On the morning of May 12th, my husband dropped me and my girlfriend, Beverly Seltzer at the Alaskan Airlines terminal in San Jose, CA. I couldn’t believe I was actually going alone to Alaska to fish in a tournament. 
Six months earlier, Bev had asked me to fish on her four man team in Sitka, AK. We would be competing in the Fenwick tournament that was hosted by Ronnie Kovach. Competing in tournaments was still a new experience for me and I had never fished in one without my husband. This would be my first visit to Alaska and I was nervous about how I would meet the challenges that lay ahead of me.
As David drove away, I realized he still had my wallet with my tickets, ID, credit cards, and money in the car! Alaskan Airlines was kind enough to book me a new ticket as “Random” Babineau (hence my new nickname). Good fortune smiled on us by delaying our flight an hour. Jeff, Bev’s husband, flagged down David and sent him back to the airport. He arrived in time to give me all my belongings and wish me good luck on the rest of my trip. I was beginning to wonder if I would survive the week. As Bev and I passed thru security they flagged me with a yellow “search me” card, this trip just kept getting better!!
Finally, we were on our way to Seattle. In Seattle we met up with Larry Lowman who was on our tournament team. Before arriving in Sitka, we stopped at Ketchikan, AK to drop off and pick up passengers. The guy operating the jet way hit our plane knocking off an antenna. This happened to be an important piece of equipment for the plane that needed to be repaired before we could leave for Sitka. The announcement of delay was made and they suggested we get off and stretch our legs. Bev and I exited the plane and while she chatted with other anglers, I checked out the gift shop. Finally the plane was ready to reload. Everyone lined up to reboard the aircraft, but when I got to the gate agent she asked for my ticket. No one said to take my ticket with me when we got off! My ticket was neatly tucked into the pocket in front of my seat on the plane. Another agent was called and I was taken to a computer where I was reassigned a ticket for, “Random” Babineau and was allowed to continue my flight. Bev really began to razz me. I was now convinced I would be dead by the end of the week and they would bury me with a headstone engraved, “Here lies Random Babineau, and she never had a ticket!”
Our flight finally landed in Sitka and we all got off looking for a taxi. Larry, Bev, and I were spending the night at Helga’s B&B so we shared a taxi. When we got to Helga’s Bev realized she’d left her vest and jacket in the plane's overhead. All her cash, credit cards, and ID were in her jacket pocket. Larry and I checked in and relaxed while Bev rushed back to the airport with the taxi. Unfortunately, the plane had already taken off for Juneau. The airline was very helpful and located the jacket. The jacket would return to Sitka around 11p.m. that night. Bev returned to Helga’s to check in. Helga greeted her by saying, “well, here’s the missing link!”, hence Bev’s nickname, “missing link”. We all went for a nice dinner then back to bed at Helga’s. Our taxi driver was nice enough to pick up and deliver Bev’s jacket to her around 12 a.m.
The following morning we met Steve Carson from Penn Reels, Danny the video guy, and some others in the fishing business for breakfast. After a breakfast of reindeer sausage, that looked suspiciously like a ballpark frank, Larry, Bev, and I shopped in the town of Sitka until Kingfisher Lodge picked us up at 1 p.m.
Kingfisher Lodge is set up like a condo complex. The buildings are large three bedroom condos. Our team of four, Larry, Bev, Dick Peterson, and I were assigned to the same bottom floor condo. Two other anglers from another team were also in our condo. It was great meeting all the other teams and Ronnie Kovach at dinner that night.
At breakfast the next morning Ronnie went over tournament rules and answered questions. By 6 a.m. we boarded vans and were driven to the harbor. At the harbor we got our boat assignments. We met our captain for the day and headed right out to fish for salmon.
The boats around us were catching fish, however, after three hours and not a bite we headed for the halibut grounds. The halibut grounds are out in more open waters and to get there we had to go through some tough currents and rough water. The water was breaking over the top and sides of the boat as we made our run out. Once out on the “grounds” I chose to fish my Calstar 410 grafighter, IGFA 60-80#. I made this rod with American Tackles spiral wrap roller guides and a Aftco unibutt reel seat system.
After a couple hours the rod tips began to bend, the fish had finally arrived! I watched my rod tip, tap, tap and I began to connect up my Smitty’s Ladies fighting belt. Finally the rod bent! Fish on! I picked up the rod and began to reel as I placed it in to the fighting belt. There was so much tension I thought for just a moment I had the bottom hooked but then I could feel the slight flutter in the rod that was a sign of the fish running on the other end. I kept the tension on the line as I fought to keep reeling the fish in. It was a tough fight even with the two speed Penn Reel. My rod performed beautiful! It stayed in place and there was no torque as I fought the fish. Several times I let go of the rod with my left hand 
to catch my balance and the rod stayed stable in the belt! I finally got the fish to the boat and the captain gaffed it to bring it on board. We measured the fish to determine its weight at 109 pounds!
Later we ran back closer to the island of Sitka to fish for lingcod and rock fish. Bev was able to pull in some nice yellow eye rockfish. I used another rod I built on a Batson Forecast Tuff Stick (TS66MH) blank with spiral wrapped Fuji Guides. The rod’s smooth action was very attractive to the lings. I pulled in 3 nice lingcod’s but couldn’t get a rockfish.
The next day Bev landed a very nice 24 pound salmon to tie with another angler for the biggest salmon of the tournament. The weather was still nice but the forecast showed that there was a storm front coming our way. I soon discovered the fears I had about fishing in the tournament were unfounded. Everyone was very nice and helpful. The boat Captains were very good at making suggestions and helping you rig your lines.
On the 3rd day we got into the salmon first thing in the morning but only Dick landed a fish. The weather was picking up so we decided to make a run for the halibut grounds before the weather got worse. While waiting for the butts to arrive, our Captain tossed a light rod rig off the back to try for rockfish. We all pulled in a nice yellow eye with this rod. Then I got a bite on my 80# 
Calstar and landed a 50 pound ling cod. Bev landed a halibut in the 80 pound range and Larry landed one in the 90 pound range both off the captain’s rod. Dick pulled in a small butt and I got one in the 30 pound range off my Calstar.
We went back to the salmon fishing area to try to pick up three more fish for grand slams.
As we trolled for salmon we got a lingcod followed by a halibut. Then Bev got to fight a nice salmon and as I brought in the other line, bam! Fish on! Bev and I both landed our salmon. Now it was Larry’s turn and we only had 30 minutes left before we had to bring our lines up and head in. We hooked two rockfish but the salmon evaded us. The day ended with everyone except Larry getting their “grand slam.” A grand slam obtained by catching one of each specified fish, salmon, rockfish, halibut and lingcod.
The next day the rains arrived in Sitka and we were happy to be heading home. The Alaskan adventure was over but not forgotten. The rugged beauty of the mountains and the eagles flying over head will be with me always. The sun never seemed to set, it was sunny when I went to sleep at 9 p.m. and shining bright when I awoke at 4 a.m. My rods preformed great and we all made it back to San Jose without any further “incidents”. Bev and I each had 75 pounds of filleted fish we brought back to our hungry husbands.
Bev and I had not been friends long before taking this adventure together. The experience brought us closer together and I now consider her one of my best friends. Bev is a type A fisherman while I take more of the type B approach to fishing. She’s yin to my yang which works very well for us. We are already looking forward to our next fishing adventure, and we may even take our husbands along next time.
