2014-06-30 More fishing with Jennifer & Memo

My daughter Jennifer and her boyfriend Memo are still in town and still had not caught any fish, so we had to remedy that.

Today we pulled out about 8:45 AM and headed South this time towards the Mountain Point area.  This is a popular fishing area, and it has an added bonus that other areas don't have.
Because there is a hatchery in the area this is deemed a "Terminal Harvest Area" by the Fish & Game and there are more lenient rules in effect.  In this area residents and non-residents alike can catch 6 King salmon of any size and keep them.  In other areas the limit is 2 per person and they have to be 28" or more.  Lisa and I got a 21" King in this area a few weeks ago and released it not knowing about the special rules.

Here's the Mountain Point area on a map snippet.  It's just a few miles from Ketchikan.
As you go around that corner and head north, you come to Herring Cove, which is where the fish hatchery.  I think the Fish & Game allows "snagging" at various times of the year because there are so many fish there.  But I have no interest in snagging.

One would assume that the presence of a fish hatchery would pretty much guarantee good fishing, but most fish lose their drive to eat when they get into spawning mode.  But, it is still a good area to fish.

We got started trolling around 9:30 AM, just trolling 2 lines even though we could have trolled 3.  With my 2 downriggers it's just easier to work with 2 lines.

The weather started out rainy and overcast with a SE breeze, but later in the day it cleared up and got real nice.

Over the course of the rest of the day we kept at it and eventually ended up with 2 Silvers, 1 Pink, and 2 small to medium Kings.  They were both under 28" but we were able to keep them since we were in the Terminal Harvest area.

We lost a few along the way, but that's just part of the deal.

Lots of kelp in this area, which makes it hard because you have to keep stopping to clear it off the gear.  Just slows you down.

We had a little bit of excitement right at the end of the day.  We had seen a sea lion in the area, but we didn't know how close he really was.  We hooked a nice Silver.  We knew it was a nice Silver because most of the time they go aerobatic and you can see them.

Memo was reeling it in when the sea lion came along and grabbed it and ripped it off the line!
Ach!  Not fair.

Here's the best pic I could get, from Jennifer's camera.  I zoomed it up a bit.

Here are some wrap up pics we took back at the dock before the cutting began.

In case anyone is wondering, I filleted the fish and we just put them in zip locks temporarily.  When we got home we vacuum packed them and froze them. 

2014-06-28 Fishing with Jennifer & Memo

Sorry I am a little behind on my blogs.
During the summer I am taking more trips than I have time to record.

My daughter Jennifer lives in Federal Way.
She came up with her boyfriend Memo to visit for about a week.

We went out for a few short hours this day, but only managed to lose a fish or two in the Clover Pass area, so not much to report.

But I did want to at least log the trip.
Not catching fish gave us a lot of time and opportunity to talk and catch up on events in our lives.
One thing nice about being out on the boat is that there are fewer distractions.
However, we were within cell range and the World Cup soccer matches were on, so ...

More trips to come with Jennifer and Memo while they are here.

2014-06-07 Carroll Inlet Trip

My crew for this trip was First Mate Lisa and First Puppy Bambina.

The weather had been sunny and warm all week, so you know what it was for the weekend, rainy and cool, with a little wind thrown in for good measure.

But it's summer, so we do what we do - go boating!

Here is our intended route from Bar Harbor to Shelter Cove in Carroll Inlet.

You can't tell from this map snippet but Carroll Inlet runs almost due North.

I did not get many photos this trip partly because of the rainy weather, and partly because we just didn't do that much.  That's not to say we did not enjoy the weekend, because we certainly did.

Here are a couple of shots of the USCG (US Coast Guard) vessels at the base that we passed on the way out of town.

This the cutter Anthony Petitte.  I apologize if it is not actually considered a "Cutter."  It could possibly be a "Buoy Tender."  Having never been in the Coast Guard I don't really know the different types of vessels that they have.

There are 2 USCG vessels in this shot, in case you can't tell.  These vessels have machine guns on the foredeck.

Because of Ketchikan's unique location on the Inside Passage, boats of all sizes pass through here during the cruising season.  The City of Ketchikan maintains several harbors around town, but those harbors really don't provide spaces for the really big mega-yachts to tie up.  So a few enterprising people in town have private moorage available for the big yachts.

