Ray, Tim and Dave were here for 4 days of mostly boating and watching fishing rods. Not many fish. Julie and I went to help my brother in law check crab pots the day before she left, and I had some of the crab with me for dinner the first night. We had half of the one coho we caught for dinner on day 2. Then a chicken halibut for dinner on day 3, because we caught no salmon. And on day 4, we had a pink salmon – as the big and only king salmon we caught during the trip could not be butchered by law until we got to the dock…. that’s it for the fishing details.
Tim and Dave were a year ahead of Ray and I as Peace Corps fisheries extension agents in Sierra Leone in the about 1987. I’d seen Ray once since we’d been back, but not Tim or Dave. As is always the case, it seems, although we’d not spent time together in almost 40 years, we were immediately at ease with each other, having shared what we all agreed were the longest 2 years of our lives.
I picked them up at 630 pm from the ferry. An hour or so later we were underway on the tug to an anchorage. I realized about an hour out of town that I’d left my phone in the truck, distracted by all the catching up with my friends on the drive in. Oh well. We had dungeness crab for dinner. I asked them if they wanted a half or whole crab, and all of them said whole. And they ate every bit of it. After a few beers (and a near beer for me), we hit the rack. I was a bit worried they might feel a bit crowded on the boat, but all were game and said they slept well.
The weather blew up the first night and the anchor drug a bit, setting off the anchor alarm. This woke Ray at his bed at the helm, but Dave said he didn’t hear it sleeping in the forecastle. Tim, sleeping across from him, said he heard the alarm, but nothing of the wind and rain whipping the boat as a front moved through. I put my clothes on and let out more scope on the anchor line and that fixed us. By morning, the front had moved through.
We fished my favorite drag the next day in the rain. We caught one coho, had another good strike that came off before someone grabbed the rod, and that was it. We set my halibut skate, and anchored in a new anchorage. We had coho salmon fried in butter with salt, pepper and rosemary for dinner, and again, the boys cleaned their plates.
The next day the weather was a bit less rain, but still slow fishing. We fished by the high island and the island near town. Just nothing! I got ahold of my friend Mike through Tim’s phone – why yes, I happen to be coming out to the cabin right near where you’re fishing tomorrow! Can you get my phone, I asked? Sure, he said! A while later he texted – do you have a PINK phone case – that when I knew he’d found it in the truck! He was soon out with his family to the cabin. Part of his crew idling to the beach had my phone in their skiff, and as I swung by on the tug, Tim held out the net and they dropped it in. We caught a small halibut that I normally would release, but this one, I thought, would feed all four of us, and our prospects for a salmon were looking poor for the day, as we only released one shaker. So that fish was dinner. I melted some butter, dredged each fillet in the butter, then dredged the fish pieces in almond flour to bake. Then the oven decided not to work. A first, as it has always worked just fine and I use it very little. The pilot light worked, but no gas came into the heating tube to light. So, I fried the fish in butter. I was worried the almond flour coating would come off, but it held on surprisingly well. Not a morsel left after dinner.
We anchored that evening in a brand new anchorage for me. Steve told me this spot was better than were Julie and I had anchored in the same area, and he was not wrong. It was flat calm in there. As I anchored, I saw a buck on the beach. Then another one joined it! We saw movement behind them, and it was a pair of sand hill cranes. The two bucks rubbed antlers a bit, but didn’t aggressively spar. Then, whatta ya know. The two cranes joined them, feeding right next to them. We didn’t bother any of them being there, it seemed, as they paid us little attention.
My neighbor had fished next to us by the island near town before we got the phone from Mike’s crew, and then headed further out towards open ocean. I texted my neighbor after we ate dinner to ask if he found any fish today, and he said no, but he’d heard there were fish at Hole in the Wall, a place I’d not fished before as it’s pretty exposed to the big ocean on the outside.
The next morning we tried my favorite spot, and nothing. There were two seiners fishing at the point, which meant we’d have to negotiate around them if we stayed where we were. It seemed like every charter boat in the area was cruising buy us and headed to Hole in the Wall. Must be they got the same intel. It was flat calm, so we decided to make a run to Hole in the Wall and try it.
