2016-08-18 Shelter Cover Again

Spending time with grand kids is extremely important to Lisa and me.
We like to get them out into remote areas and make appropriate diversions and recreations available to them so they can have a good time.

There is no Internet or cell phone access out in these areas, so video games, text messages, and e-mails are out of the question.

We had Aliyah, age 8, and Bryan, age 10, with us on this trip.
And of course First Mate Lisa, and First Dog Bina.

Our destination was Shelter Cove again, where we had just recently been with grand son Tyler.

We pulled out on a Thursday morning around 10:45 AM.
Weather was sunny and warm, with light NW breezes.
Perfect cruising weather.

We arrived at the Shelter Cove USFS dock at about 2 PM.
This time there were dozens of sea gulls encamped on the dock.
Shooing them away was easy - cleaning up their messes was a bit harder.

I'll let the photos show what a good time we all had on this trip.

This is just a little bit of what the sea gulls left behind.
I used a stiff bristle long handled brush that I keep on the boat to scrub at least the first layer off.
It made it habitable.

Bryan and Aliyah ham it up on the dock.
You can see the long handled brush behind them.
The weather was so warm they were quite comfortable with short sleeves and no jackets.

I dropped a couple of crab pots from the dock and we actually got some.

The weather was so nice I just set up the Coleman stove right there on the dock and cooked our spaghetti dinner there.  It would have been nicer without the sea gull s**t.

Bina cleaned up the dishes so I didn't even have to wash them.
(Just kidding.)

The fire pit got a lot of use, as well as the canvas chairs.
Bryan shoots the BB gun in the background.

Shelter Cove is in Carroll Inlet, which is mostly protected.
When the weather is calm it is a really beautiful area.

Bryan likes to shoot the BB gun.

Commando Bryan with the BB gun

Dock fishing is always popular on these trips.

S'Mores are fun to cook on the fire pit.

Trips in the raft are on the agenda.

The new electric kicker doesn't go fast enough to impress the kids.

It was a great trip and I know the kids had a good time and will have good memories of it.

We pulled out about 3 PM and headed out in a light rain.
We were in the stall about 6:30 PM after a great boat trip.

2016-08-11 Fishing with Dennis Madson

Back in my "UsedTa-Job" I had a working relationship with Dennis Madson.
Dennis is an avid fisherman and he has joined me in the past for fishing adventures.
Since I have retired now it had been some time since I had heard from Dennis.
But he did contact me to ask if he and his son Taylor could come up and go fishing.
I'm always eager to go fishing, so of course I said yes.

We pulled out on a Thursday morning at about 8:30 AM in overcast but calm conditions.

We started trolling almost right away near Vallenor Point.

By noon we had a nice Chum and 2 Pinks on board.
Not terrific, but better than getting skunked.

During lunch we moved over to Camaano Point, an area I had not fished for some time.

We only got 1 Silver over there, and so around 3 PM we moved over to Tatoosh Rocks.

At Tatoosh we picked up another couple of Pinks.

By 5 PM we were trolling near Grant Island but got nothing there.

Around 6 PM we pulled gear and headed in to the Naha dock.

We cleaned the fish and had a good dinner.

Taylor shows off a nice Silver

Dennis and Taylor show off our day's catch

On Friday morning we pulled out and started trolling right away at Indian Point.
Nothing there, so we moved and made another brief stop at Grant Island before moving on once again.

The weather was nice so we bounced our way up through Clover Pass stopping at various places to try some trolling.  But it was slow going - no new fish.

We ended up out at South Vallenor Point, an area not normally fishable.
But today it was very calm, so we gave it a try.

We ended up getting 2 more Pinks in this area before trying some bottom fishing.
Bottom fishing only yielded a small Turbot, trash fish.

It was a beautiful, calm evening, so at least the weather was nice.

We pulled the gear a little before 7 PM and headed in.
We dropped the fish off at Cedars Lodge for processing, and then headed for the stall.

It was nice to get out and to reconnect with Dennis and Taylor, but it was a little disappointing to not get so many fish.  The last time they were here I think we got around 24 Silvers.

2016-07-29 Shelter Cove with Tyler and Luke

For this trip my crew was 12 year old grandson Tyler and his friend Luke.

Destination was Shelter Cove, a USFS dock in Carroll Inlet, about 25 miles from town.
There is a logging road there and a small lake about a mile and a half up the road.
It's a neat place to visit.

We pulled out about 1:15 PM and pulled into the USFS dock there at about 4:15 PM.
No one else was there so we had it to ourselves, which is nice.

This trip was all about letting the kids have safe outdoor fun.

I'll let the photos tell most of the story.

