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Friday, July 30, 2004

Fish Finally!

(I posted this day before yesterday, but it didn't show up for some reason.)

Our anchorage mates got up early this morning to get underway and had an unexpected delay. The pass they went through yesterday (when the tidal difference was small between high and low tide) was roaring with a 4 knot current complete with overfalls and whirlpools! I guess they forgot to check the tides before they pulled up anchor. They ended up drifting around in the lagoon for a couple of hours until slack. One sailboat made it through early, but reported it as "a pretty wild ride."

You might ask how I knew the pass had overfalls and whirlpools. Well I got up at 0800 to fish the channel outside the pass during the flood tide and went through the pass at about max flood. Of course I went through in the dinghy and had no problem dodging the whirlpools with the help of our trusty 15 horsepower Evinrude.

Once out in the channel I found I was the only boat fishing (it was pretty foggy) but I didn't let that stop me. I set up my rig and started trolling. After half an hour or so I was getting frustrated. I could see fish jumping and I even saw a couple feeding at the surface (just like big trout sipping duns in a slow moving river). I mentally went over all the things people had told me about fishing for salmon: 1) use a flasher (check), 2) troll at a speed that gets the flasher to spin (check), 3) put a 24-28 inch leader between the flasher and the hoochy (check) and 4) use a green hoochy. Well I had a green hoochy, but maybe it wasn't green enough, so I changed to a darker one with some blue in it for good measure. I re-set my rig and within about 10 minutes, FISH ON! A short fight yielded a 21 inch Pink Salmon (it's about time!). I quickly subdued it (they make a big mess in the dinghy) and cleaned it. I decided one fish wasn't quite enough so I re-set my rig and soon had a 26 inch Pink on board too. That was enough for one day, our freezer is now well stocked with fish.

Later in the day Linda and I took the dinghy out to view the wildlife and had a little adventure. We took the "alternate pass," which is not passable by large boats, out to Queen Charlotte Strait and back into the channel where I had fished. Of course it was foggy when I was fishing, so none of the landmarks looked familiar. But that didn't really matter, the two passes are separated by an island and I thought it would be easy to find the big boat pass by simply circumnavigating the island. That was the plan, but as we continued down the channel things started to look very unfamiliar. Ack! We were lost. No problem, we just re-traced our steps and easily found the entrance to the big boat pass by traveling in the reverse direction. (I was so intent on showing Linda where I had caught the fish that I forgot to look back as we went up the channel. The entrance was behind us as we went around the front side of the island.) All's well that ends well I guess, except we used valuable "fishing gas" motoring around in the dinghy looking for the pass.

Back at the boat, the sun came out and we spent time enjoying the scenery around Booker Lagoon. Linda pointed to the shore just behind us and whispered, "Look." A black bear was foraging on the beach (or as Linda calls it, vacuuming under rocks). This, of course, was the same beach that I was convinced there was a foot path leading from. Linda had said earlier that she'd let me off the dinghy onto the beach and come back for me after I'd finished hiking the path (or bushwhacking through the forest as she put it). I'm glad I didn't take her up on it after seeing the size of that bear!

That's all for now, have to get those salmon fillets on the BBQ!