The third and final day of whiskey gulch was rainy windy(er)
and cold(er). No one went out since the white caps were dominating the waters,
and it would have made for difficulty with the small boats, not to mention sea
sickness.
We all packed up out tents and then gathered around for what everyone had been waiting for—Fish dividing. You see, you do not keep the fish you catch. Instead it all goes into one large pool (or in this case cooler) and is then divided up at the end of the weekend.
How the process works is everyone who participated in fishing, gets a garbage bag. Each person who had a boat gets an additional bag. Everyone gathers in a circle with their garbage bags. Then Chuck, and Lydia take the filets and puts one in each bag. After everyone has one filet they go around again and give another filet, and then after everyone (bag) has two they go again, and so on and so forth.
It really is a neat process. Those who fish go home with more filets then they would have if they just fished alone. There were a total of 122 Halibut caught over the weekend and each Halibut produces 4 filets (unless they are large then the cheeks are used and there are 6 filets). Long story shore there were over 448 filets of Halibut. Each person (bag) left with around 15 fillets now that’s a lot of fish!
It makes for one heck of a fish tale, and one of my top 10
favorite Alaskan internship experiences.