I was following the blog for 76' Nordhavn Eliana when she came through Ketchikan,  They tied up at a private dock and they told me it was $3 per foot per night.  Quick math, that's about $250 a night for a place to tie up.

All of that is leading up to this next shot, the yacht "Glaze."  According to the Internet it is a 161' yacht.

Glaze is tied up at Doyon's Landing, which is one of the few private moorages in town.  I wonder what it's like to cruise around on a yacht like Glaze.

You can also see the bright orange wind sock in the right side of the picture.  We had a stiff SE breeze blowing as we made our way out of town.

We made our way into Carroll Inlet which is a very protected area.  We did some bottom fishing, just drifting along and not anchoring.  All I managed to catch were a few Turbot.  Turbot are a flat fish a lot like a halibut.  They are smaller, not getting very large at all, and they hardly have any meat on them at all.  We don't keep them.

Somewhere along this time I prepped and baited the shrimp pots and we dropped them in what I hoped was a likely looking spot.  I have not yet been able to locate a proven reliable spot for shrimp in this area, so I am still prospecting so to speak.

I had 3 options lined up for our night spot on this trip.  We prefer to be at a USFS (US Forest Service) dock if we can be.  That makes it a lot easier for stretching our legs, and we also don't have to worry about our anchor dragging.  There are two such docks in this area, Shelter Cove and Shoal Cove.  Shelter Cove was my first choice, so we headed that direction.

Unfortunately this is what we found when we got there.

This a bunk house/barge tied to the float taking up one whole side.  On the other side they have a float plane dock which boats are not allowed to tie to.  There is a small USFS boat already tied up on the right side, behind the float plane dock.  It might have been possible to tie to the front, but that blue buoy seen on the right foreground shows where the cable from the bunk house is anchored.  There is a similar buoy out of frame on the left.  That means there are two honkin' big cables coming from that bunk house barge.  Not good to tangle up with them - they always win.

The presence of the barge indicates that logging operations are either already fired up there or are about to be fired up.

So option 1 was a no go.  So we moved over to the Shoal Cove USFS dock.   And we had a fantastic dinner of hot dogs and baked beans while we were on our way.

Here is a shot of Faraway at the Shoal Cove dock:

We took a little hike up the road and stretched our legs.

I don't think Bambina has ever seen a deer before.  This deer saw her before she saw the deer.  The deer took a few timid steps toward her before Bina turned and growled and started chasing her.  Lisa was amused at the way the doe hopped its way off the road and into the brush, with Bina growling and chasing her.

We had a relatively quiet night at the dock, even though it rained fairly hard off and on during the night.  About 2:15 AM both Lisa and I heard a loud "Ka-thump" from outside.  We both thought it sounded like someone or something jumping on board.  So I turned on all the deck lights and went out and checked things out.  Couldn't find anything.  I think it might have been a bumper resetting itself between the dock and the boat.

Sunday morning we were up early and had a good breakfast.  We took another walk and then headed for home.

The shrimp pots were a disappointment, only yielding about 2 dozen shrimp.  We usually get a lot more than that.  There are two species of shrimp around here.  I call them Spots and Stripes.  Usually we get about 95% Spots, but this haul was 100% Stripes.

When we got over to the Herring Cove area I set the two trolling poles and we trolled up the shore line and around Mountain Point.  All we got was one undersized King, which we had to let go.

Back in the stall by about 2:15 PM.
57.1 nm for this trip.
Could have been a better trip, but it's better than staying home and sitting on the couch.

2014-05-26 Memorial Day Trip

Memorial Day weekend signals the official beginning of fishing and cruising season in these parts.  It is also traditionally the first weekend of the King Salmon Derby.  In years past I would fish the salmon derby obsessively, but in recent years not so much.

For this year's Memorial Day trip my crew was my wife Lisa and our little puppy Bambina ('Bina).

Our goals for this trip were very simple, just to relax and enjoy ourselves.

I had just gotten the boat back in the water on Thursday so she was looking fine, if I do say so myself.

After loading gear and groceries I fired up the engines at 10 AM, and we pulled out at 10:15 AM.
The weather was overcast with light SE winds.

The intended route for this trip was North up into Western Behm Canal.  It is a long route and so to properly show it I have broken it up into two portions.  Total distance without diversions is about 45 nm (nautical miles).

