We have a few alternate ideas for making a season of it in case this whole fishing thing doesn't work out. One is a 2017 Setnetting Calendar featuring the 2016 crew. Here is our current nominee for Mr. July. And if nothing else, he can use this in his Tinder profile. I like to see that he is washing his plate - many of us just eat the next meal on the last meal's plate... without washing it in between. Sometimes it's for the sake of water conservation, sometimes time conservation, sometimes just a personal challenge. Patrick says he gets disgusting when he's here. I think he said this when we were all digging into the beef jerky bag with our fishing gloves on. Wait, is this disgusting?
We're still fishing two tides a day. The night tides have been really high. We go out on the flood and come in a little before high water. Lately, that's been
very high water. These photos are from the end of the flood pick. We’ve all piled into the Bathtub from the Ambi and the New Kid. Patrick and Jeff have dropped us off at the stairs (which are partially under water) and have taken the fold-a-bote out to paddle back in after anchoring the Bathtub a bit off shore – out of the swamp zone.
Here are David D and Austin, having just jumped out of the Bathtub.
Here are Inku and Matt, standing right next to the cliff, being sprayed by the surf break. You might be able to see why it's a little nerve-wrecking when we're in the rocks and in the surf break. It always wins; it's just a matter of time.
Matt is contemplating going up the stairs but standing in hip deep water. I think he was the one who commented that this is like being in a swimming pool. (Except for the wave action.) It is a strange sensation to have the part of the beach you think of as always passable become impassable (unless you don't mind wading through water). This must be a little how it feels to be a flood victim.
Jeff and Patrick have made it back in the row boat. We always wait for the paddlers and as soon as they get close enough, wade out and pull them in. This time, we just docked them at the stairs. Patrick has climbed out and is partway up the stairs - the tide having saved him the first few steps, Jeff is climbing out, Oksanna is on the other side of the row boat, her cheerful face just poking up above the side of the boat and Inku is in the foreground, tying up the boat so it doesn't float away. It actually did float away this morning - we forgot to tie it off when we came out and the tide got it and carried it off a bit before it got hung up on the ranger.
Jeff had a chance to turn around and flash his beautiful smile. It would be too selfish not to include that photo too.
The afternoon tide came with some ominous weather. I'd heard we were in for a beating, but it didn't pan out - that's a relief! The fishing picked up a little bit, but not as much as we'd like it to. The good news is that our boat cleared 2500 lbs without breaking a sweat, with time to stop at Harry's boat to enjoy some hot chocolate, Pringles, and some of Jane's delicious smoked salmon. Yum!!
This season is shaping up like last season. We have a frighteningly low catch on July 4, the date long considered to be the peak of the run, and lots of late hitters in the nets. So we can't pack it in early without wasting a bunch of salmon, which we don't want to do. The really great news is that so far, the ranger has been pulling the Cockroach even with some fish in it through the mud all the way to the beach, if the crew is walking along side, helping it. I had thought the mud would clear out little by little until I thought about the tide pummeling the cliff and of course, taking part of the cliff back out with it... dropping the heavy bits of it - the clay - onto our mud flats. Renewable mud.
The day ended nicely.
No comments:
Post a Comment