Sharing Halibut and Groceries

April 7, 2020, Tuesday

Today we headed out fishing again.  Since we did not catch anything yesterday and nothing on Saturday we figured we should give it another try, and it turned out to be probably one of our most productive fishing trips ever.  

Yesterday had been quite drizzly, damp, and cold, and although today was still cold, the sun was out for the most part and we were much happier and warmer drifting in the sunshine.  

Mt. Caro Marion (the mountain that we are making the trail to)

The breeze was blowing up from the south and the tide was ebbing, but it was near slack current.  We were being blown gently along on a near perfect drift when I caught a nice-sized fish.  It fought some on the way up, and when it came to the surface it was a nice little halibut, 28.5” long.  Yay!  

This was the second halibut that I have caught on the jig, and we were both surprised that it came for my jig instead of Jason’s herring bait.  The first halibut that I caught on the jig seemed more like a lucky fluke, because the hook was hooked around the bone above its eye and not in its mouth.  However, this halibut had committed to the jig, and had all three hooks of the jig in its mouth.  

We continued fishing, and as the afternoon progressed Kelly, from the logging camp, came out to see us again.  He told us to come by the camp before we headed home because they had some groceries for us.  
When we were finished fishing we went ashore and cleaned our halibut, and then went over to the logging camp.  While we remained in Kiki, Kelly passed us a full milk crate and another box full of groceries.  He said that they were behind schedule and that they had stocked up on groceries with the plan of already being re-positioned up at Pitt Island and having a full crew in working.  He told us that the milk and cream had already expired, but that other jugs that they had with the same expiry date were still good.  The produce, he said, would go bad if we did not eat it.  In exchange we gave them halibut for all four guys that were there.  

We were very happy that we had caught a halibut and were able to give them something as a thank you.  It was especially nice because the owner of the company was there at the time and was fully on board with us getting the groceries.  Thank you Bear Lake Logging!  

When we got home and unpacked the items, we were amazed by how much they had given us -- eggs, milk, cream, butter, and a ton of vegetables.  What a treat!!

When we lived in the city we often found that people were very focused on the expiry date of an item, and some people would even throw something away simply because it had “expired”, even though it had not yet spoiled.  We have found that attitudes out here are much different, and people will not only try to make their items last as long as possible, but they also keep them until they actually do go bad.  

Another interesting difference that I might have mentioned before is the focus on minimizing waste.  We have found that if someone cannot use an item before it goes bad they will usually try to share it to make sure it gets used.  In the city, even if people were going away and would not be using their groceries, there often seemed to be no attempt to share it in order to have it get used; they would simply throw it away.  Obviously this is not always the case, but it sure is a pattern that we have found.  

Jason made us some delicious stuffed peppers with halibut on the side for dinner.

For the filling for the peppers he made a seasoned mix of rice with mushrooms and crab, and a can of cream of mushroom soup.  It was so good it could easily have been a rice dish served on its own.