Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
CENTRAL COAST TRIP PART ONE
Just got back from my Central Coast expedition. I bit off almost two and a half weeks---I did so with much trepidation---boat camping in a small cramped cabin with a wet soggy dog can get old in a hurry, especially when the weather gets sucky.
The extra time paid off, though—got weathered in by gale force winds for 3 days early in the trip and by the time I got to the promised land I was happy I had the extra days still ahead of me.
Launched out of P. Hardy last week of July---the plan was to fish my way SLOWLY north
That paid off---I got some nice springs in all the likely spots around Cape Caution on the way north. Rivers appeared dead so that was the one place I did not fish---I heard springs were late and it was mainly a coho show-- coho are real low on my entertainment list so I grabbed gas at Duncanby and pointed north.
You can see I was loaded for bear--- fire wood and gas, making my boat look like a Jeb Clampett boat out of the Beverly Hillbillies. It even seemed to embarrass the dog to be riding in a rig with junk hanging off the side like that---witness her cringing :
Electronics---I was real glad I had the full suite of the good stuff. I basically powered my boat from Slingsby Channel to the north country in pea-soup fog. I never saw any land masses going around Cape Caution or across Smith Sound. Nothing going up Fitzgerald Channel, nothing We’re talking not being able to see the bow of your boat type fog. Hugely stressful avoiding logs, much less other boats. I’ll admit to developing a steamy relationship with my new Furuno UHD radar--- she was so exacting with target info and such an amazing nav device I almost took her into my sleeping bag each night to whisper sweet nothings into her magnetron...
Pretty amazing coming into Rivers in a blind fog and suddenly you see thirty red dots on the screen and know you’ve just stumbled into a fleet of lodge boats long before you see them.
I stuck in close to the kelp and bombed the faces of cliffs---rod in one hand, the other hand on the lever of my Scotty, I’d put the stern of my boat on the rocks in 10 feet of water, then edge off the shallows into the deep, dropping my ball down the face of the cliff.
Nice to have that 1 Kw Airmar transducer to produce a picture like that ---This was not only effective but pretty exciting---rod in hand, you get to feel the tap-tap-tap of the head shake and then the unreal power of a good solid take-down once the fish feels iron.
Nothing big, but at least I felt like I was learning a new spot. The evidence that it doesn’t get fished much? HUGE lings--- I think I got over 10 lings out of the kelp that were legal size.
Just got back from my Central Coast expedition. I bit off almost two and a half weeks---I did so with much trepidation---boat camping in a small cramped cabin with a wet soggy dog can get old in a hurry, especially when the weather gets sucky.
The extra time paid off, though—got weathered in by gale force winds for 3 days early in the trip and by the time I got to the promised land I was happy I had the extra days still ahead of me.
Launched out of P. Hardy last week of July---the plan was to fish my way SLOWLY north
That paid off---I got some nice springs in all the likely spots around Cape Caution on the way north. Rivers appeared dead so that was the one place I did not fish---I heard springs were late and it was mainly a coho show-- coho are real low on my entertainment list so I grabbed gas at Duncanby and pointed north.
You can see I was loaded for bear--- fire wood and gas, making my boat look like a Jeb Clampett boat out of the Beverly Hillbillies. It even seemed to embarrass the dog to be riding in a rig with junk hanging off the side like that---witness her cringing :
Electronics---I was real glad I had the full suite of the good stuff. I basically powered my boat from Slingsby Channel to the north country in pea-soup fog. I never saw any land masses going around Cape Caution or across Smith Sound. Nothing going up Fitzgerald Channel, nothing We’re talking not being able to see the bow of your boat type fog. Hugely stressful avoiding logs, much less other boats. I’ll admit to developing a steamy relationship with my new Furuno UHD radar--- she was so exacting with target info and such an amazing nav device I almost took her into my sleeping bag each night to whisper sweet nothings into her magnetron...
Pretty amazing coming into Rivers in a blind fog and suddenly you see thirty red dots on the screen and know you’ve just stumbled into a fleet of lodge boats long before you see them.
I stuck in close to the kelp and bombed the faces of cliffs---rod in one hand, the other hand on the lever of my Scotty, I’d put the stern of my boat on the rocks in 10 feet of water, then edge off the shallows into the deep, dropping my ball down the face of the cliff.
Nice to have that 1 Kw Airmar transducer to produce a picture like that ---This was not only effective but pretty exciting---rod in hand, you get to feel the tap-tap-tap of the head shake and then the unreal power of a good solid take-down once the fish feels iron.
Nothing big, but at least I felt like I was learning a new spot. The evidence that it doesn’t get fished much? HUGE lings--- I think I got over 10 lings out of the kelp that were legal size.
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