We went fishing today. It was an inauspicious start: Arthur slept in and I found the motor wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. I suspect this is because the newly installed plug for the downrigger spent time submersed in standing water – there is no master turn-off switch for the downrigger wiring – this has always been true. We need to remember to make sure the wiring tails with the plug-in ends on them are raised up and unable to fall into water.
And it was raining.
We charged up the battery using the battery charger and the long extension cord. We got the motor started at around 8, and by 8:30 we had finally departed the dock.
The inauspiciousness continued, as we trolled without result up and down (or rather, down and up) San Ignacio Island. We crossed over to just west of Tranquil Point. And within half an hour, we caught one. At least we were sticking to our established pattern. We trolled for another hour eastward, until just off Batan Point, northwest of Caldera Bay, we caught two at once – one on each downrigger.
So we spun around and trolled through the same spot again. And we caught two more. This was more auspicious. We trolled through the same spot 3 more times, and caught two more. It was raining fairly steadily and Arthur was feeling overwhelmed by all the cutting and packing ahead of him, so we decided 7 was enough, and headed home. We tied up at the dock at about 3:10.
Year-to-date totals:
- Coho: 10
- Kings: 0
- Halibut: 0
- Other: 1
- Too-small fish sent home to mama: 12
- Downrigger weights left on the bottom of the sea: 1