This is the northern portion of the route, from Naha Bay up through Shrimp Bay and into Klu Bay -

And this is the southern portion, from Ketchikan to Naha Bay.

We headed North up into Western Behm Canal, and made a brief stop in Clover Pass and shut down the engines and drifted while we had lunch.

I apologize for the lack of pictures on this trip, but sometimes I get so caught up in the moment that I forget to take them.

The cruise ships are here in full force now and one of the tour activities they participate in is kayaking.  Here are a few of them in Clover Pass:

Quite colorful, aren't they?  As for myself, I've never been in a kayak.  I've done a lot of canoeing, but no kayaking.

Lisa and Bina spent a lot of time sleeping on this trip:

We stopped and did some bottom fishing near Gedney Pass.
The weather was nice so we just drifted while fishing.
I got a few "Brown Bombers" aka Rock Cod.
The only keeper I got was a big Red Snapper.
This one had a squid (or cuttle fish?) hanging out of his mouth.
Did not have time to get a picture before it drifted away.
I forgot to take a picture, but here is one from my files just so you can see what a Red Snapper looks like.

We moved around a bit and tried some bottom fishing in a few different places.  The weather was so nice and the water so calm that we eventually just drifted out in the open and prepared dinner.  Dinner consisted of fresh Red Snapper grilled on the Foreman Grill, salad, and veggies.  Terrific!

By now it was getting to be around 7:15 PM and I anticipated sunset about 8:30 PM, so it was time to get packing towards our night spot.

I baited and prepped the shrimp pots and got them ready to set, and we headed towards Shrimp Bay, that's right, Shrimp Bay.

As we entered the bay I noticed what I initially thought was a log about mid channel.  The water was very calm, but it looked like there was a ripple behind the log, almost like it was being towed by something, but there were no other boats around.

As we got closer I realized that it was a Black Bear swimming.  Now there's something you don't see every day.  I did not have time to put my telephoto lens on.  We only had a minute or two before he made it to shore, so these are the best pictures that we could manage.

He knew we were there and didn't like it much.  Once he made it to shore he scooted up the rocks without even shaking off the water.

I've seen a lot of deer swimming, and even a moose swimming, but not a bear.  You never know what you'll see out here.  You just have to be ready.

Right after that we dropped the shrimp pots right in the middle of Shrimp Bay.  As we set them we noticed another bear on the beach.  I got as close as I could and Lisa shot a few pics.

This is the time of year when the bears are out but there are no salmon in the streams yet, so they spend a lot of time on the beaches eating grass, turning over rocks looking for whatever they can find.

Shrimp Bay connects to Klu Bay, and when we went through the passage into Klu Bay I could see two boats in there.  One was a large cruising sail boat, anchored, and the other was small runabout, also at anchor.  I figured if they were anchored, the mooring buoy would surely be taken, but it wasn't.

The two guys from the smaller boat had made a tent camp on shore.

We had a very quiet night on the mooring buoy.

On Sunday morning we were up early.  It was calm with light rain falling.  By the time breakfast had ended, so had the rain.

As we made our way into Shrimp Bay we stopped in front of the double waterfalls and got a couple of good shots.

We pulled the shrimp pots but only got a couple of dozen. 

We moved on up to Bailey Bay and dropped the shrimp pots again, maybe better luck this time around.

We did a little more bottom fishing, but the breeze was starting to pick up and it was harder to find places that were protected from the wind.

So I decided to set the trolling gear and try trolling for salmon for awhile.
We trolled for about 3 hours in Behm Narrows, which a little later in the summer will be one of the hottest fishing areas around - but we're just a little too early.  No fish.

By now the afternoon winds had really picked up and it was getting really choppy.  Lisa was getting uncomfortable and it was up to me to fix that.

We pulled into Bailey Bay, nodded to our shrimp pots as we passed them by, and tied up to the mooring buoy at about 6 PM.  It was still very breezy in there and the mooring buoy seemed awfully close to shore, but I put two lines on it and we were home for the night.  73.3 nm to this point.

I fired up the Coleman gas stove and boiled the shrimp on the back deck.

Dinner this evening consisted of shrimp, chicken grilled on the Foreman Grill, salad and veggies.

After dinner we made a short shore excursion in the raft. 

