Petersburg Alaska

Cheeky

Once ate halibut cheeks

from waste heads the canneries

in filleting had tossed out 

The tastiest cut. And we

clever Kupreanof hippies 

my ‘70s hosts from across 

the tidal flats of Wrangel 

Narrows, Petersburg, Alaska

eagerly, sans ennui, scavenged

before our envious audiences

Eagle-eyed balds

glaucous-winged gulls

& those stoic predators

Nootka lupine & Sitka spruce

Back in the daze when each summer

I caught the ferry up the Inside Passage

& that one year a wild local dakini

I knew as Ruble leapt into my lap

as I waited on the public dock

& promptly farted. We both

laughed hysterically

& French kissed

Lupine Road Closure on Kupreanof Island

(photo courtesy of Jerry Roberts)

Here's John Rice's record halibut he caught when he was 17. His wife Mindy sent me this account: 

John caught this halibut with 40 lb. test line/30 lb. test leader with this pole.  He was fishing for salmon in a skiff out of Portage Bay.  The tide helped him as the halibut was working against it.  It took 2 hours to bring it to the surface where they shot it with a 44, hauled it into the skiff (not smart), and took it to the beach.  There it "came alive" muscles flexing that huge body all over the place.  It could have killed them. 

We did know a fisherman out of Petersburg who was trolling alone, pulled  in a big halibut which ended up giving him a compound fracture of the femur.  Fisherman tied himself to the mast and bled to death.  Boat eventually went aground.