My grade schoolmates Pat and Sean arrived on the ferry Aug 20. We slept in the next day because their favorite establishment in Craig doesn’t open until 10 am. We headed out later that morning, and started fishing. We caught a few coho at the island coho drag and had coho salmon for dinner after we anchored at the island anchorage.
The next day, we fished the same drag and caught a handful more coho. I kept a pink salmon for dinner as well, and the boys loved it. It’s really hard to beat fresh pink salmon – regardless of what any Alaskan might tell you. We anchored by the island anchorage again – the time we’d anchored in the same spot this trip.
On day 3, we were plagued by pinks at my favorite king drag, so we headed out to H.I.T.W. We caught a handful of coho there, and I got a lingcod. We had lingcod for dinner, and I think both boys had seconds. This was their first time eating ling cod, and it would not be their last. The salad greens from the store were a little past due for eating fresh, so I sautéed them with some sliced onion, and the boys liked that too.
On day 4, we tried to get to Ulitka, but on approach, the swell was too big, so we hung a right and fished behind a big nearby island that is in the lee of the NW wind- my first time fishing there. I caught nice ling cod, but we caught no salmon. So, we moved back to HITW, and the boys caught a few coho. We tried my favorite king drag again, but it was still one pink salmon after another, even using all my bag of tricks I learned while power trolling, such as fishing lures with no red on them, and fishing large lures. For dinner, I made fixings for burritos, including canned deer burger, onions, beans, some ancient pre-cooked Costco rice bowls, and some canned tomatoes, with tortillas.
We moved back to inside waters and tried the coho island drag. We caught a few coho and lost one in the first hour, then the place went absolutely dead. Not even a random pink salmon. So we left for town just after noon, as the boys were almost out of beer and other necessities. We topped up the fuel and water tanks on the way to the harbor. The boys got beer and other fine things, and I restocked salad greens and my near beer. The boys had a hard sleep at the cabin, and I slept on the boat in the harbor.
We left South Cove about 830 the next morning. We caught a couple rock fish trolling at Cruz Pass buoys. I caught a king salmon there once, so had to try it on our way north. We continued running north east, and fished by the island site of a former Tlingit community, but nothing there. We motored further northeast, and I idled shortly in the channel to show the boys the sacred shaman grave site that is, I’d say, one of the more significant sites I’ve ever seen.
I set a 2 hook skate at the confluence of some channels. After I let the buoys go, I thought maybe I needed to put more line on the longline after I saw the current dragging on the buoys. When I tried to pull the line back up, the line – halibut groundline, no less – parted – so I lost some gear. I think the line that looked good to my inexperienced eye must have been rotted, so more life tuition paid.
We ventured up into Sea Otter Sound. We trolled around at some of the locations listed in my fishing book, but caught nothing. Then we tried what I went up there for: to try fishing my shrimp trawl. I went to the only site I knew – where my friend Mike introduced me to it a decade (?) ago.
The first drag went great! I fished the trawl at about 275 feet, and caught a gallon of spot prawns. The next 3 trawls in practically the same drag were a bust. I kept hanging up the net, and caught nothing. The shrimp was more than enough for dinner in a dish with red onion, bell pepper, tomato and cucumber with salad, plus leftovers for lunch the next day. I set the skate with new skate line afterward, and we anchored nearby. I was really enjoying exploring this new country.
There was nothing on the skate the next day. We tried fishing a few places my friend who lived most of his life in nearby Edna Bay suggested, but caught nothing, so we ventured to another spot on the chart book. We caught a king salmon, some coho salmon, and I caught ling cod on the drag that ended right by a long bay that was our anchorage for the evening.
On Aug 19, I was up early and we back-tracked to the spot where we caught the king salmon, but nothing there. We were there now at the opposite tide as when we got the king yesterday, so I noted that. We fished to the point, and with the swell from the big ocean bearable, we kept on going southwest around the outside of the island. I figured we’d fish it in one direction and end up back at HITW.
The boys caught a coho and 2 big rockfish. At Cape Lynch, Sean and Pat were tending to a small rockfish on the starbard rod when I looked back from the helm to see that the port rod had released from the downrigger. The line was going out at about 45 degrees from the stern, with very little bend in the rod and no indication of a fish on.