Here is Faraway tied to the mooring buoy.  In the background on the shore you can see a diamond shaped trail head marker.  This trail goes up to Lake Shelokum.  There is an amazing water fall at the near end, and at the far end is a natural hot springs.  No time to go up the trail on this trip.

Here's Bina taking Lisa for a walk ... wait, did I say that right?

That breeze that was so strong when we pulled in just died completely, and it was a beautiful evening.

We had another very quiet night on the mooring buoy.

On Monday morning, Memorial Day, we pulled away from the mooring buoy in sunny, calm, cool weather.

First stop was to pull the shrimp pots.  Got about the same amount as last time, but this time we had an octopus in the pot.  The first time I got an octopus in the pot I dumped him out on the deck and then had a devil of a time getting him back in the water without harming him.  Now I have it down pat.  I just dump him in the orange tub with the shrimp, and then put the tub on the corner of the swim step, and he gets out by himself.

Somehow they sense the direction of the water because they always climb out on the correct side of the tub.

While they are in the shrimp pot they fill up on shrimp.  I find empty shrimp shells that look like they've had the meat sucked out with a strong suction pump.  Not a shred of meat left inside.

And he's just about home free.

We were a long way from home, many miles to cruise, so we just stowed the pots and headed south.

The run home was flat calm for awhile, just about up to the time I commented on how calm it was.  After that it got rough.  Figures.

We made it into the stall at about 2:30 PM.
Total trip mileage was 116 nm.

Another successful adventure aboard Faraway.

2014-05-22 Spring Maintenance

Boats in this country exist in a harsh marine environment.

One might be tempted to think that if the boat just stays in the stall and never goes anywhere that its condition will remain status quo.  False!  A boat deteriorates even just sitting in the stall.  And it deteriorates even more when you use it - unless you take care of it.

Faraway represents a major commitment for me, certainly financially, but also in other ways.  And so a certain level of maintenance is required.

I had the boat hauled out on May 8th, and she went back in the water May 22nd, exactly 2 weeks later.  Below is a picture from a previous haul-out so you can see the massive machine they use to lift the boat and move it around.

I pull the boat into a staging area below the area that you see here.  They lower the straps beneath the boat and then just lift it up.  This lift can carry up to 50 tons.  Faraway weighs approximately 10 tons.

Then the operator drives the boat along to where it will be set up on barrels and blocks so that I can work on it.

I will make a long story short here and cut to the chase.

Over those 2 weeks I sanded the bottom (a miserable job I might add), painted the bottom (2 coats of $140 per gallon paint), had the blue "boot stripe" at the water line repainted, and had the bite in the swim step repaired.  I also replaced all the zincs, and cleaned out the bow thruster tunnel thoroughly.  I also cleaned and waxed the sides from the water line up to the gunwales. 

Here is a picture of the boat right before she was relaunched.

I'm glad spring maintenance is done.

2014-04-25 Margaret Lake Trout Fishing

Some of you may recall that in mid April 2013 I went on a trout fishing trip in Margaret Lake.  We had such a blast on that trip last year that I really wanted to make another trip like that one this year.

For the trip this year I had my grandson Tyler, aged 9, and my long-time friend Bob Hammer going along as crew. 

I wanted to make the trip without having to take a day off from work, so I had everything ready to go before Friday morning and I went on to work very early that day so that I could take off for the weekend at about 1:30 PM.  I went over and picked up Tyler a little early from school, and Bob met us down at the boat.  We pulled out just a little ahead of schedule at about 3 PM.

The weather was sunny with light SE winds.  Pretty good traveling weather.

 

The above two map snippets show the route from my home stall in Bar Harbor north up into Behm Canal, and then into Traitors Cove, and then into Marguerite Bay.  Total distance one way is about 28 nautical miles.

There is a USFS dock there that is first come first served for moorage, and the lake is about a mile up the logging road.  A friend of mine has a small metal skiff hidden in the brush near the lake which would allow us to get out on the lake and fish.

We had a rough ride for the last portion of the trip, probably about a 6 on my 1 - 10 list of rough water.  I'm sure it was the roughest water that Tyler had experienced.  I was piloting from the flybridge helm and Tyler was in the cabin down below so I asked Bob to go down and check on him, and also to clear things off the counters that might go flying.  Tyler was struggling a bit but he held his own and managed to hold his lunch down until we got into calmer waters.

