I gather with the other guides waiting for lodge to bring the clients and lunches to us. We are all a little nervous with the weather forecast calling for the 30 knot blow.
"If its a true 30 at the Cape, it will be un-fishable," one of the guides commented.
"There are just no fish anywhere else but the Cape," another commented. "Usually at this time of the year we can hide behind some islands to get out of the big blows."
I was finishing a group and, fortunately, we had caught lots of fish over the past couple of days.
"Let's stick our nose out and see what the ocean is really doing," I informed them as we idled out of the harbor.
All the other guides were dragging their feet not really wanting to take a pounding by a nasty ocean yet another day.
I lead the fleet out past "the Rocks", and then past Bird Island. Still not too bad of an ocean.
"Hey, this looks doable," I said over the radio. "At least we can get one pass in before it drives us off. We might have to make the big loop around Kruzof Island, but at least we should catch our salmon."
I reached the corner of the Cape and dropped my lines on the downriggers. Almost instantly the line snapped out of the clip.
"Fish on!" I shouted.
The clients were hardly ready for such quick action. One finally made it to the pole and was locked in a battle with a late season giant Silver Salmon.
As fast as we could get our lines in the water the big Silvers hammered the baits.
Mike made a quick pass down wind and then beat his way past us to get in a quick second pass.
"Mike the fish are very shallow," I informed him over the radio. "I'm getting them good on my surface line and one at ten feet."
"Thanks buddy," Mike's voice boomed back over my radio. I could hear the pounding of his boat in the back ground as he beat into the building waves.
In record time we had our limit of silvers on board.
"No halibut today," I informed the clients. "I would not anchor in weather like this as it will be getting impossible in the next few hours."
They all agreed, as it was a bit nerve wracking even fishing salmon in the building waves.
I stowed the fishing rods and gear and fired up the two main engines.
It took almost an extra hour to pound our way back to the dock and the waiting van to whisk the clients back to the comfort of the lodge and a nice long hot shower.
The weather was bad but the fishing had been incredible!
Ah... now to take a winter off.... well, after a month and a half of diving.
Mike busting through a wave
Nice catch of fish
No comments:
Post a Comment