fishin'

Colin loves Savary for a few reasons, fishing being the main one! I also like fishing, but only when the water is calm and the fish are biting. I don't have that patience that Colin has while waiting for a fish to snack on the lure.

Steve has fished before, but not for a long time, and Rhonda had never been fishing. You wouldn't know it though! She was a pro from the start!

We went fishing 3 times, and were out for at least 3 hours each time. The sun was hot, and not a cloud in the sky. I sort of felt like a prawn on the frying pan. We caught such a mess of fish that I couldn't list every fish we caught even if I tried!

The first trip, Colin won the gold medal with a 20 pound salmon (Chinook)! It's a beautiful fish! And it tasted great baked in onions and freshly squeezed lemon juice topped with a hollandaise dill sauce, served with wild rice and fresh garlic butter prawns. It made 14 steaks! Usually you put a knife in the "fish photo" as a scale of how big the fish is, but with a fish THIS big, I thought I would make a better scale than a knife.

Sorry. Back to the fishing...

Rhonda got the silver medal with a nice Ling Cod! (Don't worry Rhonda, I wouldn't have wanted to hold it either!) It was big enough to keep (~65 cm) but we used the wrong criteria to measure it, so we threw it back. How upsetting for Rhonda! It sucks to put a fish back. Especially when it's her first big one. It was funny though. She calmly said "I think I have a bite". Then just reeled it in as if she was fighting seaweed, and...a huge ling was on her hook! GO GIRL!

Steve and I both caught a shark (dogfish) that day, but they're gross so we didn't keep them. We all caught many more fish like red snapper and rock cod.

The second time, the water was really choppy! Like, seasick choppy! I'm glad we stuck it out though, because we didn't have much luck during the first few hours, but boy did that change! Near the end of the day we caught a load of ugly, stinky black fish! 4 Rock cod, 4 green ling (caught by the girls), and 2 massive ling cod (conveniently rigormortised in "bucket shape" for this photo). Steve caught one, and the other was a joined effort between Colin and myself (come on, Colin, give credit where credit is due).

As soon as one of us had a bite, you could almost guarantee that at the exact same time: at least one other person would get a bite, another would get stuck on bottom, and the boat would be swiftly drifting towards the rocks. Everything seemed to happen at once!

There were more that we didn't keep.

Like my salmon.

Please start the violin music. It will make this sad tale better.

Right off the bat, I caught a huge fish. It was fighting like nothing else I've wrestled with before. I got it up to the surface, and saw it! A beautiful Chinook about 15 pounds! I fought like crazy, while trying not to fall off the front of the boat! We even had to chase the thing with the boat! My rod is NOT a salmon rod, and my line isn't really strong enough for a salmon (have I used up all my excuses yet?). Just as Colin was getting ready to net it...it snapped my line and took off. I collapsed on the front of the boat and just lay there for awhile. Partially because I was so tired from the fight, but mostly out of disappointment.

Disappointed because I lost a fish? Has it really happened? Have I become a fisherwoman? I ACTUALLY have a "fish that got away" story, and am ACTUALLY still upset about it!

Rhonda caught a baby Chinook about 8 inches long! It was so cute, but we obviously had to put it back and will come get when it can make more steaks.

The last time fishing wasn't as good as the others. Colin and I caught 3 red snapper for dinner (served with all-you-can-eat fresh crab) and Steve got the biggest rock cod I've ever seen! Mmmm.

We quit a little early because near the end, God seemed to turn up the thermostat 5 degrees (as Steve said), and we went in on the verge of sunstroke.

Our cooler was stuffed full of frozen fish when we left, and we'll be eating it for a while to come!