Today was supposed to start out with a couple of hours fishing then a continuation of our journey south. It didn’t turn out as we expected.
After getting a slow start in the morning, we went out Tenakee Inlet and anchored on a reef in about 120 feet of water. The spot had been recommended to me by a man in another boat moored at Tenakee Springs. I decided to go for a really big halibut and attached a whole salmon head as bait. My gear consisted of a heavy boat rod with 80 pound test Dacron and a large capacity reel. Over the next hour and a half I kept getting nibbles, but nothing was able to take the head and run with it.
Finally, about 11:00 the drag on my reel started singing out that something had taken my bait. For the next 30 minutes or so I struggled to bring my fish to the surface. Many times on the way up the fish had other ideas and simply took off with a lot of line and a bent rod trying to hold it back. The constant effort of holding the rod up was also pretty tiring on me. Eventually I managed to bring the fish to the surface. Fortunately I had purchased a harpoon with a detachable tip in Juneau and had it rigged with the line attached to one of Hobbit’s cleats by the swim step. I put the rod in a rod holder, climbed down to the swim step and harpooned my halibut – now it couldn’t get away.
Having secured this large fish to Hobbit, my next challenge was to subdue it. All kinds of stories are in print about people who bring large halibut aboard before they are dead. There are even accounts of wooden rowboats being destroyed and people severely injured or killed from the thrashing. I didn’t want to be another statistic.
Another tool in my box was a flying gaff. This is like a very large fish hook with a line attached to the hook and the hook wedged onto a wooden pole – the pole and the hook become separated when the hook is inserted in something. Anyway, I used the flying gaff to grab the halibut’s mouth. With lines now attached to the halibut’s mouth and belly, I lifted it slightly out of the water and cut its gills with a knife. Bleeding the halibut hastens its death and also improves the quality of the meat. In spite of all this punishment, it still took another hour before the halibut was dead and we were willing to bring it on board Hobbit. Without the Hobbit’s boom along with its block and tackle, we never would have been able to get the halibut on board.
Rather than head south to an anchorage, it was clear we now needed some place with a fish cleaning station and, more importantly, electricity to run the freezer all night with a fresh load of fish. Consequently we headed back to Tenakee Springs. The previous night there had been only 4 pleasure boats and one purse seiner at the transient dock. Tonight the transient dock was not only full of fishing boats, but boats were rafted to each other and several boats were moored to the inside of the floating breakwater which didn’t have access to shore. It seems that there was a 4-day hiatus in the purse seining season so the entire SE Alaska fishing fleet had to hang out somewhere until their season opened again. About a dozen chose to come to Tenakee Springs.
With no other choice, we tied up at the breakwater. My only option seemed to be to use the boom to lower the halibut into the water and tow it to the fish cleaning station with our dinghy. Fortunately, one of the fishermen on a purse seiner docked behind us helped us tie up. When he saw the halibut on the mid deck, he went to get his camera and told the rest of his crew. The crew of the purse seiner offered to carry our halibut to shore in the large aluminum tender they use to help set and retrieve nets. What a welcome offer that was.
We hoisted the halibut into the tender and went to the fish cleaning station. While I was able to drag the halibut out of the tender, I couldn’t lift it up to put it on the scales. (Remember, the fish is not only heavy, it is also wet and slimy, so you don’t exactly want to hug it.) With the help of the tender operator, we managed to get the fish hooked up to the scale, but it still dragged the ground. Trusting the scale to hold the weight, we pushed the tail over the side of the dock and got a reading of 94 pounds for this 57 inch halibut. It possibly weighed a little more than this since the fish didn’t actually swing free. After getting the halibut down from the scales I then had to ask for help to lift it onto the cleaning station.
Soon the word got around and many of the men in the fishing fleet came to see the fish. I guess you know you’ve caught a trophy when commercial fishermen gather around to discuss your catch and ask where and how you caught it.
