A Move to Codville Lagoon

July 15th (Monday) 

This morning was such a beautiful morning that we were out fishing just after 07:00. It was glassy calm, and the sun was just up over the mountains. Since we did not get to do any fishing yesterday we did not know how it would be, and we were filled with hope and optimism. The current was perfect for drifting, and so we started at a promising point and drifted along the shore. We tried different drift passes at different depths, but we were not catching many fish. Unfortunately the fish we were catching were all on the small side. We even caught two baby Lingcod, they are so cute when they are small. 

As the morning progressed we had only caught two fish that we thought were worth keeping. After losing one jig early on we ended up losing a second one as well. This was our last jig, so that was it for jigging for us. 

We had seen a couple of salmon jump in the area so we decided to try trolling. This is usually a type of fishing that we both find quite boring, but now that we had no jigs it seemed like a more appealing idea. It also helps that we are only one anchorage away from Shearwater, where we can fill up with gasoline and get more jigs.  We trolled with two lines out, one was a diver trolling at a depth, and the other was a surface hook. We saw a couple more salmon jump, and one came out four times, one right after the other, but they were always somewhere else and seemingly never where we were. 

We did manage to catch three Rockfish of the type that sometimes school, all but one was too small, and that was our third and final fish of the day. By all accounts our fishing techniques were okay, because we did catch fish, but we did not even get a single bite from a salmon. 

In the afternoon the wind picked up, and the chop picked up same as yesterday.  When we pulled up our crab trap we had nothing but one tiny Graceful crab, and one either big Graceful or small Dungeness. That was it; crazy. 

After a late lunch we went out for a kayak down into the lagoon and around. It was a small lagoon, but we enjoyed paddling around. We let the wind blow us on the way down, and then paddled against it on the way back.  

One other small sailboat came into the anchorage today, but otherwise we have had Waterfall Inlet to ourselves. 

July 16th (Tuesday) 

First thing in the morning we checked the marine forecast. They were calling for a gale, and we were supposed to get South East winds up to 35 knots changing to West 30 knots. We went out in Kiki to pull up our prawn trap and we had five large prawns and three of those cool hairy snails. 

We headed out of Kwakume Inlet a bit before 08:00 and the water was glassy calm, the air was still, and the sky and approaching clouds had that look of an approaching storm. It reminded us of how the sky sometimes looks in the winter before it snows. 

The movement of other vessels on AIS was particularly busy today, with a bunch of them heading for the same anchorage we were going to. There are not a lot of anchorages in the immediate area that would be good shelter in both strong SE winds and West winds. Unfortunately, because of the weather we chose to bypass a couple of spots we had wanted to check out, but maybe we will make our way back there another time. 

We headed up to Codville Lagoon, which is off of Fisher Channel.  When we came into Codville Lagoon there were about ten boats in the popular shallower anchoring area, and a couple in different spots around the sides. We decided to try anchoring in what we thought would be the lee behind the island from both South East and West winds. This area was deeper for anchoring, but we got the anchor set well and pulled our back in towards the island and stern tied. 

On the way up through Hecate Strait and into Fisher Channel we were constantly seeing evidence of current on the water. The coolest of this was once we were anchored and we went out to set our crab trap and then our prawn trap. When we came back out the narrow entrance of Codville Lagoon it was just after slack and the current was starting to ebb. As we sat out over about 300' of water getting our trap lines ready we could clearly see a line of current making its way towards us. It was at least 500' long, and stretched well out of the bay, but it was only about 15' across. As it got closer we started to be able to hear it. The surface of the water looked like the peaks you put on top of a lemon merengue pie, and spots on the surface were jumping up making a chorus of bloop, bloop, bloop sounds. It passed underneath us and continued across the bay, then another one started in the distance and worked its way across on a similar path. Very neat, and such a cool sound. 

After setting our prawn trap we decided to do some trolling and began puttering our way around the area with renewed optimism. We got to see a whale fairly close up. He was coming around the corner of the bay, surfaced at the corner, then turned and dove towards us, and then surfaced not far away before diving again and going into the heart of the bay before we saw him surface again and again and again as he made his way back out of the bay on the other side and continued down the coast. 

As we trolled, the wind started to pick up and with it the chop picked up. The rain, showers at first, started soon after, and we made our way back into the anchorage and home without catching anything.  

We were happy to find that although it was somewhat windy outside the Lagoon, it was calm at our anchorage, and we seemed to be well protected. As the evening progressed the wind did not seem to ever get that strong, and whenever we checked the current conditions it seemed well below what they had forecasted. 

We enjoyed listening to the heavy rain on our deck, as it has been a long time since we have had really heavy, long lasting, steady rain.