Fishing at Calvert Island
June 22nd (Saturday)
Well the days are getting shorter now, and it seems summer may be over on the central coast of BC. Although today was forecasted to be somewhat nice, we woke up to a cold rain that turned to drizzle. We decided to leave more beach exploring to another day, and go fishing instead.
Well the days are getting shorter now, and it seems summer may be over on the central coast of BC. Although today was forecasted to be somewhat nice, we woke up to a cold rain that turned to drizzle. We decided to leave more beach exploring to another day, and go fishing instead.
At first we fished off of a small island across from the start of Meay Inlet. We were catching smallish Rockfish, but it was promising. Then I caught a fish that put up a good fight. Just before it got to the boat it suddenly took off in a circle right under the boat, and my line broke. I think it must have cut on the prop of our outboard. We never even got to see what type of fish it was. Bye-bye first jig :(. Then J caught a Lingcod that was 25", so we let it go. Then we heard a sound, and looked to see a large salmon jump; it came well out of the water, and we could see its beautiful colours and distinct pink line of colouring. We went over and did some casts and then did some trolling, but got nothing. We trolled our way up Meay Inlet until the first islands, where we started jigging again. Unfortunately the wind had picked up, and we were drifting quicker than we would have liked, but we did manage to catch a few more small Rockfish, but no keepers. Jason caught an incredibly beautiful fish; it is a Spotted Ratfish. You should look it up. It was a beautiful shimmering silver, and it had the feel of a very delicate and silky fish. So pretty! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_ratfish
We continued on drifting until we saw the humpback whales at the outer end of the channel, around Boas Islet. We started puttering our way in the direction, watching the whales. There were three of them that would come up to breathe, puff, puff, puff, one, two, three they would come up, surface like that and breathe a few times, and then they would all dive. Then all of a sudden up came a massive open mouth, so full of water, and hopefully fish. They were feeding, wow!! It was incredible to see.
We watched them for a while longer, but they must have just had one feed there, as they moved on along the shore, surfacing, and then showing us their beautiful tails and diving, then up again a little further along. They were not doing long dives, so we got to see them for a while before they rounded a corner, and we went back to fishing.
We went out to try our luck around Baldy Rock, and it was a very unlucky place. We ended up losing two jigs there, both to whatever they had caught on the bottom. So very frustrating.
Although we were frustrated we were also stubborn and determined to get at least one fish to keep for our efforts, so we tried fishing off of Donald Island and caught one small Rockfish before losing a fourth jig, and also managing to snap the end off of one of our rods. It was not our lucky day. :(
Apparently still feeling determined we tried jigging again by Boas Islets in a line of current, and Jason managed to bring on board two good-sized Rockfish with his now half-length rod. Finally!
Well, after five hours of fishing we got home damp and cold, and hungry, minus four jigs, and plus two fish. Not a great day, except for seeing the whales, which was awesome!
After warming up, and having some very late lunch, we took our fresh fish carcasses out to pull up our prawn traps. We were prepared to reset them. In the first one we had nothing, absolutely empty. In the second, we had two cool spiny starfish, a type we have never seen before, and one prawn. Just one prawn for leaving our traps out for 48 hours. Wow.
After warming up, and having some very late lunch, we took our fresh fish carcasses out to pull up our prawn traps. We were prepared to reset them. In the first one we had nothing, absolutely empty. In the second, we had two cool spiny starfish, a type we have never seen before, and one prawn. Just one prawn for leaving our traps out for 48 hours. Wow.
When we were at Dawson’s Landing, and talking to the owners, we told them about catching the seven prawns at Fury Cove, and they said "Wow, that’s good for this time of year.” The commercial prawning season just closed two days ago up here, and they were saying we should not expect to get many. I guess we just had our hopes up for more than one. We let it go.
When we got back, we pulled up our crab trap, which had also been out for two days, longer than we would normally leave it, but it was the square one so they can't get out. We only had two crabs! They were both small females, one Rock and one Dungeness. They were also both very gentle and cute, especially the Dungeness, she was in the process of re-growing a claw, and was missing a leg, and she was very chill, calm, and had a very sweet face.
