Category: My Photos

We got a fairly early start, leaving the dock at exactly 7 am.
The weather called for summery skies, no wind. All was smooth and calm but the skies were starting to cloud over. You could feel that the weather would shift – a storm (wind and rain) was forecast for tomorrow.
But our start was inauspicious. We had planned to go out to Ulitka – the north end of Noyes Island. That’s pretty far. Forty minutes into our cruise out there, at the eastern end of the San Cristobal Channel, the motor started that stuttering problem we’ve had.
Since the motor never completely dies when it does this, we didn’t feel it merited completely scrubbing our mission, but we decided that, in case things did go wrong with the big motor, not to go so far out. We turned south and decided to fish off San Juan Island instead.
In fact, it turned out to be a good decision – there were actual fish biting actual hooks off San Juan.
The first two that we hooked and reeled in we lost, though. Arthur was being stubborn about trying to pull the fish aboard on the line, instead of using the net to scoop them out of the water and onto the boat. After he lost the second one, I gently suggested, again, that we try the net, and he relented. After that, we hooked two more in rapid succession off Black Beach (the northeast corner of San Juan) and pulled them into the boat using the net without any problems.
We trolled around the little bay at Black Beach a few more times, and when no more fish bit, we moved down the east side of San Juan. We hooked three more at wide intervals down the east side. We rounded the southeast corner, at San Juanito, and Arthur decided to try trolling back up, rather than continuing around the island to the west.
We caught no more fish. We decided when we got up to Black Beach that the fish we’d caught must have been “morning fish,” since as the day aged, the fish had lost interest.
We headed home at around 12:30. From Black Beach to our dock is only 26 minutes cruising at 19 knots, so we didn’t give the big motor time to get hot and start its stuttering games. It is a bit anxiety-producing when it happens, and I’m not sure what Arthur will want to do about it, over the longer term. For now, we might just limit our fishing outings to itineraries where we can limit the continuous cruise time on the big motor to shorter periods. This avoids the issue without solving it, as long as the problem doesn’t get worse.
Longer term, we probably need to get the big motor serviced. As said, this will be a drawn-out operation, which normally Arthur prefers to do only once a year: haul the boat out of the water at the public dock in Craig, use the trailer to take it to the boat store, wait a week or two… reverse the process.
Year-to-date totals:
Coho: 12
Lingcod: 1
Halibut: 1
Here is a picture of San Juanito, a well-named tiny sibling of San Juan Island off the southeastern corner of the island. I think it maybe only has 50 trees on it. It would be a nice spot for a gazillionaire to build a getaway fortress. I think it’s not forest service land, but owned by the Shaan-Seet (local Haida tribe).

We went out fishing today. Joe and his friend Paul came along.
We intended an early start, but a dead battery in the boat slowed our departure, and we didn’t leave until about 8:30.
The forecast was for “light wind” and “seas 1 ft”. In fact the wind was at least 10 knots, and maybe 15 in the afternoon, and this kicked up the water into 2-4 waves.
First we headed for the northeast corner of San Ignacio Island, and we trolled for salmon. Nothing. From the southwest corner of San Ignacio, we motored southward to the west side of Suemez Island. Trolling there, still no salmon, but a hefty lingcod bit Arthur’s hook off San Jose Point. We also caught some small black bass – most were thrown back but a few were large enough to decide to keep. “It’s a fillet,” is how Joe phrased it.
We trolled some more, across Port Santa Cruz. The swells were wide and slow, about 3 feet, with open ocean to the southwest of us.
Giving up on trolling and salmon, we tried for halibut in the center of Port Santa Cruz. Joe caught one small halibut, and several rock fish. Art caught the bottom with his hook – twice. The second time he got really angry. He was kicking the boat. And when Joe and I tried to help, he yelled at us and was pretty scary. I felt awkward and embarrassed.
Finally, Joe wanted to find another halibut, and we tried bottom fishing in two more spots, one on the northwest corner of Suemez and again back at the north end of San Ignacio. But the wind was picking up and it wasn’t easy keeping the boat still.
We headed home and by the time the boat was cleaned and the fish all cut up and in packages for freezing, it was dinner time.
I’ll make some fish soup tomorrow.
Here is Arthur’s lingcod.

Here is the view toward the south end of Baker Island off the bow, from Port Santa Cruz.

Here is an eagle, looking for handouts (thrown away too-small fish).

Here is the blue sea off San Ignacio Island’s north end.

Here are Arthur and Joe cleaning some fish.