Workaday Morning

 

An Old Video: Hitching Across the Colorado

Here's an old video I took after Doug and I hitched a ride across the Colorado River.  Mostly, I'm just posting this to see how the YouTube embed code works.

Google+ arrived today. Am trying out the mobile apps.

A Crazy Day With No Fish But Lots Of Action

Today was kind of a mess.  First we got up early for 6:00 breakfast but nobody else was up, so no breakfast.  Instead we headed out early for salmon fishing and trolled for 3 hours with nary a nibble (not really too surprising, they are hard to find).  Then we went and fished for halibut and broke a rod.  Then I snagged a hook on the bottom and spent 15 minutes maneuvering the boat to unhook it.  Then dad snagged his rod and we did the same again.  Then we moved and fished for a while with zero nibbles.  So finally we came in for lunch.

In the afternoon we were going to go for a walk, but Kelly and Marv were going out for halibut so Dad and I decided to tag along and fish in the same area where Marv caught a 70 pounder last week.  Very first cast, I hooked my bait again and we spent a bunch of time getting unhooked.  There was so much wind that we drifted more than 2mph with the engine off.  We had to put the boat in reverse to stand still.  When I finally pulled up the snagged rig, there were two small rockfish on there but the bait was gone.  With all the time the thing was stuck on the bottom all the fish were able to nibble away on the two fresh herring except the two unlucky ones who got hooked.  So I spent more time getting them unhooked and releasing them.  Then we moved to a spot where there was less wind, and almost immediately dad hooked his rig on the bottom.  More maneuvering etc. to get it unhooked.  Meanwhile Marv and Kelly had "nada" as they told us over the radio.  We all moved to another cove across the strait.  The wind was even stronger and there was no luck.

But wait, the best was yet to come!

Moving away from the windy cove, Marv and Kelly were headed around to the other side of the island.  We were following, at about 25 mph in clear water well away from shore.  BOOM grind grind, the boat shudders, I switch off the engine instantly and we slump to a halt.  What was that?  I look around and don't see anything, but we surely hit something, I was wondering if we were going to sink.  I run to the front of the boat but there is no apparent hull damage.  I get on the radio to Kelly who is headed into the distance: "Kelly, we have hit something and I've stopped to assess the damage."  He turns around and we can see him coming back to our position.  Dad and I look into the water, can't tell if the prop has been damaged.  We start the engine, but the boat doesn't move and we don't see the prop turning.  We turn the engine off.  Then, Kelly pulls up: "Raise the engine."  I had not realized the same motor that lets you trim the angle of the prop also lets you raise the engine completely out of the water.  We raise the engine.  There is no prop.  There is, in fact, no bottom half of the engine assembly.  It is completely broken off just below the water line: gears, prop and all are gone.  After rigging up a tow line it takes us an hour and a half to get back to the dock.  And of course, Kelly is going to be out $2500 in repairs which probably wipes out his profit from our week at the lodge.  Dad, always the joker, suggests that since the boats are new, "maybe it will be covered under the engine warranty."

On the plus side: Dinner was delicious!!  Also, I got a couple good scenic photos in the morning.  And we saw a huge gathering of sea lions on and around a rock in a place where the currents from two inlets mix and create strange turbulence in the water.  It probably messes up the fish and creates good feeding for the sea lions.  There were also hundreds of seagulls there.

More Alaska Fish Stories

Today we tried our hand at salmon fishing and frankly, we weren't very good at it.  We struggled with the downrigger gear, struggled to maintain a consistent direction at slow speed, and generally failed.  However, after lunch we tried a few possible halibut locations and did succeed at that.  We caught our biggest halibut so far -- 29 lbs. -- as well as a very interesting rockfish called a Quillback.