After cleaning we had, according to tables provided by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, about 70 pounds of meat to process. Fortunately one of the pleasure boat owners offered to let us raft next to them and tie into electricity. Thus, after wrapping up the halibut as best we could, we put it in the freezer.
94 Pound Halibut
It Takes Two of Us to Lift It Onto the Scales
On the Scale
The atmosphere on the dock was generally festive. With all the commercial fisherman in port there was lots of conversation and family activity (many captains bring their wives and children along during fishing season). I found the evening quite enjoyable until the waves started coming into the harbor.
Huge bounces and gyrations began about 9:00 in the evening. I stayed up for a couple of hours adjusting fenders and lines to make sure everything was well secured. Fortunately I added a bow and stern line from Hobbit directly to the dock in order to reduce the stress on the lines and cleats of the boat we were rafted to. Probably 10 minutes after I got my lines on, the bow line of the boat we were rafted to snapped. It would have been ugly if we didn’t have a bow line capable of holding both boats. Several of the fishermen were quite helpful in helping me arrange lines.
July 12, 2011, Tuesday
After leaving Tenakee Springs we went about 40 miles south to Ell Cove, a snug little anchorage surrounded by high mountains and waterfalls. One interesting event was having a sleeping whale come up right in front of Hobbit. We stopped and watched it for awhile; it just lolled around on the surface, occasionally blowing, occasionally sinking under water for a couple of minutes. Very interesting to see how a whale sleeps.
Right in front of the entrance to Ell Cove was a female Orca and calf which disappeared fairly quickly. Inside the cove three boats were already anchored using a stern tie. Given how small the cove was, we elected to do the same.
Female Orca and Calf at Ell Cove
Waterfall Outside Ell Cove
July 13, 2011, Wednesday
I got up about 5:30 this morning in order to go beachcombing on a very low tide. Most of the algae and animals are the same as those found in Washington, but enough are different to keep it interesting.
From Ell Cove we had a short day to reach our destination of Warm Springs Bay which has, you guessed it, warm (HOT!) springs. When we arrived, the State of Alaska public dock was full so we anchored for a few hours until a spot became available. The public dock and tiny community reside by a wonderful waterfall which provides a constant chatter in the background. Boardwalks connect the dwellings and extend well into the woods where hot springs (108 degrees) feed pools which were made by using rocks to create dams.
It’s an incredible feeling to be in the hot pools right beside a huge cascading waterfall. During the day we made friends with a young couple, Mike and Jena, who were on vacation from their profession as troll fishermen. It seems most places we go we find friendly people that we very much enjoy conversing with.
Early Morning Outside Ell Cove
Stern Tied in Ell Cove
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Warm Springs
Hot Pool at Warm Springs
July 14, 2011, Thursday
The plan of the day was to get an early start and head out to our next anchorage. After making oatmeal for breakfast, I decided to fish from the dock while Linda finished getting ready. On my first cast I caught a coho (silver) salmon. On my third and fourth casts I caught two more. Within half an hour I caught my limit of six salmon in the 5 to 6 pound category.
Clearly we had to stay at Warm Springs Bay to process the fish. Much to my surprise Jena volunteered to clean my salmon. She has only been crewing for Mike for three weeks and said she needs practice on rapidly cleaning salmon in a manner which brings the best price. A poor job of cleaning results in a poor price. Who was I to argue with a beautiful woman offering to clean my fish?
After the fish were cleaned, I filleted them then Linda and I vacuum packed them for freezing. Both our freezers are now pretty much full. Any more fishing/crabbing/shrimping will have to be for immediate consumption or when we have freed up freezer space.
Another delightful feature at Warm Springs Bay is a public bath house with three private rooms which have one side open to the bay and waterfall. Hot water travels from the spring by pipe for about half a mile and, consequently has cooled somewhat. Each room has a huge tub that you fill with the free flowing water. This water was on the order of 98 – 100 degrees and a marvelous temperature for relaxing while watching the eagles, jumping fish, and the waterfall.
