Have You Ever Seen The Rain…

That wonderful CCR song seems stuck in my mind the last few days – no small wonder, as it has been raining hard since Todd and Em left on Thursday, with no respite.  Most of the fleet migrated to Elfin Cove for a day or two, due to the gale force winds and 8-12 seas forecasted. 

We have had the luxury of staying in the small cabin we rented for a week from the Cross Sound Marketing Association while the kids were here – 4 people on our boat for a week would not have been too comfortable! 

I already miss the kids – Todd caught on real quickly to the rhythm of setting gear, so he and I worked the pit to set and pull.  Wow, was it ever nice to  unsnap a leader, put it on the fighting line, land a fish, and let him take care of coiling and stowing the hook while I brought the next one in!  We swapped off, and he got really good at doing the magic WHACK! that we use to stun and pacify the exuberant cohoes!  We only landed one king salmon during the 3-day opener, but coho fishing was great.

 

  

Em and Lovie would take over once we finished a pull, and guts would fly.  Two people cleaning make short work of the 20+ fish that came in each pull, and the hold became fuller and fuller.  By the time we unloaded Wednesday night, the boat was squatting down further in the water than I’ve seen in a long time – once we unloaded, it felt really frisky!

We did eat well – sea bass, sockeye, and the kids brought fresh garden vegetables from Montana!  Those are pretty sparse up here, and we get really hungry for good vegetables!

We went down the outside coast of Chichigof Island on Tuesday – still a little lump in the swell from last week’s storm, but generally nice.  Fishing was not so hot, but we had a couple of pods of Orcas go right by the boat, which was pretty cool. I heard on the radio that Steve had an Orca grab his gear and break one pole, so he was heading in to fix that.   On one pull, Todd brought up 3 sharks, between 4 and 6 feet long, something we rarely see, and which doesn’t bode well for salmon fishing.  We moved on to better places, and whacked and stacked for the rest of the day.

Thursday, they caught the float plane to Juneau – lucky they got out when they did, as there has not been another plane in or out since they left, and they don’t expect any for another day at least!

We haven’t seen her yet, but there is a lady working at one of the lodges here that we knew from the bank back in Montana!  Small world – curious to hear her story about how she came to be in this little corner of Alaska.  

There are a lot of extremely interesting tales of people who wind up here.  Perhaps in a future post I will tell a few tales that would be similar to what I’ve heard…  guess there are people who get a little sensitive if they think they are written about, so I’ll be careful not to get too detailed! 

The saga of the squirrel in the last post – we talked to the guy on DeathTrap, the boat where the squirrel was – he said that after 2 days up the pole, the little critter was so tired, he finally came down to the deck and collapsed.  Tom went out and put a big, clear peanut jar over him, slid cardboard underneath, and captured him.  The squirrel settled down and slept; he put water in, and the thirsty guy licked it all up. It slept till that evening when they anchored – he rowed it  ashore and let it go – the last he saw it was running full tilt for the nearest tree!  Success.

Well, we are going to try to fish this afternoon; it is quieting down, and we need the money.  Hard to believe there is only a month left to make our fortune…!  Somehow, I don’t think we will be vacationing much this fall…..

Drip, Drip, Drip… have YOU ever seen the rain?

Fish on.