Today the rest of the class went deep sea fishing. We drove to Anchor Point Beach, where we then boarded boats and a tractor backed the boats into the bay off of the boat trailers. After finally reaching deep enough water, we were able to start fishing for salmon. The depth of this water was approximately 25 feet. On the smaller boat, Kristi and Rachael caught the only two salmon. Paige managed to catch a few small halibut that had to be released. On the larger boat, the group was able to catch 4 out of the 5 salmons allowed to catch.

We then drove out deeper into the bay where the water was approximately 110 feet deep. Here, the strategy was a little different when catching halibut. The strategy was to let the line bob on the bottom of the bay, since that’s about where the halibut like to be. A few times the fish seemed to snack on the bait without being hooked, so we often had to add new bait to the hooks to try again. As a fun fact, the halibut begin their life looking as a normal fish, but as the more mature they get, the halibut’s eye begins to migrate to the side of their head and their bodies begin to flatten. Dr. Stilts managed to snag the biggest halibut on our fishing trip! Whereas Leslie and Paige managed to catch the smallest ones! Overall it was definitely an experience and we all get to take some salmon and halibut home!

Kristi Welkley and Paige Heintzelman