Jesse got here the day Pat and Sean left. I thought he got here two days later. Luckily, I asked him to pick up a sink part when he came on Tuesday, and that’s when he said I’m coming today!
Since it was a rainy day, and we would not get back to the boat until late in the day, we smoked and canned fish I had on hand, as he wanted to learn. We finished canning after midnight, so we slept in the next day. I learned something new on this batch of fish: the meat and skin and bone and fat left under the pectoral fins (which I cut off when I butcher the salmon) make great material for smoking and canning. I also tried using my 10 trays Cabela’s food dehydrator to dry the fish after taking it out of the brine, and that works great, too.
On day 2, we headed out in the morning. I decided to head to the outside waters as this might be the only day it wasn’t lumpy out there, as the north west wind was to return tomorrow. We made it to Ulitka at midday. No one was fishing at Ignace when we ran bay. Or at Gertrudis. Only one boat was fishing on either side of Ulitka when we got there. Uh oh.
We fished all afternoon. I caught a ling cod. We shook several pinks and a chum. We caught no king or coho. We tied up to my personal buoy and had ling cod and salad for dinner.
We were up at sunrise on Day 3. We fished in the lee of St Joseph’s Island at Hawg Rock to avoid the lump at Ulitka. I caught a smaller yellow eye rockfish and a ling cod. We moved to Hole in the Wall, and finally found some coho. And even better, only had to shake a pink or two. We also caught a nice chicken halibut. I set my skate and anchored up at midday to limit our processing time for the day. I saw a lot fewer charter and trollers out here so far this trip. I cooked rockfish for Jesse and I had ling cod for dinner.
We were going to hunt first thing in the morning on Day 4. Jesse wanted to see how I hunted blacktail deer here, as that’s what he hunts in California. There was fog at first light, so I checked the skate instead. Something had been on there that broke or bit through the 150 lb monofilament line. Then we fished til about 10 am and caught a couple coho. By then, the fog had burned off near us, so I used the coho heads for bait and reset the skate. We anchored and went deer hunting.
I called in a doe at two of the three locations where I called, and Jesse loved it. Jesse got to see a deer come to the call, complete with lots of nervous snorts. It was so warm that I think the deer were sleeping in the shade. We got back to the beach at midafternoon, and went back out so I could check the skate. Nothing. We continued on trolling and caught more coho. We headed to the new island anchorage and processed fish on the way. I set the skate on the way to anchor. I cooked sauteed canned deer burger with bell pepper, tomato, cheese and spinach for dinner with salad and tortillas.
Today marked Jesse’s last day fishing and my last day fishing for the summer. This was my 48th day fishing this summer. I caught about twice as many king salmon, and about 2/3 of the coho, that I caught last year. I checked the skate and somehow shook off the 70 lb halibut on there. I sure didn’t mean to. When I saw it come up, I thought: finally, a good halibut on the skate that’s been dry all summer. And what a great end to a great summer. It was pretty quiet in the wheelhouse for the next several hours. I was not happy with myself.
We caught nothing at Gertrudis. Except a consolation chicken halibut we later had for dinner at the cabin, which was on one of the rods, riding along behind the downrigger release without tugging it loose, until we brought the rods up to leave.
We made a pass at Ignace, and caught nothing, even though lots of feed showed there.
It’s been a different season, for sure. Although the season has been tough for trollers who don’t venture far from home or their traditional fishing area, the boats that ran to fish chum salmon near hatcheries at $1.75/lb sound like they may have had a banner summer. And after hardly any pink salmon showed up at all over the summer, they came in all of a sudden and there were, incredibly, record seine catches in Sitka Sound. And at 60 cents/lb – double last year’s price.
So, the end to another fishing season with good friends in the nice country I choose to live in. I learned several new fishing spots where I can get out of a west and northwest wind, and these spots produced larger lingcod than other places that we bycatch while trolling for salmon. Lingcod has quickly become one of my favorite and easiest to prepare fish.
We lost Bob, who fished with me last summer, to pancreatic cancer over the winter. He fought the Bastard with Eastern and Western medicine, and he lived a lot longer than most. I talk of him often with the other friends who come to fish. And also lots of kind reminders of Sam on the boat, as we use the camping plates and silverware for dinner each evening in the galley, and I sleep under a sleeping bag he gave me each evening. End of 2026 summer fishing!
