This isn’t a story to brag about my Alaska fishing prowess. This is a story about the stars aligning to defy the bounds of logic, and also brag about a hell of a fish I was lucky enough to catch one day in July 2022.

Any fisherman will tell you — there are good days, and there are bad days. That’s just fishing.

One of the things I’ve learned working on a fishing boat is that it’s all a matter of probability. If you fish EVERY. SINGLE. DAY for an entire summer, you’re bound to have some good days, and of course some bad ones, but the more often you have a line in the water, the greater chances that lightening will strike.

Flash back to July 20, 2022. It was a bluebird day in Homer, Alaska. The M/V Diamond Cape “set sail” for the far reaches of the Chugach Islands, a 2+ hour run from the harbor. As we rounded the corner at Point Adams and entered the Gulf of Alaska, the mountains rose like a scene from Jurassic Park in the early morning light. We rode the current through the Elizabeth Channel and eastward towards the far side of East Chugach island.

A light, icy breeze blew down Cook Inlet at we headed out of Homer, Alaska in the spring of 2020. The cloud ceiling was high, but the air was still filled with a grey morning light. A slight chop rippled the smooth, deep green ocean water as we throttled down in a thicket of kelp blooms north of Homer.

Fishing those areas can often be slow, but the fish are usually plump and healthy, and sometimes there are lunkers cruising the shallows looking for an easy meal.

It was early morning, maybe 7:30 a.m., when I threw anchor over the side of the Storm Petrel in just 30 feet of water. The stern of the boat pointed south with the gentle pull of an outgoing tide. My guys took their rods and dropped bait to the bottom — it didn’t take long to get down.