Pacific NW

Expeditions

I challenged my navigational skills in transiting the length of the Queen’s Sound area today. In the afternoon we anchored in the Spider Islands complex. Justin and I stuffed ourselves with poached and fried halibut for lunch, and then launched a major fishing expedition in Modulus. We prepared lures, bait buckets, and the crab trap and set out to catch fish. And catch fish we did!! Within 5 minutes Justin reeled in a kelp greenling. I threw out a chunk of halibut guts on a hook with a squid, and in ten minutes I was shouting for Justin to get my shirt and stuff it against my abdomen. The pole began to dig in and I knew I had a big one! An unbelievably huge ling cod surfaced, with a large rockfish in his mouth too! The ling cod was in the act of swallowing the rockfish (a meal in itself) whole! My line snapped in the retrieval however. It was “the big one that got away”. I would have been heartbroken except that we still have some halibut meat. This ling cod was just as big as the halibut and would have been too much meat to handle! Still, I felt bad about putting it through the misery of being caught and not killed and eaten. I tried to catch it again and instead immediately pulled up a medium sized rock cod. Justin and I threw up our arms and agreed that it was ridiculous to go on fishing. Every cast would bring one in! On our way back we pulled the crab trap, which was teeming with crab! Today is a turning point for us as fishermen. We are currently living off of the sea, and now have the confidence that we could procure enough meat each day to survive indefinately. We have reached a point where we can tell all the species of crab and fish apart, know a bit about where to find them and which times and places are best to fish, and what species we are likely to find in each locale. We clean and cook our catch, fresh from the sea, and are learning tons about the lifestyles and habits of the creatures we eat. It all brings on a great deal of respect for this amazing place, as well as a deep interest in the continuing health of this ecosystem. Tonight we ate halibut, greenling, tiger rockfish, and crab for dinner! Bon Appetit!!