Art and I went out in the boat today. I hoped it would be a relatively low-wind, no rain day.
It’s true there was no rain. But it was mostly cloudy, and the wind from the west was quite strong relative to the forecast, at between 10 and 15 knots.
We left at 7:30. We went out to the east side of San Ignacio Island.
Here is a view looking back east toward Craig and Sunnahae Mountain, shrouded in clouds. The foregrounded island on the right is the north end of San Juan.
This is a view southward as we approached San Ignacio. Foreground on the left is the flank of San Juan Island. I like the smooth curve of the dipping ridge between the two distant mountains on the south end of Baker Island, on the far horizon near the center. The slightly closer island on the right is San Ignacio.
We trolled down San Ignacio’s shore and saw some eagles eyeing us. We caught nothing. From the south end of San Ignacio, we crossed eastward to Tranquil Point. Arthur has strong associations with fishing success there, but I’ve never experienced it since I’ve been up here. We trolled along the north shore of the Prince of Wales mainland there all the way to Caldera Bay. There were quite a few commercial fishing boats trolling around, all of them looking as fishless as we were.
In Caldera, we put down hooks for halibut. I do vaguely recall we might have caught some halibut here the fall when I first got here. But maybe not. Anyway, we caught absolutely nothing, the ocean was sloshy and choppy, the wind was chilly, the sun never showed up. Arthur seemed quietly bitter on the way home. I was proud of my boat-docking job, though – completely smooth, not even a gentle bump, I grabbed the dock as we approached and stopped the boat simply and began tying up.
So. Salmonless and only one halibut so far for the 2020 season.
I washed the salt spray (from all the wind-kicked waves splashing) from the boat. Clean boat.
Category: Fishing Report
Caveat: Fishing Report #(n+1)
My fondness for enumeration has been made demonstrably clear by this here blog. I thought I could start enumerating fishing reports, since Art and I go out fishing now and then. But I have no idea how many fishing reports I’ve already done – the “fishing report” aspect was incorporated into other various blog entries over the last year and half, and it’s hard to go back and isolate those references.
So this enumeration will be somewhat vague as to its starting point. This is not “Fishing Report #1” but rather #(n+1), where n=’however many fishing reports I’ve already given.’
Hereforthwith, then, is the first Fishing Report explicitly declared as such.
Today, Art and I went out in the boat.
We left at 8 AM. The weather was forecast to be partly cloudy but with little wind. In fact, over the day, the skies cleared to beautiful sun, but the prediction of light wind was a bit inaccurate. It got pretty breezy, and the trip was through choppy water – especially on the way back. “Hammer off those barnacles!” Arthur insisted.
We motored out to Ulitka Bay, off the northern tip of Noyes Island. That’s open ocean (“next stop: Kamchatka!”) just around the point, there, so the swells were wide and slow.
We trolled for salmon. There were two other boats there, when we got there – a much lower number than the 20-30 we saw several times congregated at the point last summer. I expect the sport fishing season is seriously impacted by the pandemic. One boat trolled around randomly, the other was mooching close in to the rocks.
We trolled in a loop around the little bay there, and then eastward along the north shore of Noyes Island all the way to Steamboat.
We caught no salmon, but we caught a ling cod and 3 black bass. We threw back the two smaller of the black bass, as not worth the effort. The 3rd black bass we ate for dinner, and the ling cod was frozen for future soups. Despite this, Arthur will tell all our acquaintances with utter sincerity that “we caught absolutely nothing.” That’s because in his mind, only salmon and halibut count as something. I somewhat understand this, but it’s annoying too, because he gets all depressed about our fruitless fishing trip, but it’s not, technically, even true that it was fruitless.
We also put hooks on the bottom off the east side of Noyes for a bit around noon, hoping for halibut. That’s the spot where we caught halibut a week or two ago with Joe.
The sea was quite bumpy on the return trip. We got home around 2:30.
Here is a mountain on the north side of Noyes Island. It still has patches of snow in mid June.
Here is Arthur with one of our fish we caught which he will tell you is nothing.
Caveat: Halibut #1
Last year’s fishing season we were halibutless.
We went out with Joe this morning, and out at San Francisco Point on the eastern edge of Noyes Island, we caught one modest-sized halibut. So I think (hope) Arthur was pleased.
We trolled for salmon, too. A lot. The salmon were uninterested in our hooks.
Here we are trolling by Joe’s house, just down the inlet a mile or so. Joe is gazing at his house.
Here is the small halibut.
Here is a view of the “back” side of Sunnahae Mountain – that is to say, we are looking at it from the north: it’s the peak in the center. This is not the view we normally have of the mountain – we see the south side of the mountain from our home. You can click this picture to make it larger.
Caveat: One king
Wayne, Arthur, and I went out fishing today. It was the longest fishing excursion I’ve been on with Arthur – we left early and got back well after 3 pm. Arthur normally does a half-day excursion, so this was a long day. We could tell he was exhausted.
Arthur managed to catch one king salmon. We were at Ulitka Bay, on the northwest tip of Noyes Island.
There were a lot of boats there: you can see them in this picture.
Here is the fish.
Here is the view from where the fish was caught.
We also got two other smaller fish, sea bass I think. When we got back, we prepared to cut them up. Arthur was grumpy despite having caught a fish, I think because he was tired.
Later, we cooked some of the salmon and ate it.
The rest of the fish was vacuum-packed and put in the freezer.
Caveat: Too Much Noyes
Arthur and I went out seeking fish, unrequitedly.
We went out to the open ocean south of Noyes Island. Here is a picture from the boat, looking toward the beach.
The ocean was calm.
Arthur believes the lack of catching is due to the drought.