We went out fishing today.
We left early – before 8. That was easier without the dead battery we had last time. It was only Arthur and I, since Joe or friend didn’t come along. It was raining as we left but cleared out nicely during the day. The forecast for “light wind” seems to mean about 10-knot winds, but it was fine.
We went to the fuel dock to get fuel and ended up spending a long time there, because Arthur couldn’t get his credit card to work. He called his bank on his cellphone and found out he hadn’t paid his bill. He was definitely disturbed by this news, as it was a real-world bit of confirmation that his attentional issues are “real.” Fortunately I’d brought along my card, too, so we used that. We left the fuel dock around 9. But it put him in a grumpy mood.
We went out through the north entrance to Craig harbor (north of Fish Egg Island) and then southwestward to the northern tip of San Ignacio. We trolled southward on the east shore of that island. There were a lot of commercial boats clustered in the area, trolling up and down. I saw at least one of the commercial boats pulling in a fairly steady supply of smallish salmon – so we took that as a good sign.
We didn’t hook a salmon until we reached the southwestern corner of San Ignacio, at Coco Point. The swells were pretty sloppy there, but we trolled back and forth twice hoping for another. No luck. Anyway, as Arthur put it, “at least we’re not skunked.”
“Not even for the season,” I agreed. It was, after all, our first salmon of the season.
We trolled up the western side of San Ignacio, where it gets quite shallow. I’m not sure that was a productive use of our time. But we made a full circumnavigation of the island, which I don’t think I’d ever done before in a single outing.
We finally pulled up the downriggers at the island’s northeast corner, and headed home. We arrived home at around 2:20. I didn’t dock the boat very well this time. I used the “crash the boat into the dock” method, which is a bit humiliating. No damage, though.
Arthur cut up the fish and cussed a lot because he wasn’t happy with the quality of the job he was doing. He fired up the traeger woodsmoke grill and I had a brainstorm to try to make a salmonberry glaze for the salmon, since there are fresh salmonberries abounding in our driveway right now.
I adapted a recipe for raspberry glaze that I found online, using salmonberries instead, with honey, garlic and balsamic vinegar. I thought it was pretty good, but I think Arthur didn’t like it, mostly because he didn’t like all the little salmonberry seeds.
No pictures, because no smartphone.
[daily log: walking, 2km; boating, 30km]
Great to hear you got the first of the season! Should continue to get better each time out. What specie of salmon did you catch? I am heading up Island next week to find some pink salmon. They are the first to arrive in the rivers here. Tight lines