Amateur hour was in full effect Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Goal was China Creek to Moore the boat for my buddies family fishing trip later in the month but fit in fishing along the way. Friday New kicker motor, braket, rear station and radio all installed for 14k in Sidney, but no sea trial demo done since they were two days past the promised delivery date, more on that later. Buddy Pushed off the dock about 7pm, thanks to them staying late to “finish”, and the Wind prediction was accurate, snotty till oak bay then it dropped of so buddy decides to pin it to peder bay, only to experience a low engine oil light half way and still getting it after topping up, so running on 250hp. At Pedder we geared up in the dark with my fishing, safety and wet weather gear and began to do more maintenance and learning on the boat. My makita drill and 6 years of Lowrance knowledge got the Garmin dual screen dash apart and the depth sounder reconnect properly much better better than the “install” by a “mobile electrician” My 20 year previous 2 stroke memory was no match for the dealer who installed the 4 stroke kicker and was generous to FaceTime with us, hope we don’t get a $100 bill for 15 minutes as it took a YouTube confirmation at midnight to learn you need patience for the under cowling tank to bleed out air. Unfortunate the the dealer installed icom radio with AIS couldn’t seem to bipass the mmsi number screen that takes a couple days for government to give you so one necessary piece of off shore equipment down, two backup handhelds, with thanks to an awesome forum member on my belt as backup.
Did a bunch more maintenance that night and then as we were leaving and running and even out at Swiftsure in some of the snottiest weather ever and I’ve commercial fished. Lesson learned the hard way do maintenance before hand! Not with a grinder at 30mph and 2 stroke oil top ups on the swim grid in seas big enough to keep the guides away.
Did 7-10 passes with one other boat at Swiftsure with 1 Ling cod to show for it. It wasn’t worth the painful experience so we kept heading for Bamfield stopping on a couple pinnacles with no luck. Since I love fishing Keeha we stopped but it was thick either kelp and seaweed so barely got the balls wet.
Did a wide pass around cape beal and headed in for fuel. Had a hot report of Vernon Bay, so I went for a cat nap and we had lines down for the night bite. No other boats and not knowing the depth or tack, we saw boats at Pill and got one small guy in the boat.
That night it must have kicked up hard as all the commercial guys joined us at the dock while we slept. Decided not to follow the guides due to the weather, headed back to Vernon and then Pill. Lost a good one at the boat as the line hit the the kicker. Got one bigger one, and one small one for the bbq. Had to put it together, and got a nice hand burn jumping for a rod but nothing better than fresh spring salmon off the bbq.
Got the salmon on bait 65-85. Trailer hook was key.
My deck hand rate is going up! That was a rough one but one for the adventure books.
