    * www.lebarnappetit.com   (site seems to be down lately)
 
> WD> Been there during "any" season now.
 
> Burrr!!  Naw, I'll keep to the summer months.
 
And the mosquitos then ... we've been there in the most cold of winter.
Impressive. No tourists, quiet, nothing open, nothing to do except watching
natural beauty and listening to silence ... and getting frozen.
 
 \%/@rd

--- D'Bridge 2.55
 * Origin: "Leonard will be free" - http://www.leonardpeltier.org (2:292/854)