Angie hooked into a halibut
Elfin Cove is a tiny fishing community located in Cross Sound, the last semi-protected body of water before entering the Gulf of Alaska. The population of only 8 or 9 year-round residents explodes to 50-60 in the summer. When combined with the guests at the fly-in fishing resorts, Elfin Cove is almost bustling, at least by Alaska standards. The public dock at the entrance to the cove fills up slowly with 8-10 boats visiting during the course of a day.
Processing the catch on the dock
We are often the only sailboat in a place like this, so imagine our surprise when a fleet of no less than three McGregor 26 sailboats arrived at the dock and tied up just in front of us. It turns out that they all met through an internet forum for their boats and agreed to trailer their boats to Skagway for a couple week trip together. Folks on two of the boats were from Whitehorse in the Yukon, and the third was sailed by a guy and friend from Homer – the primary goal of the trip was fishing, especially for halibut.
One of the smaller fillets
When Angie peppered them with questions about halibut rigs, bait, and technique, she quickly got invited aboard one of the boats for an afternoon of fishing. And it’s a good thing she did, because she landed two nice-sized fish (each about 20 pounds) and got to spend a beautiful afternoon anchored out on the water.
Bob’s ~140 lb halibut after filleting. Darren caught a similar-sized fish the day before.
All of the folks we met were great, and we’re especially grateful to Bob and Darren for taking Angie out for the day.
Bob and Darren joined us for a celebration dinner aboard Madrone
