August 29, 2004
Pinkerton Islands (N 48o 57' W 125 17')
We made the short trip from Pipestem Inlet to the Pinkerton Islands yesterday morning before the rain started. I immediately put my fishing gear together to make the short trip from the anchorage to one of the hottest fishing areas in Barkley Sound, Swale Rock. We passed this area on our trip from Effingham Bay to Pipestem Inlet and there were about 25 boats fishing there. When I arrived it was clear people still get the weekends off because there were no less then 50 small fishing boats trolling their baits. I put myself to work with the plan of catching at least one fish. How hard could it be, I reasoned, given that boats on all sides were pulling in fish after fish.
Of course they were using natural bait, anchovies, and I had to use my selection of hoochies and spoons. But I was confident that I would eventually find something to fool a fish into biting. That or I would pass by a very stupid fish and he would bite my piece of plastic out of foolishness. Well almost two hours later I was still changing baits without a single bite. I had watched some boats near me pull in three or four fish and I was getting depressed.
About that time I passed by a boat where one of the fishermen was holding his rod, bent to touching the water because of the large fish he was fighting. He looked over at me (must have seen the look of envy on my face) and waved me over. I trolled over to his boat and he asked if I wanted the fish. Well I thought about it. I really wanted to catch a fish, it's fun after all, but the whole idea was simply to get something to put into the freezer for the trip to San Francisco. What the hell, I thought, and said 'yes.' I pulled up my gear and got ready to receive the fish.
Now I figured this was a smallish fish. One that was smaller than others he had caught and he was waiting for a larger one to take home. Not so. When his companion netted the thing it was clear it was a BIG fish! After subduing it with a mallet he said it was probably about 25 pounds. That's more then I bargained for, but I wasn't about to go back on my acceptance of his offer.
It took me over two hours to clean, steak, fillet and vacuum pack that fish. We had to remove everything from the freezer just to fit it all in (we're now on an 'Atkins' diet, we have to eat all the thawed meat!) and worst of all I'm forbidden from fishing again. Oh well, at least we have salmon for the trip home.
The rest of our time here at the Pinkerton Islands has been anticlimactic. It's been raining persistently so we haven't been able to get out and about much, although we did spend an hour exploring during a break in the weather this afternoon. Instead we've been spending today getting ready for the ocean trip to San Francisco, stowing things we won't need and lashing down items that will remain on deck. It looks like the weather will be good on Wednesday, at least the seas will be down, and we can start our trip then.
Tomorrow we're going to Bamfield, a little coastal town, to mail a book back to it's owner (Darrel, who we met in Port Hardy, loaned us his copy of Watmough) and get a few provisions. On Tuesday we plan to go to Neah Bay and check back into the USA and get fuel. Our time in Canada is drawing to a close, we feel like we had to rush through it almost as much as we did in 1997. Maybe we'll wise up for the next trip and go directly to Columbia Cove and simply spend 2 months there. :-)
John and Linda
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