Julie arrived and immediately began organizing our container cabin, despite my pleas that she can’t fix me. And I don’t say reorganize. But organize. I don’t know that it ever has seen organization, except for the periods Sara has spent here. Julie also thrifted me a sweet set of cop car color size 15 Crocs and a spare wash down hose I saw on a picture of something else she asked about at the thrift store in Ketchikan, while she was waiting for the ferry to Hollis after her flight to Ketchikan. Sean came in the next evening, and we were off fishing on day 3.
The forecast was solid for NW winds of 15 kts. We had one on for a short time that got off before someone could grab the rod, then the winds blew up. We moved to the world renouned chicken hole, where I’ve never caught more than a rockfish maybe, and caught. With nowhere else to fish in my rolodex, we returned to an anchorage near Gertrudis so we could fish it again in the morning until the winds came up.
Sister Julie – an Annapolis grad and helicopter pilot – is a fix-it person. I bought a spare downrigger on Haines buy sell trade facebook that Roy brought down, and she and I soon had it apart, and she helped me fix it. Then we got the downrigger I bought new last year that has been nothing but trouble. She helped me diagnose it to… just a loose belt all this time! Luckily I grabbed a piece of white king from the freezer on the way out the door, so we still had salmon for dinner and a beautiful evening. They got to see a lot of whale action, including a poka-dot-tail-whale – the first of it’s kind I’ve ever seen. I was the only person aboard who seemed aware we didn’t catch anything today.
The next day, we were skunked again. We did get a nice show of a seiner fishing at Gertrudis, but they only made one set, as there aren’t many pinks showing yet. Instead of going to the chicken hole, we went to Ignace, where there might be coho. There were not. But, I did see my good friend Lew, who got me my job on the North Slope. He made me feel alot better saying he hadn’t caught fish anywhere either due to a lack of options from the wind. He told us to go check out the cost recovery seiner fishing in Port Assumption, a project that started while I was still at ADFG in the hatchery section. We headed to a protected anchorage, and I set my halibut skate on the way. The next day we caught nothing again, BUT, there was a nice 30 lb halibut on the skate, so not skunked for the trip! Sean left the next day, and Julie and I chilled at the cabin, with her doing more organizing and me more watching her organize. She also helped me get my sewing machine working, then sewed a couple patches on my favorite Carhartts.
Julie and I headed out early the next day. We were working on the downrigger, fishing across the strait towards Lulu from Gertrudis. We turned around and back toward Gertrudis and as we were working on it, the rod bent down right in front of my face. I thought it was kelp. I was wrong. Finally, a king salmon! We even got a second one that day. We might have got a third, but I allowed the line to wrap in the drag bucket line and it got off. On the way to our anchorage, we saw 2 bull orcas and a cow. One of the bulls may have been the largest orca I’ve ever seen. It was just enormous, with a huge dorsal fin that seemed extra wide at the base.
The next day we were up to beat the wind and soon caught a king. The next one- a 25? lber maybe, I lost due to pilot error at the next. The next one – another one close to 20 lbs, I lost at the next as well. It was amateur hour in the landing net department. It overly bothered me the rest of the day, and the only thing that could make it better happened – we caught another king, which also jumped out of the net once but we got it. We anchored up early and Julie repainted the punt that our nephew Eaton originally painted in Tenakee a couple years ago.
The next day, we got one at Gertrudis the first hour fishing, then a shaker later. The big NW wind came up on schedule, and we got blown out late morning, so headed to Ignace. Another boat that got blown out of Gertrudis was there and we saw them catch 2 coho salmon – one right after the other, but that was it for both of us. I was glad to at least see some cohos in inside waters. We anchored in the islands behind Ignace, and Julie took a kayak her nephew Clay sent up for me to the beach while I took care of the fish. Julie brought back a pile of seine web and some cool little Japanese floats, maybe from the tidal wave there a few years ago. Sadly, as usual there were lots of plastic garbage that she herded up, hoping to make it easy for the next person in something bigger than the folding Tucktec kayak she was in to haul out. We had salmon burger wraps for lunch and salmon burger and salad for dinner.
We slept in til 530 this morning and headed to town. We checked the skate I set but nothing on it. As we got to town, Brian called. Want to go check some crab pots. Of course we do. So, we got fuel, returned to the slip and refilled the freshwater tank, then offloaded our gear and fish, including a pile of stuff Julie asked me about that I had on there and had never used. Now I have room in my cabinets for the boots and crocs that littered the floor under the galley table so you could never sit down, plus lots more. I told Julie she needs to come for 2 weeks next year.
We pulled pots out of Hollis, then stopped when we saw Lew on his lot cutting wood. He got to meet Julie and I met his friends who went on a trip to Telegraph Creek from Wrangell that Sara went on a few years ago. In an unusual sequences of events, the trip was just to check the crab pots, and not the usual extra curricular events like setting a halibut skate or grabbing some equipment or other day long adventure.
Julie was wiped out when we got back and I let her snooze. We took 6 of the crab and I cleaned and steamed them. Julie had one for dinner and I’ll take the rest with me when I leave on my next trip tomorrow.
