Absalom Cove off Freeman Passage (The "Outside" of the Inside Passage)

Location: Cove West of Absalom Island, B.C. off Freeman Passage
Date: Saturday, July 20,2007
Last Post (LP): July 16, 2007
Time: 1100
Location: N 53 56 61  W 130 36 953
Dist. Since LP: 46.7 nm
Total Distance: 1,209.71 nm
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July 18th at 0955 we left the docks of Prince Rupert and headed back to our happy fishing grounds of the Freeman Passage. We soon left the fog of Prince Rupert behind us and enjoyed the cruise in fabulous sunshine. We were originally hoping to tie up to a mooring buoy in Freeman Passage Cove but the four mooring buoys noted on the charts were nowhere to be found. We discovered a beautiful,private anchor site tucked in between Porcher and Absalom Islands, well protected from all winds. we set our anchor at 1550 and were delighted to be so close to excellent kayaking grounds and of course the FISH of Freeman Passage. Eagles are everywhere, soaring and wheeling above us or perched high in the trees,the kings of the kingdom. We put out two crab pots at the head of the bay and set off to do some serious fishing. It was a lovely afternoon and we plied our way up and down the little bays lining Freeman Passage. A couple of eagles followed us as we made our way to and fro. They were absolutely magnificent. A whale entered the passage where we were fishing and awed us with his spouting. We couldn't believe our good luck! A couple of porpoise swam by. We are enthralled with the wildness and beauty of this area. We caught and released about five rockfish and also released a cutthroat trout which we wished in hindsight we had kept when we lost two fish we thought were probably salmon. I decided that fishing is like tennis...lots of fun, but way more fun when you're winning ie catching fish! The next morning we headed out early and after more catch and release action we landed a beautiful chinook about 24 pounds and a good sized coho. Very exciting! No whale sighting today but porpoise and seals definitely like this waterway.We were ready to enjoy yet another delicious salmon feast. Once again our freezers are almost completely full.

The next morning two fisheries inspectors paid us a visit and checked our fishing licenses. We were so surprised to see them as we hadn't seen a boat in days...its so remote here "on the inside of the outside" (the Queen Charlotte Islands are the next stop West). They said they almost missed us tucked in as we were, with a ring of rocky shoals almost hiding our presence at low tide. We checked our crab traps and found 17 Red Rock crab...we released them all as we prefer Dungeness...fussy, fussy, we've become! We moved our traps to a new location hoping to find Dungeness. We decided to fish a little before lunch even though we didn't have our tackle box or net on board. We did have a rod set up and a fish bonker. Within 10 minutes we had a beautiful spring on the hook and did he ever fight! Jim played him to hopefully tire him out before we attempted to land him without a net...he won and broke the line! We headed back to the BurntSand for a quick lunch and headed out to fish again. For the next 5 hours we fished through rain, heavy rain, light rain, sunshine, calm, wind, calm and sunshine ...and unhappily NO FISH. WE chastised ourselves for being too cocky in fishing without our net. We ended the evening with our ongoing backgammon tournament now all tied up at 3-3 after Jim mounted a comeback when down 3-0.

Comments

[Alex]

Backgammon ey? I'm glad to hear that you're both practicing for the Yeates-Tyszkiewicz Backgammon Invitational 2007 Tournament to be held a few weekends following your return!