2017-08-29 Fishing with the Hammers

My good friend Bob Hammer asked me if I would take him and his family out for a day of fishing.

His son Josh, Josh's wife Kristy, and their 8 year old daughter Jadyn were in town for about a week and we wanted to get them out on the water.

Bob's wife Patrice also came along for the day.

We were very fortunate to have great weather for the day, which kind of balanced out the not so great fishing.

We left Bar Harbor about 8:30 AM and by 9:30 AM had our lines in the water near Vallenor Rocks.
After a couple of unproductive hours there we pulled the gear and ran over to the Survey Point area.

There were a lot of other boats around and we saw some fish being netted, and we saw fish jumping.

Kristy and Jadyn spent a good part of the afternoon enjoying the sun out on the foredeck.

We boated only two nice bright Silvers for the day before heading in about 4 PM.

It was great to spend some time with Bob and Patrice and their family.

2017-08-19 Fishing with Steven and Ryan

It has been many years since I have had the opportunity to take both of my step-sons out for a day on the water fishing, but that's exactly what this day was.

I have taken several trips with Steven this season, but prior to this trip, none with Ryan.
So this trip was significant from that perspective.

We are still trying to get our winter stock of salmon, and they are really running out there, so that is what we were after today.

We started at my usual spot, just past Rosa Reef on the inside of Vallenor Rocks.
By around noon we had picked up 5 Silvers and one bright Pink.

Then we moved over to the Survey Point area and joined the fleet over there.
By 3:30 PM we had a total of 7 Silvers and 4 nice Pinks aboard.

We pulled gear and headed for town.
Ryan cleaned the boat while Steven and I cleaned fish.

It was good to spend some time with them again.

2017-08-15 Salmon fishing with Dennis & Dori

For a time before I retired from First Bank, Dennis Madson was our account manager for Open Solutions Inc.  During that time we discovered that we both are interested in fishing.  I have taken him, his son Taylor, and his wife Dori, out fishing several times in the past.

This year we were scheduled for a two day salmon fishing trip with Dennis and Dori.

Unfortunately when trips like this are scheduled months in advance, you have to deal with the weather, whatever it is, when the designated day arrives.  In this case the first day was pretty gnarly.

We tried to start fishing on the inside of Vallenor Rocks, and it usually is OK to fish there even when the weather is marginal.  But this time it was really too rough to safely fish there, and besides that, it wasn't much fun for any of us.

So we moved over into the Clover Pass area where it was much more protected.

We picked up a couple of Silvers there as well as a couple of Pinks.

Around 3 PM we moved north in Behm Canal up to Grant Island.
I had been there just over a week prior and had done well there.

We picked up 3 more Pinks there.

Then we headed in to the Naha USFS dock for the night.
We have stayed there in the past with them and it is becoming sort of a tradition.

On the way there we came across a small black bear swimming across the narrow channel.
Not something you see every day.
I didn't want to get too close to him because sometimes animals panic and do things that are dangerous to their health.

We were once again fortunate to get a spot at the dock.
It is first come, first served, and there is never a guarantee of a spot.
Dennis and I processed the fish while Dori started on dinner.
She made a tremendous meal of steak fajitas and rice, much better fare than I usually make for myself out here.

We had a rainy but quiet night at the dock, with only one other boat there.

In the morning after a quick and light breakfast we pulled out about 8 AM.
The weather was a little better today, no rain, not as windy, and just over cast skies.

We went right back to Grant Island and spent pretty much the entire day doing passes along the side of the island near the navigational marker.

The final fish count for this day was 8 Silvers and 5 Pinks.
Of course there were many strikes which yielded no fish, and a few fish were lost right at the net, but we won't talk about those.
And we got a few under sized Kings which of course must be thrown back.

We quit fishing at 4 PM and ran back into town to Cedars Lodge, where Dennis & Dori arranged for the fish to be processed for their trip back to Utah the next day.

Then it was back to the stall, clean the boat, sort out the gear, and wrap up the trip.

It was a good fishing trip and it was nice to spend some more time with Dennis and Dori.

2017-08-04 Salmon fishing

It's getting that time of the year when our focus is on getting some salmon (mostly Silvers) for our winter supply.

So the trip this weekend was really a meat run, in that respect.

The crew for this trip consisted of myself, grand sons Tyler, Bryan, and step-son Steven.

The plan was to go north, start at Vallenor, and then eventually move into the Behm Canal area, around Grant Island.

The weather lately has been unusually hot, and that weather continued through this trip.

In fact it was so hot these guys decided to jump in and be pulled behind the boat.
At first I thought maybe the guy in the boat was trolling for Killer Whales.

The first day, Friday, we ended up with 8 fish.
6 were Silvers, and 2 were Pinks.
We also got a lot of under sized Kings that of course had to be put back.

We pulled into the Naha dock for the night.

Tyler and Bryan show off their catch at the Naha dock

We had a great evening there.
After filleting all the fish we set up the fire pit and the kids were able to roast S'mores on the camp fire.

There was a small skiff tied to the outside of the float when we got there, so I dropped Steven off and he moved it around to front (right side in this picture.)  The owners came down the trail a little bit later and looked a little confused to see their skiff in a different place, but the didn't say anything to us as they got in and left.

In the morning I had trouble with the generator - it was not pumping cooling water through.
I still need to deal with that issue.
So I had to use the back up Honda generator to cook breakfast.

After breakfast the kids went up the trail again, so we didn't get away from the dock until after noon.

We started trolling at Grant Island at about 1 PM.
The action was hot and heavy and the kids never had the chance to get bored.
Steven kept them hopping on the back deck, running 3 lines off of 2 downriggers.
We quit fishing at 3:30 PM, after getting 11 fish in all, 10 Silvers and 1 Pink.

We ran 2 1/2 hours to get home and then processed them right there on the dock near the slip.

I think it was a pretty successful trip.
Looking forward to getting some more fish.
It's time to bring the pressure cooker out of storage and get started on jarring up our winter supply.