We have been back in Homer the past three days, switching from a birding focus to fishing focus.

Thursday and Friday, we fished the end of Homer Spit, catching many small fish (and non-fish).  In a weird two hour period of very low tide, I caught 6 sea stars (starfish) and 6 real fish.  Apparently, the sea stars here in Homer love herring!

While we threw all the sea stars we caught back into the water, during this particular low tide they were all over the beach as well.  Fortunately, most of them would soon be back in the water with the incoming tide. 

While we caught plenty of edible fish such as pollock,  cod and sole, we also caught a number of the strange looking and venomous sculpin. 

This sculpin had recently swallowed a large crab.  C pulled the crab out to get a better look at it, then gave it back to the fish and threw him into the water where he swam off, likely confused!

Today, we went with a group of friends on a 3/4 day halibut charter with Homer Ocean Charters.  We finally saw the whales we had been seeking for 12 days! 

Each of us caught our limit of 2 halibut each, totaling roughly 85 pounds of meat.  The ten of us ate 5 pounds of our fresh halibut tonight for supper.  Scrumptious!

P.S.  If you like to watch Deadliest Catch, take a look abive at the boat in dry dock near our Thursday campsite. 

P.P.S.  Bird lists for two short stints:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S238448514

https://ebird.org/checklist/S238947794