In the evening Linda declared Warm Springs Bay to be her favorite spot and would like to come back. She also wants to spend more time on the east side of Baranoff Island where we have had so many marvelous experiences in the last several days.
Mike Helping Wally Land a Coho Salmon
Six Cohos and a Pink
July 15, 2011, Friday
The alarm rang at 5:30 this morning so we could get an early start on our leg to Portage Bay (Loon Mountain Cove – see June 8 and 9, Wrangell to Juno blog). Not only was the leg long at 55 miles, it was also across the big open waters of Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound which can churn up really big waves. Even the routine afternoon breezes can result in a rough ride so we were anxious to get an early start.
Nevertheless, after breakfast I decided to try to catch another coho salmon so we would have one to eat fresh; we froze all 6 caught yesterday. As luck would have it, I caught one promptly and Linda asked me to try for another. Within 30 – 40 minutes I had caught my daily limit of 6 cohos. Today the weight was in the 5 - 7 pound range.
Given our need to get continue our journey, Linda started scaling the fish while I was still fishing. After catching my sixth coho, I cleaned and filleted the fish and put them in an ice chest – we would process underway. We made freezer room by giving Mike and Jena some chicken and throwing some of the bait I had accumulated away. Amazingly, when we vacuum packed five of the fish we managed to get them all in the freezer.
The weather was really good today; glassy calm all the way. Along the way we encountered another sleeping whale and half a dozen feeding. On our way north we would have stopped to observe, however now seeing whales seems routine. Whales have become so common that we only stop if something unusual is going on. Most of the mountains were cloud topped and many had snow visible. The setting was gorgeous.
After 12 hours since the alarm went off, a glass of wine really tasted good.
July 16, 2011, Saturday
You really know you’re headed home when you start retracing your steps. Last night was at Portage Bay and tonight we’re back in Petersburg. The scenery was just as beautiful heading south as it was heading north, but how many pictures do you want of the same scenery? We did have a nice view of the Paterson glacier perched on a hillside that was cloud shrouded on our way up. We were also visited by a pod of Dahl’s porpoise which is always an enjoyable event.
Approaching Petersburg I went into the engine room to check on the status of samples from my plastics project. I use the engine room for drying because it gets quite warm. Much to my chagrin, I noticed that the bilge was 2/3 full of water. Turning the helm over to Linda, I started to investigate and concluded that our primary bilge pump had failed. The source of the water, I hope, is normal leaking from the propeller shaft weep system.
After docking at Petersburg I positively concluded that our bilge pump had failed and purchased a new one. I also tightened the seal around the propeller shaft to reduce the rate of leaking. Hopefully all is now well.
July 17, 2011, Sunday
Time and tide wait for no man. Unfortunately, man has to wait for both. Between Petersburg and Wrangell we have to transit the 20 mile long Wrangell narrows which has extremely strong currents. The current tables said that a 2:00 departure this afternoon was the optimum time for starting our journey. Thus, we spent the morning doing other fun things like the laundry and defrosting the refrigerator - boats don’t have frost-free refrigerators because they take too much energy.
After getting the “fun” stuff done, I started an experiment that will play out over some period of time in the future. I went fishing for herring using a jig with about 8 small lures attached. Herring hang around the edge of the marina and I was frequently able to bring up 3 – 5 large fish (8 inches) with a single cast. I then put them in bags with copious amounts of salt in hopes of using them for prawn bait in the coming weeks. Herring this size are hard to find in the stores. When they are available frozen, they cost about a dollar apiece. I salted about 50.
One of Murphy’s laws states that regardless of what the current tables say, the current will be against you. So it was today. We started out with about 2 kts of current pushing us then it changed to 2 kts against us for about 10 miles and ended with about 1 knot pushing us. According to the tables, we should have had a favorable current all the way.
Because of our late start we ended up anchoring in Deception Bay; about 20 miles short of our destination of Wrangell.
July 18, Monday
A cool and overcast day. An uneventful transit from Deception Bay to Wrangell
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