Fishing in Alaska

Recently I had a great vacation with my Dad in Alaska.  Here is the travelogue I wrote after the third day:

After flying from Seattle to Juneau on Alaska Airlines we transferred to Admiralty Airlines.  Despite the really fancy name, Admiralty Airlines consists of a guy named Gary with a single Cessna 206 floatplane.  A very well used floatplane.  Room for four, including the pilot.  In 35 minutes we were touching down in beautiful, tiny Elfin Cove, Alaska.  We were greeted on the dock by the entire Northern Star Lodge family: Kelly, Mary, and kids Claire, Jake, Nick, and Paige.  The oldest kid is maybe six years old.  We transferred our bags to a boat and motored through a very narrow channel to the lodge.  Along the way Kelly pointed out the boardwalk which runs all through the town, which is to say, perches on the shore of the channel all the way around in front of all twenty or thirty buildings that comprise Elfin Cove.  OK, maybe forty, I didn't count.  It's a small town.  Kelly informed us that the boardwalk is an Alaska state highway, because by doing so the city was able to get state highway funds for its construction.  Hilarious.  It is basically as wide as a sidewalk.  A suburban sidewalk, not a city sidewalk.  You can walk from one end to the other in fifteen minutes.  I know because I did.

Northern Star Lodge is a "self guided" fishing lodge which means there is no guide on the boat.  Kind of like private vs commercial river trips, we can pay someone to provide all the gear and advice but once on the water we are on our own.  So... 

Monday morning they pointed us to an area about 20 minutes away by boat where the fishing should be good.  They put us on a nice new boat with new equipment (GPS, sonar, rods, reels, etc.) and all the other things we need (bait, rain gear, lunch).  We drove out there and baited our hooks and started fishing.  Almost right away Dad got a hit and reeled in a halibut, about 10 lbs.  Not too big but hey, the small ones are supposed to be more tasty (since then I have learned "small" in this statement means more like 50 lbs or less).  At the same time I had a really hard resistance on my line.  Then Marv (one of the lodge guys) came on the radio to ask how we were doing.  I said "Dad has a fish and I have a snag".  Marv said, "that 'snag' might weigh 200 pounds so you better make sure!".  Unfortunately my first impression was correct.  Then I stopped fishing to help Dad land his fish into the boat and subdue it to put it in a big cooler in the front of the boat.  After getting me unsnagged, we then went back to the spot where we started fishing so we could drift back across the same area (halibut fishing is done with the boat turned off, in contrast to salmon fishing where you are trolling along slowly through an area).  Again after just a few minutes Dad had another fish on the line.  I stuck my rod into a rod holder on the side of the boat and went to help again.  After that  I went back to my rod.  It seemed a little bit heavy.  I started reeling it in slowly, and eventually felt a little something wriggling on the line.  So I was excited, I had my first fish.  When I finally got the thing reeled up to the boat (the fish are at 150 feet down) what a surprise, there were TWO fish on my rig (it has two hooks).  So just like that I had caught my daily limit of two halibut.  They were also about 10 lbs, but I was not about to throw them back.  We headed home just after noon happy to have four fish in our cooler, even though they weren't especially big.

Almost back to Elfin Cove, we spied three whales spouting and showing their backs and tails in the bay just in front of the cove.  We stopped to watch and to avoid running into them.  Dad was keen to get closer and he took the helm but after approaching a bit closer, we stopped again and watched.  After a while we thought they had moved off a distance so Dad fired the engine and turned left to pass behind their apparent path and head directly into the cove.  Just a few moments later, I caught something out of the corner of my eye, turned and saw a whale's back RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOAT.  I mean, reach out and touch close!  Instantly I switched off the engine and as the whale dove back down his fluke splashed water all over Dad.  Wow that was close!  I am not sure the whale didn't brush against the side of the boat, it was that close.  Thank goodness it wasn't any closer!

Thus entertained, we slowly made our way back to the lodge.  At the dock Kelly and Marv met us to help unload, take photos, and do the other outfitter stuff.  They clean and fillet the fish, then vacuum pack and freeze it.  And they refit the boat so it is ready to go the next day.  The rest of the afternoon we relaxed in the lodge, reading, going for a walk along the boardwalk, visiting the town, etc...

