Family in Town
My sister, her husband, and their grown daughter and son were here last week. Fishing was pretty good. Everyone caught fish. Everyone went fishing but didn’t want to go everyday. Which was great for me, because of course I did want to go and so got to go almost every day and I got a lot of fishing in.
We started the week as crew for my friend Larry’s landing craft. We spent the day traveling to Tenakee and back. We saw whales bubble net feeding down near Tenakee and Larry was more than happy to stop and watch awhile. Everyone who wanted to drive for awhile was welcome to do so with Larry by their side for conversation and instruction. I sent the crew ashore in Tenakee to explore the town while Larry and I offloaded. Everyone in Tenakee is happy to see Larry coming to town with their freight.
We spent most of the rest of the week out fishing. We got enough coho and pinks from our boat, and bought some sockeye from Chris, to fill a couple smaller fish boxes for the parents for the winter. I took some of the crew up to Little Island to see the sea lions. We cooked what we normally do – salmon and halibut and venison – and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Nephew Matthew stayed on for an extra week before leaving for graduate school in Hawaii. We hand trolled out in Chatham and caught a few fish every day. Matthew was content driving while I ran the gear and cleaned the fish. It is purely a pleasure to be able to just fish with someone else at the wheel. Matthew was a natural at driving, avoiding kelp and other boats, and always asking if he had a question.
He’s had quite a life in in his 20 something years, having lived in Canada, Vietnam, Haiti, and most recently South Korea. As a result, we hadn’t ever spent much time together and so slow days hand trolling were a perfect setting to catch up.