Saw this yacht on our way out

Faraway sits at the Shelter Cove USFS dock

Another view of Faraway at the dock

One of the local residents

Tyler loves my old .22 rifle

Those cans never had a chance

Luke tries his hand with the .22 rifle

Luke and Tyler had fun in the raft

The kids had fun with the fire pit

The boys setting up the tent

I gave the boys the choice of sleeping on board or setting up the tent and sleeping out on the dock. 
They chose the tent.

And of course dock fishing is always popular ..

We got a small Pink while on the way home

From all the smiles I'm pretty sure the kids had a great time.

We were back in the slip at about 7:30 PM.

2016-07-24 Fishing With Bob and Walt

It's always nice to make a new friend, and also to spend time with old friends.

I met Walt Corbin when he ended up tied up near my slip at Bar Harbor.
He had run his 36' North Pacific "Untethered" up from his home in the San Juan Islands but his crew mate left the boat unexpectedly in Ketchikan.
That left Walt somewhat stranded in town until his wife could come up to help him run the boat back south.  Unfortunately she could not make it up to town for about 3 weeks.

During that time I got to know Walt and we became friends.

For this trip my crew was new friend Walt, and old friend Bob Hammer.

We took off about 8:15 AM from the stall and had lines in the water near Vallenor Rocks by about 9 AM.
We only fished two lines even though we had three licenses aboard and could have legally fished three lines.
I have two downriggers, and while it is possible to fish three lines off two downriggers, it is more complicated, so we just chose to fish two lines.

It was still a little early for the full Silver run but that's what we were hoping for.
This time of year you usually get a mix of Pinks and Silvers.
We were hoping the mix would be a little heavier on the Silver side.

We fished near Vallenor all morning and moved over to the Clover Pass area around lunch time.

During the day we landed 6 Pinks and 2 Silvers.

About 3:45 PM I made the call to pull gear and head in.
That's when we got our "Bonus Silver."

All the gear was back aboard and we were ready to head in.
I went to the back deck to take a last look to make sure everything was secure for running to town.
It was kind of sunny and I could see into the water a little ways.
About 25' behind the boat I saw some flashing that looked to me like a flasher.
I looked further and noticed there was a fishing line hung up on the back of the boat.
I hand lined it in and found a nice Silver complete with a flasher and a lure.
Apparently we had run over someone else's gear and it had cut the line and attached itself to my boat.
It happens.

We pulled into the stall about 5 PM and cleaned the fish.

Once we got in Walt told me that he had just turned 86 on the previous day.
Happy Birthday Walt!

Walt & Bob cleaning the fish

2016-07-16 Fishing with Tyler

For this trip I had my grandson Tyler along as crew.

We pulled out around 8:30 AM and immediately went over to the fuel dock to take on 120 gallons of fuel.

By 11 AM we were trolling in the Clover Pass area.
Seas were a little rocky, but not bad, still fishable.

By 12:30 PM we had 1 Pink in the cooler.
It was an exciting catch because of the net.
Tyler had the rod and I netted the fish.
After I netted the fish I saw it free swimming again.
It took a few seconds for my brain to register what had just happened.
Then I realized there was a hole in the net.
The webbing on these nets eventually deteriorates.
Fortunately we were able to wrap up the fish again and get it in the boat.

I used some cotton twine that I keep on board to make temporary repairs to the net.
Then when we got back to town I bought a new net.
I keep both on board during the salmon trolling season because once the Silvers come in, it is not unusual to have two or more fish on at one time.

By the time we pulled the gear at 4:30 PM we had 2 more Pinks in the cooler.

We were back in the stall by about 6 PM.

We saw a whale go past the boat while we were trolling.

Tyler shows off the catch of the day.

2016-07-11 Fishing with Dr Paul

One of the neat things about doing a trip like we did when we brought the boat back up from Seattle is that you meet people.  And the people you meet many times are people like you.  They enjoy the boating life style.

You can make new friends.

One of the new friends I made was retired doctor Paul Switlyk.
He was running along with the Waggoner Flotilla, and we were able to spend some time talking about boating and other things.
During those conversations it came up that he really wanted to do some salmon fishing.
So we developed a plan that when he came back through Ketchikan on his run back south we would link up and I would take him salmon fishing.

So that's what we did.

I had my grandson Bryan along for this trip as well.

We pulled out about 8:30 AM and went out towards Vallenor Point.

Got the trolling gear in the water and by noon we had 3 nice bright Pinks in the cooler.
We lost several as well.

Around noon we moved over to the Survey Point area and started trolling again.

It was a slow afternoon, yielding only 1 more Pink.

Back in the stall around 5 PM.

I can't believe I never took any pictures of special guest Paul.

This beautiful cruiser passed by us as we were trolling near Vallenor Point.
I am always interested in boats.
Sometimes I can look them up via Google and find out their background and history.
Not so on this one, though.

Bryan shows off our meager catch of the day.
This early in the season the Silvers aren't in yet, so we usually get Pinks.
Pinks are fine as long as they are bright and firm.
A little later in the season they may be a little slimy, and those we kick back in.