After dinner Kelly said "who wants to see bears?"  I thought he was addressing his kids but it turns out he was addressing "anybody that's interested".  That turned out to be me and Dad.  So about 7 or 8 o'clock we got into the boat and headed out again.  About fifteen minutes away was a cove that Kelly had heard might have bears.  There was a meadow at the end of an inlet.  We motored in and due to the tide being on the way out, it was fairly shallow.  We inched along with Kelly watching the sonar depth gauge as it dropped to just 3 feet deep.  I stood on the bow trying to indicate where the water was deepest and whether it was safe to proceed.  Verrrry slowwwly we eased most of the way back into the inlet.  Dolly Vardon fish were jumping in every direction.  They are a little fresh water fish but can tolerate salt water too.  There was a pretty stream flowing into the inlet from the woods to the left, and a broad meadow ahead.  In the distance the low (notice I did not say "setting") sun illuminated the peaks of some nearby mountains with a bit of snow still in evidence on its slopes.  Finally we had reached as far as we dared to go with the water just over two feet deep.  Kelly was ready to back out, but I asked him to stay while I took some photos of the pretty scenery.  As I was preparing a photo of the meadow, I noticed two brown bears grazing in the distance.  They were too far away to get a really good photo, but we could see them quite clearly.  We joked about landing the boat so we could approach on foot for a better photo, but decided it would be smarter just to come back another day when the tide was higher and we could get closer without leaving the water.  On the way back we passed within 20 feet of a bald eagle sitting on a branch overhanging our little inlet.  Then another eagle flew across in front of us with a fish in his talons.  This was turning into a pretty cool nature trip!  Just after that, a group of porpoises started playing around our boat, and as we continued toward the sea we saw a group of four sea otters floating near a tiny island.  Passing them we saw and heard something squawking or screaming at us in the water a bit farther out, but it was directly into the sun and we couldn't make it out.  As we approached, it went under water so we floated to its location and paused to watch for it to surface.  Shortly, another sea otter surfaced not too far away, now the sun was behind us and we could see: it was a sea otter mom floating on her back with a pup on her belly.  How cute is that?  So our total for the day included halibut caught, and whales, bears, porpoises, eagles, and sea otters.  Pretty awesome day.

This morning, we went out to the same fishing area as yesterday.  There was more wind and waves and we were drifting faster (2mph) making it harder.  Just the same Dad had a fish pretty soon, but it was the same size as yesterday's fish and he decided to throw it back (sorry, "release it gently into the sea").  Then we moved to the other side of the island (about five minutes) in hopes of finding a little less wind.  Pretty quickly I had a hit on my line, and about the same time so did Dad.  We had obviously happened into the right location.  I could tell by my rod bending that this fish was bigger than yesterday's.  Then I noticed, not only was the rod bending a lot but the fishing line was pulling out of my reel (there is a drag setting that prevents a fish from snapping your fishing line).  So every time I would reel in six feet of line the fish would pull out three.  Dad got his fish to the boat and it was a bit bigger than the first -- a keeper -- but I could not help him land it nor could he help me with mine, which I was still reeling in.  So he kept his on the hook "swimming" next to the boat while I continued to reel.  Finally it came into view -- big!  Much the biggest fish we had seen so far.  With one hand I held the rod and the other I reached for the gaffer, which is a big hooked spike on a stick.  In a single stroke I was able to secure the fish with the gaffer.  Then I pulled it up into the boat and removed the hook from it.  I hoisted it into the cooler and it filled the length of the cooler.  That was pretty cool.  Then I helped dad land his.  We circled back and tried again.  No luck.  We moved back to the front of the island and after maybe an hour I reeled in another fish, about 10 lbs. but I kept it.  So now I had my limit.  We fished that area for another hour and Dad had no luck at all, although we did get a visit from some dolphins who spouted and played about 15 yards away from us.  One time Dad brought up his hooks and both herring (the bait) were completely gone and I found myself wondering whether the dolphins were smart enough to steal herring from a hook without getting caught.

We moved really close to shore for shelter from the wind and took a break for lunch.  I think Dad was starting to be sorry he had released his first fish.  We fished some more in a new area.  Finally about 1:30 Dad said "one more try, then let's call it a day".  About two minutes later I saw his rod bend and he pulled back hard.  Yep, he had hooked a halibut on his last try.  And it was bigger than the one he had released, so no regrets!  We zoomed back to the lodge a little tired but happy, knowing that the total weight of our four fish was probably twice as much as yesterday's.  There was not as much afternoon left as yesterday, we got back after 3pm I think, so we just relaxed until dinner.

Tomorrow we are going to try and find some salmon.  This is harder... Kelly says to expect to troll for 10-15 hours to get one King Salmon.  Hmmmm, we'll see how that goes.  We might take a break at the tide change (around noon) to go after some halibut since that is prime time for them.  (Salmon don't have a prime time.)

More to come!!

Frozen Fountain

Man, it was cold this morning!