A Bountiful Catch

March 21st (Saturday)

At around 10:00, after some Spanish lesson time, we headed out fishing. We had talked to Ken, and he was planning to launch his boat and to come out around 10:30 to meet us, and to do some fishing as well.  

It was another beautiful morning, but it was quite crisp and there was a heavy frost overnight. By 10:00 the sun had been on our boat for over an hour and everything was melted, and the air was beginning to warm slightly. We bundled up in our layers so that we could keep warm for the trip out, and hoped that we could de-layer as the day progressed.  

Out from Wallace Bay we started our drift at the beginning of the area that we have found to be the “hot spot” for fish right now. There was very little wind, and with the movement of the current, we drifted at a nice slow pace. Jason had his line down with the herring bait, and I was using the jig. We had not been fishing long when I got a good-sized bite. Based on how it fought, I would guess that it was a Pacific Cod, but unfortunately it got off part way up.  

When we fish with a jig we have gotten in the habit of fishing with our de-barbed jig. We removed the barbs because we had often ended up catching so many little fish that we wanted to release, and if there were barbs on the hook it could get to be quite challenging to release them without sometimes causing serious harm to the fish.  Although we do sometimes lose a good fish because of not having the barbs on, overall it is a good choice, and it gives the fish a bit more of a fighting chance.  

We kept fishing, and over the course of the day I did catch several small Walleye Pollocks, and also a couple of small Pacific Cod that we let go. I also caught one decent-sized Pacific Cod that we decided to keep.  

Jason ended up having all of the “big fish” action, and it became more apparent that the Halibut prefer the herring bait, and that the Pacific Cod often seem to prefer the jig. It does seem to work well for us to have two lines with both techniques out.

Part way along our second drift, once again in our “hot spot” area, Jason got a good solid bite. We were pretty sure by the way that it was fighting that it was a Halibut, and I was ready with the net. Sure enough the wide white belly of a Halibut loomed out of the murky water as the fish came to the surface and I scooped it up into the net. With renewed strength, and a definite sense of urgency, it thrashed around in the net and it was amazing the force that was behind its thrashing. Halibut seem to be pure muscle. Once it was subdued, we headed to shore to fillet it. 

The tide was high, and it was a perfect time to come into the beach. The rocks are small up high on the beach, and as it was right at the end of the flooding tide there was little change in the water level while we filleted the Halibut and Pacific Cod. 

Once the fillets were in our bowl, and we had the Cod carcass cut up and into a bag to freeze for bait, we headed back out fishing. We had kept part of the Halibut carcass to put into our crab trap, but we left the rest of the carcass on the beach for the raven that had been watching and talking to us from up in the tree above.  

Back out on the water we talked to Ken. He had also had some luck and had caught a lovely-sized Pacific Cod, and also a Rockfish. We went back to our favourite area and started fishing once again.  

It was such a beautiful day, still and glassy calm, and it was finally getting really warm in the sunshine, so we decided to stay out fishing to see if we could get some more food. Since we have a limited supply of gas here in Ocean Falls, as there is no fuel station, we like to make the most of our trips out in our tender. 

After another couple of drifts with very little action, only a couple of small fish, the next big bite came. Once again, we guessed it was a halibut, and once again we were correct. This one was even bigger than the last one, and quite a lot heavier. 

When we got it into shore we measured it, and it was 33”, just 1/2” shorter than our biggest, but this one was way heavier. Halibut are normally flat fish, but this one was quite rounded because of how thick the meat was.  

It was somewhat football shaped, and it had the thickest fillets of any Halibut that we had seen. As Jason started to fillet the first side we were amazed by just how thick the meat was, it was more than two inches thick, and each fillet was big and beautiful. 

From these two halibut, we packaged up 12 bags of fish for two people, with generous-sized servings. What a bounty!  

We gave five bags of fillets away to certain people here that we wanted to show our appreciation towards. None of these residents had been out fishing yet this year, so we figured that they would appreciate some fresh fish, their first of the year. 

On our way back home in the afternoon we saw a weird thing in the water up ahead. At first it looked like the top of a deadhead, and then it seemed like it moved so we wondered if it was a sea otter or seal. What was it? As we got closer we slowed down and could see that it was a massive male elephant seal.

He looked at us, but did not seem concerned and remained where he was.  

He had his large head out of the water and he kept lifting his trunk-like proboscis up into the air. Then he would lower his head and look around. We talked to him, and he continued with lifting his nose up and then lowering it. Eventually he dove under the water and disappeared. I wondered what he was doing in the area, and also where he was from and where he was going? It was very neat to see him because although both Jason and I had both seen a female Elephant Seal before, many years ago, neither of us had ever seen a male. The females look very similar to a normal seal, and it is the males that are particularly large and have the very interesting trunk-like noses.  

I know that I said this last year as well, but one of the things that I love about our fishing trips, apart from the fun of catching fish and the amazing food that we get, is all of the things that we see while we are out on the water. Whether it be pulling up an unknown starfish and then being able to identify it, or seeing killer whales, or seeing a breaching humpback whale, or two wolves, or a male elephant seal, we just never know what we are going to see. When we are out fishing, we are often out for many hours, and the more time that we spend on the water, the more neat things we might get to see.  

It was a great day!