Once we got inside Traitors Cove we prepared the shrimp pots (3) and crab pots (2) and dropped all of them before heading in to the dock.  There were some guys there from Ketchikan Redi Mix working on the road, but other than that, the dock was clear and we got a good spot at the dock (very important for this expedition).

Here is my contented crew at the USFS dock on Friday evening.  Tyler was breaking in the brand new fishing rod and reel that I had gotten him for this trip.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset that evening, and I had one pretty happy and excited grandson.

We spent the remainder of the evening getting our gear organized for a long day of fishing on Saturday.

On Saturday morning we were up early and had a cold breakfast so that we could get moving more quickly.  The weather was on and off, with rain showers now and then.

The protocol here was to load all the gear we'd need into my rolling cart, and walk the mile or so up the road to the lake.  Sorry I forgot to get a picture of the loaded cart before we headed up the road.  We had to take the 4 HP motor (53 lbs), extra fuel, tire pump, life jackets, life cushions, oars, canvas deck chair, firewood log, and of course we each had our fishing gear and our own personal gear in our back packs.  The little cart was fully loaded.

It was a tough haul getting all that gear up the road, but with Bob and I both pulling we made it in good time.

Once up at the lake we left the cart along the side of the logging road and then busted through the brush to where the skiff was hidden.  Then we paddled the skiff back to where the cart was and mounted the motor and loaded the gear aboard.  It was tough work, but having a skiff and a motor on that lake made it very much worth it.

We spent the whole day fishing the lake, either from the gravel bar at the head of the lake where the inlet stream comes in, or from the skiff.  Weather was good and bad throughout the day.  I wore my rain gear all day, so that tells you a little about the predominant weather.  We had several rain squalls, at least 2 or 3 intense hail storms, interspersed with periods of blue sky.

Here are several shots taken throughout the day at various times that show how we did.  Obviously I could not take pictures during the drenching rain storms or the pelting hail storms, so the pictures may not give a true impression of the weather situation.  But at least you can see that we did catch a few fish.

Tyler said that he caught all his fish on his "lucky lure."  But when I asked him if he had tried any other lures, he said no.  Hmm, how does that work?

Bob brought both fly fishing gear and spinning gear.

I had brought along one of those Presto Log type firewood logs, thinking we could have a nice fire on the gravel bar.  But frankly it was so breezy and cold that even though it did light, it did not provide much warmth or even much esthetic value.

Bob hates to wear rain gear, preferring wool gear, so the fact that he actually put his rain gear on shows you what it was like just previous to this picture being taken.

I know I have posted numerous pictures of Margaret Lake from the bridge, but it is such a beautiful setting that I cannot resist posting yet one more.

After re stowing the skiff, and loading the cart we then had to walk back to the boat lugging that cart with all the gear, plus now we had fish to deal with.  Thankfully it is mostly downhill on the return trip.

Here's a proud little boy with a pretty good stringer full of trout.

That evening after dinner we had a couple of visitors, one I could get a picture of and one that I could not.  We saw this heron (or crane?) fishing near the boat and that was cool.  But then, way across the bay, on the other shore, I saw movement and put the binoculars on it.  It was a wolf walking along the beach.  Too far away to take a picture, but that is way cool, because you just don't see wolves that often in this country.

On Sunday morning we took the time to enjoy a hot breakfast of bacon and eggs.  After that Bob and I took Tyler up the road and gave him the opportunity to shoot his first real firearm, my old .22 rifle that I've had since high school.  Darned if I didn't forget to take my camera up the road with us.  He really enjoyed it and he actually made that Mt Dew can dance!

We pulled out from the dock about 8:45 AM and pulled the pots.  Got only 1 keeper crab, but a pretty good load of shrimp.

Tyler was impressed with the baby Tanner crab that was in the pot.

We tried a little bit of halibut fishing on the way home, but all we managed to do there was to lose some gear after getting hung up on the bottom.  I guess the fishing Gods were telling us that we're only allowed to have just so much fun on one trip.

I shut down the engines and we drifted out there while I cooked up some hot dogs for lunch.

We just ran to town from there, going through some rain squalls and a little chop.  Tyler sacked out on the couch down in the main cabin while Bob and I ran from the flybridge.

We got into the harbor about 3 PM with total trip mileage of about 56 nautical miles.

Another successful adventure on Faraway!