As we were motoring along we came to a rise of rocks in the water that Jim thought would be a good fishing spot. So we stopped the boat and float around while Jim caught three rockfish. Three casts of the fishing rod and three fish - a quick stop. One very large black rockfish and a couple of small ones - that were not black rockfish.
I was a little nervous about the whole thing. But we used the new headsets we bought for communicating when docking so when he was in the stern and I watched up in the helm and we could talk easily. It worked. And we had fish for dinner. Much easier than going out in the little skiff.
As we were motoring into Chappel Inlet there was a prawn boat working away in there. Jim decided that he would drop the prawn pots from the big boat on the way into the inner anchorage. Quite easy to pop them into the water from the back deck.
We have been experiencing a lot of rain and mostly we seem to have to be all dressed up in our wet gear to put down the anchor.
No exception in Chappel - full wet gear to drop the anchor.
But the next day we had a completely dry day.
A lovely morning in Chappel Inlet.
Jim took the skiff out and pulled the prawn pots that he put down the day before. We got 14 prawns in two pots. He put them back down and also put down a crab.
He was gone for quite a while. And I was back at the big boat thinking about what I would do if he fell out of the little skiff while pulling up pots. How long would I wait before I called the Coast guard? He had a radio and his life vest but if the radio was lost...... he wasn't answering the radio when I called ......turns out he was chatting away with the prawn fisherman! We had a bit of a discussion about the need for a better plan than no plan.
Later in the afternoon we took a little skiff ride around the area and went into Emily Carr Cove. A spot that is supposed to have a nice anchorage. It's nice to be able to look around the small anchorages by skiff before going in with the big boat. We have a depth sounder on the skiff and can look around at what space there is for swing room for the big boat and shore for Jenny - future reference. There is one nice little spot in there and we may go there with Phoenix Hunter next time.
The anchorage in Emily Carr Cove that we liked. Spot to take Jenny to shore.
A small creek runs into Chappel Inlet
A small islet close to where Phoenix Hunter is anchored.
There are quite a few little nooks around Chappel for a skiff ride.
That evening we put the skiff up on the boat deck - put the poles back out for the next day's travel and had a lovely dry evening and evening enjoyed our evening dinner of Panko breaded rockfish in the cockpit.
The next morning it was raining when we were ready to pull the anchor -of course! Full wet gear needed. And then the plan was to use the big boat and the windlass with the anchor chain removed to pull the prawn pots and the crab pot as we were leaving the Inlet.
It was a good news - bad news situation.
Good news - pulling the prawn pots with the windlass worked great! I was able to catch them with the pike pole just like hooking on to a mooring bouy and we could bring them toward the bow of the boat. Jim wrapped the line a couple of wraps around the non chain side of the windlass and up came the pots with very little effort.
Bad new - two pots -- one prawn! ONE!! - we threw it back.
The crab pot was in a different spot - a little closer to shore and not so deep. So we ended up just pulling that from the side of the boat. No crab - not even a nibble on the bait. Jim was hoping for a King crab and had baited the trap for them.
All in all though it was a good thing to try the windlass for pulling the pots. Much easier to drop the prawn pots as we enter a spot - they are set in 200-300 feet - and then pull them up with the big boat as we leave. Crab pots are usually set in 30-70 feet and not as difficult to pull.
We spent two nights in Chappel and left the morning of June 8th for Weinberg Inlet on the west side of Campania Island.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:June 6 - 7 Chappel Inlet
No comments:
Post a Comment