I turned the boat towards the fish, rather than put the boat in neutral, to maintain sterage in the heavy swell, and clicked on the autopilot. I made my way back to the stern. I lifted the rod, which made a big bend in the pole. There was no throbbing to it, so I thought – must be kelp. I started to pull back and reel, pull back and reel, pull back and reel. Still, nothing that would indicate a fish was on there, except that the flasher never came to the surface. By the time I worked the fish close the boat, the boys were done with their side, and came over to see what was on my hook. The boat idled back over the line, so we were surprised when the flasher suddenly popped out of the water, followed by the cop car king kandy cut plug, which had slid up the line when the hooks released from the lure. By now, I suspected I had a halibut, and saw something brown behind the flasher. Then realized: that’s no halibut, but a big linger! A 35 lb lingcod to be exact.
I called to Pat to bring the big net and he netted the fish on the first try. I sure like the huge mesh net. I took it off the boat as I thought it was too big, but then returned to the boat just for netting bigger chicken halibut, big king salmon, and now, big lingcod.
The waves built up as we landed the fish, and the rain started in heavy. When I asked the crew if they wanted to keep fishing or retreat, they voted unanimously for warm and calm, so we ran the rest of the way around Heceta to the Maurelle islands and found calm anchorage in the islands. After I set the pick, we took care of the fish.
What an impressive fish these lingcod are. Teeth you don’t want to mess with. Built sort of like a pike for ambush. We had lingcod again for dinner. Our first repeat seafood of the trip. The crew’s new favorite fish.
Aug 20 was our next to last day fishing. I weighed anchor at 615 am, and cautiously felt my way for the first time through a little channel called Launch Passage. I put the track on the gps plotter so I’d have it for next time (if I didn’t hit bottom, of course). The trail took me through rocks and little islands. At the exit, rocks shown that did not show on the plotter navigation chart. I was grateful we were traveling at low tide when the rocks were exposed or I could easily have hit them. With a sigh of relief, we flushed back to open water in thick fog, and ran to Ulitka by radar and GPS.
Ulitka had about a 7 ft swell, but the boys said they were up for trying it. They caught a nice king, and released a few pinks, along with a coho with a bite out of its side. I caught a ling cod. In mid-afternoon, we returned inside of the cape, and I tied up to my personal mooring buoy there attached to the anchor that I hung on the bottom earlier in the summer.
My inlaws were out fishing and stopped in to say hello. When they left, we were enjoying a beverage in the evening sun on the back deck when we heard folks on the boat Grand Finale, anchored further out in the bay, hollering about something. A couple folks fishing in a raft near the boat landed a nice salmon, and high-fived each other. The woman squealing on the back deck of Grand Finale played a nice chicken halibut up on her salmon rod.
On our last day fishing, I was up early. The boys were still waking up, so I put the gear out for the first time this trip, and saw that flashers were rigged upside down! Yesterday, I’d told the boys to experiment with any lures they wanted, and somehow the flashers got flipped on the rod. Well, they caught a king salmon the day before, so whose to say which is the right way to rig a flasher??!? We caught a couple coho outside of the cape, then trolled to the inside of the cape, and kept going towards Steamboat Bay.
On the way, I put the boat on autopilot to go to the galley to put on a second pot of coffee. I was gone maybe 2 minutes, and hear a “thwack” in the back. I ran to the helm and saw I’d run us up on 45 ft of water and kelp with 70 feet of downrigger line out! We lost a cannon ball and all the terminal gear on one side. Just goes to show experience is no guarantor. Paying attention wins the day.
Thick fog then moved in, and I put the radar on. As we trolled inland, not being able to see more than a few hundred yards in the fog, a full grown humpback that seemed to have been sleeping suddenly blew and dove right next to us with it’s magnificent white colored tail, inside the kelp tideline I was staying to the outside of to avoid the kelp. Normally, kelp is the bane of my trolling existence, but in this case it may have saved us from running over the whale, which would not have been good for us or the Jeanne Kay.
We fished my favorite drag and caught nothing so pulled up the gear and headed for Craig City. Another great trip with the Bolivar Homeys.
