Tom and his grandson returned this year. This time with Grandma Sarah. Tom and Sarah are two of my closest friends. We attended extensive training for the Peace Corps together at the University of Oklahoma, then were stationed close to each other when we started our jobs in Sierra Leone. I’m the Godfather for their only daughter, which says alot for two devoted Catholics who are very familiar with my potty mouth.
They arrived in town and we went right to the boat and steamed to an anchorage I’d not used before. It was going to be dark by the time we got to my familiar intended anchorage. We had pizza for dinner and got settled for the week.
The next day we fished one of my new favorite spots I learned this year, thanks to my brother in law. Sarah caught a big king salmon in the first 20 minutes we had the gear out. Oh boy, I thought. That’s gonna ruin her. We got 2 more kings and a coho. And a pink salmon we kept for dinner. I finally caught up to an old friend on the drag in another boat. He guides for a lodge here. He and I were out camp guides for fly in lodges in Bristol Bay back in the 1980’s. I saw him on the kicker of the boat, his clients mooching. I called out that I thought they’d put him in a home. Then called to him by name. He said it wasn’t Nick….. It was Nick. He finally realized who I was and came by the tug on his way to another spot and we had a quick chat. Great seeing him. He made the best cowboy coffee I’ve ever had.
We anchored nearby in a now familiar cove. Jasper went to the beach in the folding kayak- the first to try it out. He loved it. He found an antler shed and other treasures along the beach. The adults dined on fresh pink salmon and green and potato salads.
The next morning we fished the same spots. Nothing. We tried other spots in the area. Nothing. Excepts we got a few nice rock fish we kept for dinner. We headed around the island to my other favorite spot that is usually fishable in most winds. Even when it blows there in these dry hot days in the afternoon, it’s calm in the mornings. We hit the afternoon winds as we neared the corner to turn with the wind. We were trolling as normal, and whamo. A big king. I had to keep the speed up until we could clear the kelp beds and turn the corner. The net had a hole in it, and the king went through on the first try. I grabbed a gaff, and slung it on board before we lost it. That fish made our day.
The adults had panko fried rock fish for dinner. Jasper hit the beaches in the kayak again, and found the top half of an otter skull, a lower wolf jaw, and reported there was sea asparagus on the beach. He remembered what it looked like from us finding it up near Juneau last year, and brought back a piece of it so I could confirm his find.
I was up early the next morning, and put the gear out as we left the anchorage about 530 am. I told the crew we’d need to fish early as the winds would come up mid day, and everyone was agreeable. We caught 5 cohos in the morning on the ebb tide. When the tide started to flood, nothing. Then the wind came up. So we headed to the spot to set the 2 hook skate, using a pink head and a coho head for bait, then tried to find a spot out of the wind to fish. I’d hoped we could fish the spot Sean and Pat and I fished when we saw the orcas, but it was too breezy. We fished a spot nearby in calm waters, instead. We didn’t get a bite. The crew took turns taking naps in the 70+ degree heat, and a humpback whale cruised around the tug for entertainment. After a couple hours of nothing, we motored to the anchorage.
We anchored in the same spot as the first day. It was the only anchorage we used that no one had beach combed. This anchorage has 3 little islands alongside the big island that make the cove. Even I went in the punt and used my electric outboard for the first time. Took me a minute to figure out how it all worked, and it worked great. I found a couple shots of ⅝ (?) line, maybe from shrimp pots, along with a bait jar bottom in one spot and a lid that fit it in another.
When I got back to the boat, Tom and Jasper took the punt and kayak into another beach. They came back with a big crate that we could use for draining fish and cleaning shrimp. Jasper found another otter skull- this time with both top and bottom jaws, and all the teeth.
I used half the salmon burger they’d spoon-scraped off the frames, along with some onions, Mama Lils peppers, butter, pancake mix flour, and milk, to make a cream sauce, and mixed it with spaghetti noodles. Everyone had seconds. Except Jasper, who had plain noodles that I’d saved for him.
The second halibut had pock marks all over it, and some of it’s fins had the flesh eaten between the fin rays. Sand fleas, I thought. We had arrived just in time. There was no damage to the flesh. In fact, it was very well bled.
I showed Tom how to fillet a halibut. And just like Joe, another in our Peace Corps training group who was here earlier in the summer, I butchered my fillet showing him how to do it. The remaining 7 fillets (and cheeks) Tom did were about as good as they get. So little meat left on the ribs you could about see through what was left. The crate Jasper found worked great to drain the big fillets.
The two big fish changed our plans. We had enough ice to keep the halibut fillets cool, but we’d need to butcher and get it frozen and couldn’t do that out here.
We headed to our salmon drag in pretty heavy fog to fish the morning before heading to town. We started to catch cohos steadily, but I was having a hard time staying oriented as I couldn’t see the beach. As we neared the point, I saw three boats ahead on the radar, so turned back as I didn’t want to fish near boats I couldn’t see. As the fog burned off, I saw the boats weren’t sport fishing boats, but 3 purse seine boats. We headed back towards the boat so the crew could watch the action, and I explained how purse seining worked. They got to see the boats pursing up and see the fish they brought on board. And all the while, we were catching cohos. Nice big cohos. On the 10th fish, I said let’s head for home. It was 1230 noon. The crew said we had to. We were out of cooler space. So Tom and Jasper and Sara got the coho cleaned and put in the cooler and I motored for town.
We got to town just before the charter fleet arrived at the cleaning tables, and luckily got our own table. Tom knows his way around fish and game processing, and he and his crew made the whole job smooth and efficient. We were done before I knew it, motored to our slip in the harbor, and were headed to the cabin an hour earlier than I thought we would.
It was near 90 degrees inside the container in the late afternoon heat. Opening the windows seemed to make it hotter. So for the first (or maybe second) time, I switched the heat pump from heat to cool, and turned on the air conditioner so we could get to the task at hand in a little more comfort.
We got the 100+ lbs of halibut fillets and the 40 lbs of coho fillets rinsed, drained and into vac pac bags. I loaded our freezer, which has become pitifully inadequate this summer. Then Tom and I took the rest to my inlaws freezer, and we were done for now. Today felt like one of the best days on the water in my 60 years, with everything going right with people I know and enjoy so well.
We went to Coffman Cove the next day to attend the Art Festival and eat dinner at the burger joint there. The crew was not disappointed.