Bryan is pretty happy showing off this fish.

2016-07-03 Naha Trip

If you have read many of my previous posts you will know that the Naha is one of my favorite places to visit.  You may also recall that about 3 years ago we had a tremendous wind storm in the early fall,, and as a result of that the ramp from shore to the dock was damaged.  The USFS (US Forest Service) eventually took it out.

So after that the dock was still there, but since it had no ramp to shore it was essentially no longer a "dock" per se, but was now a "float."

In any case for this 4th of July trip it was just myself, First Mate Lisa, and First Dog Bina.

Here is a Google Earth shot of the Naha Bay area.

In the upper portion you can see the notation for the community of Loring.
There are about a dozen or so buildings, and a state dock there.

In the lower right portion you can see the USFS float highlighted in a red oval.
It is very protected in there and the trail (not visible in this shot) starts right there and goes up into the woods and along Roosevelt Lagoon, eventually along the Naha River.

We left town at about 10:45 AM in rainy, overcast, but calm conditions.

Around noon we shut down in the Clover Pass area and had lunch and prepared the shrimp pots.
We eventually dropped the shrimp pots in Clover Pass at a spot I have marked as a waypoint in my GPS.

We arrived at the Naha float at about 2:30 PM, and no one else was there.
Later in the afternoon another boat came in, about a 26 footer, with a young man and woman on board.  Looked like they had been salmon fishing.

Evidence of the devastation from the storm is still plentiful.
Trees are down and are in quite a jumble right above the float.

We took a shore excursion in the raft and stretched our legs.

This is the covered picnic area that is just up the trail from the float.
Over the years we have had many family picnics there.
There is a picnic table and a fire pit under the cover.
I have been on trips here in the past where I have seen younger people bring tents and set them up under the cover and have a little camp out right there.
It's a nice place to hang out.

After dinner I saw a small group of people come down the trail right to the edge of the water and hail the people on the smaller boat that had come in.  The people said they were from a larger vessel that was anchored up near Loring, but their raft had gotten stuck behind a big log and they were stranded, at least until high tide moved the log.  They wanted a ride off the beach and back to their vessel.  Our raft was already in the water so I ferried them from shore to the float, and the people in the other boat ran them back out to their anchored vessel.  Did not get any pictures, sorry.
We try to help others in need when out in the wilderness, for someday it could be us that need help.

Yet another beautiful Naha sunset.

The rapids churn up lots of foam, which then flows out into Naha Bay.
Unfortunately if it builds up around the hull of the boat it will discolor it, and it is difficult to get off.
It does look pretty neat as it parades by, driven by the strong current coming out of the rapids.

This is where the ramp to shore is supposed to be.
You can see the damaged bull rail just to the left of the base for the ramp.
A huge tree landed there, large enough to break a bull rail that is about 12" x 12".

Faraway sits at the float, with evidence of the storm damage on the hill just above.

The float at the Naha is in need of some TLC.
It has some holes in it, and the boards are deteriorating badly.
It is very slippery in spots, with grass and molds growing rampant.
I hope the USFS can allocate some funding to give it some attention soon.

A better view of the jumble of trees that were blown down during the storm.
Glad I wasn't here then!

 

Since there is no ramp, if you want to get to shore you have to have a raft or some other way to get there.  This young family came in and took a canoe to get to shore.  Another family out enjoying the remote wilderness experiences that our area has to offer.

Here are a couple of views of the private lodge that sits on about 60 acres, right near the village of Loring.  It was built several years ago by a man from Oregon.  He used it as a private getaway lodge for awhile, and then leased it out for a time.  Then he got into a divorce situation and the lodge was on the chopping block.  I don't know who ended up getting it.

Most of the times when I come by it is clearly empty.  But this time there was a boat at the dock and evidence of people there, so I guess one can assume it is once again in use.

This is the dock at Loring, which is owned and maintained by the State of Alaska.
Since it is state owned it is available to any vessel that wants to tie up there, on a first come, first served basis.

I have tied up there a few times when the Naha dock was full.
It is much more exposed to weather than the Naha dock and so if the weather gets nasty one can end up having a rocky time on board.
And of course once you go up the ramp you are in someone's front yard, so it is not exactly the same wilderness experience that one would have at the Naha.

On Monday morning we took another short shore excursion to de-water Bina, and we pulled away about 10:30 AM.

The weather was good so we trolled the Grant Island area for a couple of hours, but only got one strike.

We did have one interesting event however.
While we were trolling in calm waters an eagle soared in and splashed down into the water just a few yards from the boat.  He actually crash landed in the water!  Not sure if he was after a fish or exactly why he did that.  He turned into the light wind and immediately took off again.

We pulled the shrimp pots and got a load of about 66 shrimp.

We were in the stall by 5 PM, arriving in hot and sunny weather.