Another Try for Salmon

May 31st (Sunday)

We had our first sleep on our new mattress last night, and we both found it very comfortable.  It was nice and firm, and quite supportive.  We are very happy with how it turned out, and hopefully it will last well. 
In the afternoon we decided to head out salmon fishing.  It had been quite cloudy and showers kept passing through, but it was also calm and a lovely day.  We headed out.  After a few hours of trolling we had still not gotten any salmon.  We had caught a few small Rockfish, but that was it.  Although we were really hoping for some fresh salmon, we were also not encouraged by our luck.  Since it was around slack current, we decided to reel in and go and try some bottom fishing.  We were hoping for some fresh fish for dinner.  
As we were putting our lines down we saw a massive splash out in the middle of the Dean Channel.  It was the splash of a humpback whale’s breech; we had just missed seeing a flying whale.  We saw the blow and the back of the whale as it continued on its way down the channel.  Within five minutes of jigging I caught a fish, it felt big and it put up a good fight.  When it came looming up out of the depths it was a Halibut.  We decided to try to net it, but just as we almost got it into the net it flipped and threw itself out of the net and back into the water.  Amazingly, it was still hooked and as it took off down towards the bottom once again it pulled and pulled out line from my reel as I held on.  When it stopped, I started to reel it back up towards the surface and we got a second chance. Unfortunately, this time it managed to get itself off of the hook, and back to the bottom it swam.  
When we inspected the jig we were surprised to see that it had stretched the ring that held the hook to the jig weight, we replaced the ring and kept fishing.  
We were surprised and encouraged by the quick action, and we were even more surprised when five minutes later Jason had a fish.  It was a nice-sized Pacific Cod, and now that we had fresh fish for dinner we decided to head in.
On our way home we stopped and pulled up our prawn traps.  Although we only had nine prawns, they were once again very large and so made a nice-sized complement to our fresh fish for dinner.  
As we planed our way in towards home there was a seal that popped its head up to check us out.  This is not uncommon, but this one remained up at the surface and watched us as we passed by.  It had come up fairly close to us and we commented that it was a brave seal.  When we got back to the dock, Joey was there to meet us before we could even tie up.  We think that it was probably her out on the water as well.  When she saw us get out of the boat with the fish, she was quite excited.  She followed Jason down the dock towards the fish cleaning station, swimming under the water and looking up at him as they went.  
We had fun feeding her the scraps and I took the fish carcass out in the crab trap to set it.  We really like having frozen crab on hand because it is so quick and easy to thaw, and so versatile for meals.  It makes amazing crab sandwiches for lunch, it is delicious in pastas, soups, and fried rice, and it makes a great dip for snacks.  Since our last big crab haul we have been working our way through our frozen packages, and our supply is getting lower so hopefully we will catch a bunch of crab and replenish our freezer.  

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