Some Outer Coast Fishing

June 29th (Monday)

We awoke to rain showers, and enjoyed our teatime while I did yesterday’s writing for the blog.  By the time I was done the sky was brightening up and we got Kiki all ready, packed a picnic lunch, and headed out for some outer coast fishing.

  

We went out through the “Back Door” channel and out through the protected area of islands and islets out to some of the outer reefs where the swells were crashing.  We guessed at which way we would drift and positioned ourselves in the jumbled mess of chop and swells, a safe distance away from one of the reefs.  Watching the waves grow and build as they pass over the shallow area out from the reef, and then build and rise up into a cresting pinnacle around an unseen shallow rock is quite something to see.  The green colours of the water as it crests upward are very pretty.

We got our lines ready and dropped our hooks towards the bottom.  The first hook to go down didn’t even make it to the bottom before it was attacked and we had a nice-sized Dark Dusky Rockfish, which we let go.  The second hook down had time to do one jig and then it was also attacked by a Dark Dusky.  Third hook, and we had a China Rockfish, then the forth hook was down and on the second jig I got a bigger fish.  It pulled and fought and we knew it must be a Lingcod.  Sure enough I pulled up, and we kept, a beautiful 32 inch Lingcod.  

Yay, it has been a long time since we have gotten to eat fresh Lingcod.  I switched out my jig for a barbless hook and we kept fishing for a little while longer.  We caught two more nice-sized Lingcod, which we let go, and then about a half an hour after we had started fishing we put our rods away.  That was some awesome outer coast fishing!

Jason and I both find that when we are out in Kiki in the large jumbled mess of swells and chop that we can very quickly start to not feel well if we have had to stare down into the bottom of the boat for long.  If we can look up and look around then we are totally fine, but if we have to focus on something, like getting a fish off of a hook or untangle a hook and fish from the net, then it does not take long for us to begin to feel queasy.  When we are out fishing in conditions like we had today, we always try to take turns dealing with a fish, and we make a point of not focusing too hard; we have to look around because it is no fun starting to feel unwell.  

Luckily, this time out we were both totally fine, so we headed in towards a beautiful sandy beach that we had seen from where we were fishing.  We were very surprised at how little swell was getting into the beach since it was close to a straight shot out to the South.  There were some shallow areas and reefs, and the protection was minimal, but nonetheless the swells quickly diminished as we got closer.  The sandy drop-off from the beach was very gradual and since the tide was ebbing, it was not a great place for Kiki.  We would have had to keep tending to her in order to prevent her from being beached by the ebbing tide.  So, we decided to head out and over to another beach area that we had seen on our way out.  

It was a perfect spot, well protected from the wind and waves, and a steeper drop-off for Kiki.  

While Jason cleaned the fish, I got a fire going, and we roasted the Lingcod cheeks on a stick over the fire for our appetizer.  

They were delicious.  

We had a lovely afternoon, the clouds blew by and the sun came out.  We walked our beautiful, sand-and-gravel spit beach in bare feet and relished in the pleasure of being out adventuring once again.  As we stood in the shallow water with the tide now coming back in, the little shore crabs and small shallow-water Sculpins came around our feet and nibbled at them.  

Note the well-camouflaged Sculpin near the small crab.

In the evening, before we left, we put our boots back on and walked along the rocky shore out to the outer side of the little island where the large swells were breaking on shore.  What a beautiful area.