Another Try at Fishing

February 3rd (Monday)

The sky cleared last night, and we could see the moon and some stars through a thin layer of cloud. In the morning our cleared area of dock, where Jason had shovelled the snow yesterday, was covered in a thick layer of frosty ice. The remaining snow on the dock, which had been wet yesterday, was frozen solid. 

Many seals were hauled out on the log breakwater in front of the marina. The logs were snow-covered, and the seals seemed to be holding their heads and tails up higher, leaving less of their bodies touching the cold logs. The seals, with their winter coats, look like they are velvet when they are dry. In particular, there are a few of them that are pitch black, and when the top half of them dries, as they lay on the log, their hair fluffs up and looks just like soft velvet. 

Although we were discouraged from our lack of luck fishing yesterday, we bundled up again today and headed out. The conditions were good, with light winds, so we thought we would give it another try in a different area. We wanted to try the area out from the marina and down towards Martin River. We had done one drift in this area before, but that was all. 

Because of the constant outflow from the overflow of the dam, there is always a surface current flowing outwards. Even when there was very little wind, one of us had to row in order to keep us from drifting too fast. While Jason rowed, I fished. I tried jigging and I tried a baited hook, but all I caught, for the whole time, was two tiny fish. 

Almost all of the small fish that we have been catching, we think, are Walleye Pollock. It seems odd, however, that since they can grow to be 36 inches long, that we are only catching small ones. According to our fish identification book the adults live at moderate depths over sandy or muddy bottoms. These were the types of areas that we had been targeting, so I guess that either there are no bigger fish here, or we are just having terrible luck.  

In the evening it started to snow, so our fingers were crossed that we would have enough snow the following day to go out and play in.