A Sour and Sweet Fishing Trip

Earl and I took my boat out on the ocean yesterday for salmon. We had an interesting day. I can share some details; others not.

We left the dock right on time at 6 a.m. There was a big oil tanker in the shipping lane as we headed toward the Golden Gate. It left a scary wake behind. We did not want to cross the wake and we did not want to try to speed up and get ahead of the ship. We took it slow. It took us 40 minutes or so to get to Point Bonita. It was rough until the Point. Not sure if it was the outgoing tide, the ship's wake, or both.

Once we turned the corner into the ocean, it was fairly calm. It remained so, the rest of the day. 

We encountered "difficulties" with the downriggers. We had to make do with one downrigger. No problemo, we stacked two lines on one. It worked.

Earl brought this one in just outside Duxbury Reef in Bolinas. We were VERY pleased given the "difficulties" we had experienced earlier. Life was good again.

We made our way back toward Rocky Point/Stinson Beach (following Reel Time who always seems to catch fish). We made it all the way to Rocky Point. We stopped over a ball of bait so Earl could jig up some live anchovies to use for bait. Who knows, we might do some halibut fishing later in the day. 

At that point, my downrigger cable snapped. Oh well, I had another and the hardware to fix the problem. I had a new one rigged up in no time. I attached the new 12# weight to the downrigger cable and as I reset the counter, the cable snapped AGAIN. Another weight gone. 

No more trolling for the day. I felt very down. We decided to mooch. My heart was not in it. I was ready to quit. Earl kept my spirits alive and had a good attitude, despite all the adversity.

We looked for "Benny the Moocher", a fisherman we had seen earlier. Earl says, "He only mooches and he knows where to find the fish". We planned to follow him, however, we could not find him. We set up a mooch drift before the Duxbury Buoy. Mooching differs from trolling; Mooching -  you just drop a dead anchovy down 30 feet or so with a light weight and wait for a bite, with the boat's engine off. No luck on that drift but we saw a lot of whales. This one was lunge feeding on anchovies.

I felt it was hopeless to continue. Earl suggested we try a drift over Duxbury Reef where rock cod might come up and take our bait. He was right. We caught a bunch of rock cod. Whoop de do! I came for salmon. At the end of the drift, we were in shallow water. Earl suggested we try another drift. It was past 2 p.m. I worried that the wind or swell might pick up. As you can see from the picture above, it was quite calm. I agreed to keep fishing til 3 p.m.

Knowing it was our last drift, Earl took the salmon out of the cooler and began cleaning it on the back of the boat. We had been catching lots of rock cod. When his line began to make noise I assumed he had another. Nope - salmon on! Earl calmly got it to the boat and directed me throught the netting process. Two salmon. Life was REALLY good again. 

 

Roased Salmon with Chimichuri sauce for dinner.

I slept very well. This morning, Beth and I went on a hike in Pt. Reyes National Seashore. We intend to explore different hikes throughout the park. Today, we decided on the Muddy Hollow trail.

Picturesque part of trail

Beach grass on the dunes behind Limantour Beach

Poison Oak

Anyone who has hiked with me knows that I have a heightened sense of awareness for poison oak. I watch for it, sound the alarm and avoid it like the plague. 

When I was a boy, I had numerous bad cases of poison oak. All over my face, in my eyes, on my naughty bits, etc. I loved to romp in the woods. It took years for me to learn to avoid it. I can still conjure up the bad smell of the Fels Naptha soap we used to try to counteract exposure. After all those miserable sleepless nights and doses of prednisone, I grew up and made the decision to NEVER get it again, if I could help it. So far, I have been almost completely successful. If a trail has too much poison oak, I won't hike it.

The Muddy Hollow trail was fine. It had some poison oak on the sides of the trail - easily avoidable. I enjoyed the sounds on the trail: birds, a woodpecker, the surf near Limantour; and the smell of the forest. A great hike.

Beth and I came home for a late lunch. I roasted the salmon carcass and collar. Sounds gross - but easily my favorite parts of the fish. The carcass has all the meat closest to the bone. The old saying is true.

Nothing else eventful happened today. I talked to Greg - he wanted the usual fishing report. I told him everything (almost). A few details of the fishing trip shall remain confidential. Sorry.

the bear