David dropped Bev and me off on the morning of May 12^th at the Alaska Airlines terminal in San Jose.  As he drove away I realized he still had my wallet with my tickets, ID, credit cards and money in the car! Alaska was kind enough to book me a new ticket as “Random” Babineau (hence my new nickname). Good fortune smiled on us by delaying our flight an hour. Jeff, Bev’s husband, flagged down David and sends him back to the airport. As Bev and I passed thru security they flagged me with a yellow “search me” card, this trip just kept getting better!!

Finally we were on our way to Seattle.  In Seattle we met up with Larry Lowman who was on our tournament team.  Enroute to Sitka we stopped at Ketchikan, AK to drop off and pick up passengers.  The guy operating the jet way hit our plane knocking off an antenna. This happened to be an important piece of the plane that needed to be repaired before we could leave for Sitka. The announcement of delay was made and they suggested we get off and stretch our legs. Bev and I exited the plane and while she chatted with other anglers I checked out the gift shop.  Finally the plane was ready to reload. Everyone lined up to reboard but when I got to the gate agent she asked for my ticket. No one said to take my ticket if I left the plane, so my ticket was still neatly tucked into the pocket at my seat on the plane!  Another agent was called and I was taken to a computer where I was reassigned a ticket for, “Random” Babineau and was allowed to continue my flight.  Bev really began to razz me.  

Our flight finally landed in Sitka and we all got off looking for a taxis.  Larry, Bev and I were spending the night at Helga’s B&B so we shared a taxi.  When we got to Helga’s Bev realized she’d left her vest and jacket in the planes overhead.  All her cash, credit cards, and ID were in her jacket pocket.  Larry and I checked in and relaxed while Bev rushed back to the airport  with the taxi.  Unfortunately, the plane had already taken off for Juneau.  The airlines was very helpful in  locating the jacket having it returned to Sitka at 11p.m.  Bev returned to Helga’s to check in.  Helga greeted her by saying, “well, here’s the missing link!”, hence Bev’s nickname, “missing link”.   We all went for a nice dinner then back to bed at Helga’s.  Our taxi driver was nice enough to pick up and deliver Bev’s jacket to her around 12 a.m..  

The following morning we met Steve Carson from Penn Reels,  Danny the video guy and some others in the fishing business for breakfast.  After a breakfast of reindeer sausage, that looked suspiciously like a ballpark frank, Larry, Bev and I went shopping until Kingfisher Lodge picked us up at 1 p.m.. The rooms at Kingfisher were very nice. They are large 3 bedroom condos.  Our team of Larry, Bev, me and Dick Peterson were assigned to a condo with two anglers from another team.  It was great meeting all the other teams and Ronnie Kovach at dinner that night.  

Over breakfast the next morning Ronnie went over tournament rules and answered questions. By 6 a.m.. we were all loaded into vans and taken to the harbor.  Once at the harbor we got our boat assignments. That morning Ronnie Kovach and Steve Carson got a look at a couple of customs rods I had brought.  They complimented me saying, they  were some of the nicest custom rods they’d seen and Ronnie called them “art”.

We met our captain for the day and headed right out to fish for salmon.  We were in the right area as the boats all around us were catching fish. After about 3 hours of no bite we headed to the halibut grounds. These grounds are out in  open waters and to get  there we went though some tuff currents and rough turbulent seas.  The water broke over the top and sides of the boat as we made our run out. Once out on the “grounds,” I chose to fish my Calstar GF410, IGFA 60-80#.  I made this rod with American Tackles spiral wrap roller guides and a Aftco unibutt reel seat system.

After a couple hours we all began to get bites on the rods,  the fish had finally arrived!  I watched my rod, tap, tap, and I began to connect up my Smitty’s Ladies fighting belt.  Finally the rod bent!  Fish on!  I picked up the rod and began to reel as I placed it in to the fighting belt.  There was so much tension I thought for just a moment  I had the bottom hooked but then I could feel the slight  flutter in the rod.  This was a sign of the fish running on the other end.  I kept the tension on the line as I fought  to keep reeling the fish in.  It was a tough fight even with the two speed Penn Reel.  My rod performed beautiful! It stayed in place and there was no torque as I fought the fish.  Several times I let go of the rod with my left hand to catch my balance and the rod stayed stable in the belt!  I finally got the fish to the boat and the captain gaffed it to bring it on board.  We measured the fish to determine its weight at 109 pounds!

After some awesome halibut action,  we moved closer to the island to fish for lingcod and rock fish.  Bev was able to pull in some nice yellow eyes.  I used another rod I built on a Forecast Tuff Stick (TS66MH) blank with spiral wrap Fuji Guides.  The rod’s smooth action was very attractive to the lings. I pulled in 3 nice lingcod’s.    

The next day Bev landed a very nice 24 pound salmon to tie with another angler for the biggest salmons of the tournament. The weather was still nice but the forecasts showed that there was a storm front coming our way.  

On the 3^rd day we got into the salmon first thing in the morning but only Dick landed a fish.  The weather was picking up so we decided to make a run for the halibut grounds before the weather got any  worse.  While waiting for the butts to arrive,  our captain tossed a light rig off the back to try for rock fish. We all pulled in a nice yellow eye with this rod.  Then I got a bite on my 80# Calstar and landed a 50 pound ling cod.  Bev landed a halibut in the 80 pound range and Larry landed one in the 90 pound range both off the captain’s rod.  Dick pulled in a small butt and I got one in the 30 pound range on my Calstar.   

We moved back closer to the island to try for our salmon to complete the grand slams for the day. As we trolled for salmon we got a ling cod followed by a halibut. Then Bev got to fight a nice salmon and as I brought in the other line, bam!  Fish on!  Bev and I both landed our salmon. Now it was Larry’s turn and we only had 30 minutes left before we had to bring our lines up and head in.  We hooked two rock fish but the salmon evaded us.  

The next day the rains arrived in Sitka and we were happy to be heading home.  The Alaskan adventure was over but not forgotten. The rugged beauty of the mountains and the eagles flying over head will be with me always.  The sun never seemed to set.  It was sunny  when I went to sleep at 9 p.m.. and shining bright when I awoke at 4 a.m..  My rods performed great and we all made it back to San Jose without any “incidents”.  Bev and I each had 75 pounds of filleted fish we brought back to our hungry husbands.  I think Bev and I became better friends on our trip,  it works out that she is a total type A fisherman while I take the more type B approach. She’s yin and I’m yang which works very well for us. We are already looking forward to our next fishing adventure, and we may even take our husbands along.

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