We baked fresh bread that I had put on yesterday, and I baked us a batch of brownies for dessert. Since we had a bit of room in our freezer while we were at Dawson’s Landing we got three different ice creams, and we shared an ice cream sandwich with brownies. Yummy!! What a treat, the brownies were still just warm enough to start to melt the ice cream. Yay.
June 23 – 24th (Sunday and Monday)
Sunday was our wettest day, it rained on and off all day. We had a nice relaxing day of mostly inside stuff, general cleaning, cooking, sorting pictures, reading, etc. We did go out fishing for a few hours, but did not catch anything worth keeping.
On Monday the weather was much better. It was still mostly cloudy in the morning, but no rain, and as the day progressed the weather steadily improved until by mid-afternoon it was actually mostly clear. Yay, sun!!
We left for a day of fishing fairly early in the morning, and although we tried out some spots along the way, we mostly headed out to more open water hoping that we would find bigger fish out there.
When we got back, we pulled up our crab trap, which had also been out for two days, longer than we would normally leave it, but it was the square one so they can't get out. We only had two crabs! They were both small females, one Rock and one Dungeness. They were also both very gentle and cute, especially the Dungeness, she was in the process of re-growing a claw, and was missing a leg, and she was very chill, calm, and had a very sweet face.
We baked fresh bread that I had put on yesterday, and I baked us a batch of brownies for dessert. Since we had a bit of room in our freezer while we were at Dawson’s Landing we got three different ice creams, and we shared an ice cream sandwich with brownies. Yummy!! What a treat, the brownies were still just warm enough to start to melt the ice cream. Yay.
June 23 – 24th (Sunday and Monday)
Sunday was our wettest day, it rained on and off all day. We had a nice relaxing day of mostly inside stuff, general cleaning, cooking, sorting pictures, reading, etc. We did go out fishing for a few hours, but did not catch anything worth keeping.
On Monday the weather was much better. It was still mostly cloudy in the morning, but no rain, and as the day progressed the weather steadily improved until by mid-afternoon it was actually mostly clear. Yay, sun!!
We left for a day of fishing fairly early in the morning, and although we tried out some spots along the way, we mostly headed out to more open water hoping that we would find bigger fish out there.
We saw a super cute sea otter, which was actually in a kelp bed. This is one of only two sea otters that we have seen while they were actually in kelp. Normally when we see them they are out in the middle of a large area of water, not my normal idea of where we would see them.
While fishing off of a very exposed rock, just outside of the kelp line, we saw two sea lions. They appeared to be doing some fishing as well, and were not fazed by our presence; they came up several times close to us and looked at us as we looked at them.
We did end up finding a spot that seemed pretty good for fishing. It was out beside Main Guy Rock. We were there somewhat after low tide, and so the rock was under the water enough that only about one in four or five swells were big enough to break over it, otherwise it was completely hidden. When the waves did break, however, it was a massive curl and crest, just as a dot in the middle of an otherwise calm area. It was somewhat intimidating, and we kept a close eye on our position to make sure we did not drift too close. It was quite easy to lose track of its exact location when there were no swells breaking, and then all of a sudden, there it was.
We did end up finding a spot that seemed pretty good for fishing. It was out beside Main Guy Rock. We were there somewhat after low tide, and so the rock was under the water enough that only about one in four or five swells were big enough to break over it, otherwise it was completely hidden. When the waves did break, however, it was a massive curl and crest, just as a dot in the middle of an otherwise calm area. It was somewhat intimidating, and we kept a close eye on our position to make sure we did not drift too close. It was quite easy to lose track of its exact location when there were no swells breaking, and then all of a sudden, there it was.
By time we stopped fishing for the day we had six Rockfish, which is our limit of Rockfish for one day. We had also caught a couple of baby lingcod, as well as one that was 24", but hat was too small to keep. We also caught a Red Irish Lord Sculpin, which was very beautiful!! We went into the protected waters near Sandspit Point, and pulled into a small sandy beach where we filleted all our fish, and had some lunch.
Comments
Post a Comment