Alaska fishing trip is delicious experience for couples bringing their catch to kitchen
Outdoor adventure travel is a rewarding way to see the world, especially for people who think the whole idea of relaxing on a vacation is overrated. Traveling in pairs often is the most thrifty way to go, sharing cost for travel, food and accommodations. And couples who’ve made a commitment to each other reap even longer lasting memories. From time to time this summer, The Spokesman-Review will run a series of stories featuring several local couples who cooked up trips of a lifetime to match their cumulative interests.
Heading to Alaska last spring led to the fishing trip of a lifetime for two Spokane-area couples.
“Actually, it was our first fishing trip ever,” Molly Zammit said. “It was a big leap.”
Her husband, Phil, was intrigued by a story he’d read in The Spokesman-Review about a unique event called Hook It & Cook It.
“It’s interesting to read about fishing, hunting and backpacking and other things I don’t do,” Phil said. “In this case, I said I think we should do it.”
“I came home from work,” Molly recalled, “and he said I had to read the article. He’d already called Angling Unlimited (in Sitka).”
Molly said they’d “made it through 38 years of marriage with a lot of love and tolerance.” Phil thought this would be his chance to reel in another keeper.
Meanwhile, across town, another couple motivated by the story decided to troll for some saltwater adventure, too.
“Previous to this,” Nadean Meyer said, “my idea of a good fishing trip was to send Bill off with the kids so I could stay home and get something done without them.”
The Zammit family’s outdoor adventures were mostly related to camping through deluges during ill-timed church-group outings on the Coeur d’Alene River.
But Bill and Nadean Meyer are seasoned outdoors enthusiasts. They kicked off their marriage 43 years ago with a honeymoon aimed at hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
“We got 500 miles before the snow stopped us,” she said.
They’ve hiked numerous other routes, including the rugged West Coast Trail of Vancouver Island. They’ve also organized their own whitewater raft trips on the Salmon, Middle Fork Salmon, Rogue, Bruneau and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon as well as the Tatshenshini in Alaska.
But they’d never thought of specifically setting for a week of catching – and eating – fish.
What caught their attention was an annual mid-May fishing package that offers a delicious five-day Alaska outdoor experience along with daily seminars on savoring it again and again back home.
“I love to eat salmon and halibut,” Nadean said. “I was really intrigued.”
After years of roughing it outdoors on their self-outfitted adventures, she said, “We’re ready to be served and pampered occasionally.”
Angling Unlimited’s lodge and fishing boat fleet offers world-class saltwater fishing throughout the season. But during the Hook It & Cook It week in mid-May, one of the anglers is world-class chef Ludger Szmania, who owned a popular Seattle seafood restaurant for 25 years.
Each day after fishing and getting a chance to clean up in their rooms, guests stroll to the lodge’s hospitality room. There they can mingle and sip a beverage in an intimate setting around Szmania, who prepares tasty samples of the day’s catch while explaining every step in the preparation and cooking process.
The Meyers arrived in Sitka a few days early to hike to the top of a local mountain and see the totem poles and other sights.
“When you go that far, it always pays to have extra time,” Bill said.
Unlike most Alaska fishing trips, the lodge whets the appetite of the Hook It & Cook guests with the cooking rather than the hooking.
About 30 guests and guides gathered at 4 p.m. the first day in the lodge hospitality room. Szmania had already been out fishing that day and brought back some of his fresh catch to share.
Sitka offers the highest catch rates for king and coho salmon on the marine waters of the North Pacific, plus good fishing for halibut, lingcod and rockfish. All of that would be on the menu the next four days as Szmania prepared and served three fish hors d’oeuvres, soups or entrees a session.
The Meyers and Zammits joined a skipper and deckhand on a boat at 5 the next morning, and the first day was everything the couples could have expected and more.
“Everybody limited out, not just on salmon but on halibut and sea bass,” Molly said. “We hit the nirvana of salmon schools – and then we went back to the harbor and I went into town and found a quilt shop. I was in heaven.”
Phil found heaven, too, but not necessarily on the water.
“Fishing to me is like golf,” he said. “Whether I get the ball in the hole in one stroke or 29, it doesn’t really excite me. Fighting the fish was really exciting, but then I’m ready to go back to shore rather than bobbing on the water for eight hours.”
Instead of coming off the water and telling fish stories with hardcore anglers, the Zammits found a more eclectic crowd ranging from novices to veteran anglers and even newlyweds. A few solo women saw Hook It & Cook It as a nonthreatening and welcoming introduction to Alaska.
“What I enjoyed the most and loved the best was the evening meal,” Phil said. “Being with a bunch of nice people for three hours, watching and listening to the chef and then eating the delicious fresh fish. That was the highlight for me.”
Bill Meyer couldn’t overlook the obvious, though.
“The fishing the first day was phenomenal,” he said. “After the salmon and halibut bite, we went to an island with light rods for rockfish and that was crazy good.”
The fishing was so fast, in fact, the couples didn’t start soaking in their surroundings until the second and third days on the water when there were some normal lulls in the action.
Gray whales exploded from the water and breached by the boat. Sea otters, the occasional sea lion and bald eagles would check out the visitors during the daily fishing excursions.
The skipper would idle by rookeries of puffins and other seabirds as they ran the boat to new spots.
Much of the fishing was done in sight of snow-covered peaks and in the shadow of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano that sprouts from the sea.
“The second day was a challenge for me,” Molly Zammit said, noting that she was not aware the seasickness prescription medication patch she’d worn the first day had fallen off.
“I got so sick, but I didn’t want to give up,” she said. “I still found myself really enjoying getting something on my line.
“The scenery was beautiful and the others were having so much fun.
“Every time we turned around there was something to look at. And Captain Ryan and Jack, the crew, were spot on making sure we had a great time.”
Molly Zammit may go down among the few anglers in history who’ve told about a fishing trip that involved a day of serious seasickness and summed it up by saying, “For me, the entire four days was absolutely awesome.”
Besides the memories, an Alaska fishing adventure has a lasting major advantage over most vacations.
“Every time we eat some of the fish we relive a little of the trip,” Nadean said, noting that she and Bill came home with a year’s supply of vacuum-packed fish fillets.
“We filled our freezer and more. We’ve had a lot of fun giving it to friends and family and having people over for special meals.”