I texted Mike and got info on fishing the area as he’s fished around it quite often. We arrived there in about an hour, and dropped our gear. We followed the sport and commercial boats trolling along the shore of the islands. It was the best day yet for weather, with sun, a breeze, and calm seas. At about an hour into fishing, as we cleared the island to the west, whammo! Dave grabbed the rod and this wasn’t another false alarm or kelp. We did the firedrill to get the other rod reeled in, and both downriggers up and cannon ball weights aboard. Then we pulled up the drag buckets so there’d be no opportunity for a tangle in them. By that time, Dave had played the fish beautifully to the boat, and I admit I was a little gun shy with the landing net now after losing 3 fish last week with Julie. But we got this one on the second try, and it was a beauty. About 18 to 20 lbs or so. Ocean bright and fat. I don’t remember being more relieved for a day’s fishing. Ever. That made the whole trip to catch a beautiful fish on the last day. The closest thing was fishing with Joel and Clay 3 or 4 years ago and not getting much action til the very last day. Anyway. Whew!
We caught an ocean bright pink salmon on our next pass, then tried Ulitka. The seine fleet was fishing on the outside waters as their opening coincided with favorable weather. It was spectacular seeing all the boats out there fishing. We got to watch 2 seiners working at Ulitka. We caught nothing at Ulitka, and we heard a mayday on the radio. A crewman on a seiner had gone overboard when setting the seine net, and by the time they could get to him, he’d drowned. They called the Coast Guard for a helicopter and it sounded like they did CPR. The Coast Guard got a helicopter on the way – from Sitka, I presume – and I knew it would take awhile to get to our area to the seine boat.
The swell was getting to us at Ulitka, so we tried HITW again. I look north, and there’s the helo! The boat in trouble was not far away at all. When the boat captain started talking with the pilot, he said they’d got the crewman breathing and he’d come around. That was a relief to everyone in earshot. The helo dropped a rescue swimmer, who went aboard the vessel to assess the crewman, then the helo lowered a basket for the crewman and rescue swimmer to get in, and away they went. Wow.
We caught nothing at HITW and it was getting later in the afternoon. It was about a 3 hour run to town, so we decided to try one last pass at my favorite spot on the way in. Seiners were also working there, so we didn’t put our gear out til we were passed them and half way up the drag. Not long after our lures were working, we went through a big ball of feed. I turned to watch the rods. The one between Ray and Tim got a fish on, but they were yaking and oblivious till I yelled. By the time Ray got the rod out of the holder, the fish was there for just a second and gone. Kind of par for the course for the week!
We trolled the rest of the drag, and Ray managed to break an Ugly Stick rod just trying to pull it out of the downrigger release. This is the second time this has happened to me – I broke the first Ugly Stick the same way. The only painful part of it was that I bought these at Log Cabin in Craig for real money. They weren’t garage saled or thrift store bought like most of my rods (and possessions in general). When I was a kid, Ugly Sticks used to brag about being “unbreakable” with a lifetime guarantee, but when I tried getting ahold of someone for the first rod, I spent a lot of time getting zero response, so I gave up trying. Live and learn.
We checked my skate on the way home for more nothing. Once we got around the corner to the deep water for town, I put the boys in charge of the helm with the auto pilot, and fried up the pink salmon. The fish was just enough for the four of us, and not a crumb was left. The boys cleaned up the galley afterward, and by the time we got to town, the boat was ship shape. We got their gear offloaded and headed back to the cabin.
We yaked for an hour about the days on the boat. They said they had a fantastic time- fish or no fish- just being out on the water for several days. Sounds like they’ll be back. I specked them out on the shower and futon operation and the beds for the night. Since they would occupy all the available bunks, I headed for town to sleep on the boat.
I was back to the house before 5 am. Luckily, I had plenty of fish in the freezer to share with them, and they were incredulous at getting so much fish. We headed to the ferry and got there right as passengers were boarding. We said our goodbyes and they were soon off to Ketchikan.
I got back to town and got right on my next task to complete before Tom and his brother in law get here in a few days: an oil change for the Jeanne Kay. It took me the usual too long to get that done, and I left then engine area opened up and will clean up the boat tomorrow. Such a great trip with these long lost friends.
