My friend Bob came down from Juneau to fish for the week. We were at UAF at the same time – he doing a PhD fisheries program when I was an undergrad – but we somehow didn’t know each other there. One link between us was Don, who befriended us both.
Bob’s beat back the pancreatic cancer in his body through a combination of modern medicine and self-healing. He’s on Sara and my list for people we’ve gotten fish to over the past few years during his illness. Right now, he looks healthier than I’ve seen him in years. I was surprised he felt up to coming down fishing for a week, and was happy to provide the opportunity. The fishing and weather did not disappoint.
The first day out, we fished for coho along a steep island where Charlie and I blew getting not one, but two bucks on different beaches a few years ago. We caught 9 cohos one after the other over a few hours, and several more came off. Bob said when he had a fish on, the cancer went away. We set the halibut skate in the honey hole for the first time this year, and anchored at pine Island and I took care of the fish while Bob rested. We had coho and salad for dinner.
The next day we moved to another favorite drag about an hour run away. We checked the skate on the way, and nothing there. There was nothing at the drag, either, and the NW wind that had come up over the past week made it less than comfortable to fish. So, we ran back to the steep island and scratched 3 cohos near top of tide. The wind was supposed to change, so we went back to the favorite drag to anchor. We set skate right out from the anchorage in the channel for the first time. Then we sent the anchor and went beach combing. I picked a couple bags of beach asparagus, and this was probably the last pick as the plants are getting buds and woody. I found another new patch by a creek making 3 spots I know of along this beach.
I discovered my freezer onboard was not working properly. I keep frozen water bottles in it to chill the fish we catch, so now we were limited to what ice we had and would have to go back to Craig to get more. We had dinner of salmon, salad, and sauteed beach asparagus. The next morning, I pulled the skate and had a 27 lb chicken halibut on! The sand fleas had killed it, but the gills were still red and the fleas had not gotten inside, so the flesh was still good. Great to find a new place we can set the skate so close to the anchorage. I put the salmon gear out, and we trolled all the way to the point for nothing so kept going around the point and whamo. A nice king. The humpback whale with the white scarred dorsal fin was there in its usual haunt, feeding right in the kelp on the shoreline. We saw the whale dive, and for the first time, I saw its massive scar across the left side of its body. I’ve seen this whale often, but never seen it dive deep I guess, so as to see the scar. Hard to believe it survived that injury. Wow.
We Trolled back up the drag and got a coho half way up. Near the anchorage we caught a shaker king, then got another one on right away. This one was a keeper and twin to the first one. We got three more coho.
We ran to town to replenish our ice. We butchered our fish at the container, then Bob went beach combing while I made dinner of king salmon and rock fish with salad. I introduced Bob to Alone on the History Channel, my only current TV show vice, as we watched episode 6 and ate our dinner
Brian stopped by last evening and said a lot of eagles seem to leave this time of year and no one is sure where they go. We put our the fish heads and frames in the usual spot last evening and nothing has come by yet as of today for them- eagles, ravens or crows. Bob rested up today. He said he might have had a GI issue with eating the beach asparagus. I vac packed the fish, put them in the freezer, and we’re all caught up now. Another hot breezy day here, with the wind out of the south. Only a partial day of rain in the forecast for next week.
The next day, we went back to the favorite spot. I gave Bob some options for other spots, and he said he was happy going back to where we’d been fishing. Good call. We set the skate. Then, we started to catch fish right away on the magic spoons, when we started trolling at about 11 am. By 230 pm we had about a dozen coho and a couple kings. The fish were all fat. Seems like a good year in the ocean for feed. The cooler was full with nearly all our ice on it, so we were done fishing for now. We anchored up, and hung out til 630 pm. After Alaska News Nightly, we checked the skate and nothing. I had Bob choose the next skate location, while I added a mesh bag of salmon eggs to the octopus bait on both hooks. We had king salmon and salad for dinner.
The next morning, Bob was tuckered out and still sleeping when I pulled the anchor about 6 am. The wind had picked up from the southeast, and I wanted to get the skate up before it was too rough. I let Bob sleep, and started pulling the skate on my own. Bad move. The breeze quickly put the boat downwind from the skate line, and the anchor hung. I made the mistake of tying off what line I’d pulled aboard and tried to run the boat upwind to take the load off the line. The boat couldn’t turn on a dime in the wind, tighted up the long line, and it broke (I found out later) at the anchor, and I lost one of the two hook, ganion, and snap set ups. Nothing on the other hook.
We spent the next few days at the container. Bob beach combed up and down our beach, while I changed oils on the Jeanne Kay, and sent some of our catch up to Juneau on Alaska Seaplanes to friends at the Salvation Army, and the widow of one of my fish business mentors.
I was up early this morning packing Bob’s fish boxes. I tried out the new used box bander I Craigslisted before I left Juneau for the first time, and after several times without doing it right, went to the University of You Tube and figured it out. Bob was up and at ’em, eager to see his wife again and tell her stories of his week fishing.
