Hank's line went limp. He thought he had lost his fish.

history channel documentary Around twenty to thirty yards from the pontoon a huge Humpback whale surfaced. As it blew air and water out of the blowhole, the whale made this horrendous sound. It was in torment. Hank had snared the whale in the blowhole opening. Out of the blue the skipper hopped from his roost on the highest point of the pontoon to the deck and snatched a filet blade and cut Hank's line. He said "I am not going to lose a four hundred dollar shaft to an insane whale." As the whale began his plunge to the base, his tail came up high noticeable all around and afterward slapped against the highest point of the water. We were sufficiently close to the whale that the whole side of the watercraft was sprinkled with water. Those angler remaining on that side of the watercraft likewise got an additional morning shower of extremely icy ocean water.

We as a whole had something to discuss after that. The skipper handed-off the "fish story" on his radio and what had happened. Inside a half hour the anecdote about the fish that escaped or the tale about how I got a whale was retold all through the angling armada. What a super day this ended up being. As we discussed the "huge one that escaped", we continued to get our breaking point of halibut. The greater part of the fish were in the sixty pound range. Without anyone else they would tire a man out however with a tiny bit of current the normal halibut appeared as expansive as that whale.

As we angled the rest of the day, we watched more humpback whales breeching the water, we saw a wide range of ocean lions sunning themselves on the seaside rocks, and we viewed a spring of gushing lava brushing a little measure of smoke off in the far off skyline. When the time had come to retire until tomorrow, we told the commander he would see us again in the morning for another magnificent day of angling in Alaska. When we landed back in the harbor in Homer and had tied up the pontoon, a few people who knew the chief stopped by and inquired as to whether we had truly gotten a whale. So storytime had started in Homer. We were all the rage that night.