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My wife and I spent a great week in the San Juan Islands last week with family and friends, and with the exception of no salmon to be found, it was fabulous. We started out in Anacortes crabbing. Saturday, we caught eight beautiful dungeness. Great way to start our vacation. Sunday, we golfed in the morning with our good friends at the Swinomish (hope I got the name right) golf course then crabbed the afternoon tides. Great combo. Trouble soon started as we motored out to Saddlebag Island. The engine back fired, coughed, sputtered, ran very rough, couldn't keep it in idle. So we used the trolling motor to move from pot to pot. Worked well as long as the pots were not too far apart. With the fast currents, it was slow going. We only had to pull our pots twice for our limit! Best crabbing we have ever had in this area. (We did crab at the end of the week with our daughter and new husband with similar results. A fast limit ). After putting our gear away, I managed to get the big motor in gear and we slowly motored back to Cap Sante Marina. Found a local mechanic, and after a carburetor rebuild and big $$$, we were back on the water only losing one day.

Tuesday morning, we headed north to Sucia Island. Heavy fog slowed us down a bit but it only lasted a short time. Before stopping at Sucia, we headed straight to Tumbo Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands. We decided because we could not fish for any cod in U.S. waters, Canada was the place to go. Got our 3 day permits on line and went fishing. The water at the southern part of the Straits of Georgia were pretty rough and my wife was not enjoying this part of our adventure. We found calm waters on the leeward side of Tumbo Island and started fishing in 90 to 125 fow hoping to find a rock cod, lingcod or if lucky, halibut. Soon one of our rods doubles over and line is stripping. Thought it was the bottom at first but my wife had a very big fish on. After 15 minutes of tug-o-war, we netted a 19.5 lb lingcod! It was a beaut. A boat record. Our cooler was not big enough so we draped a wet towel over the fish and went back to it. I soon hooked into another large fish, got it to the boat, just beyond the net and a large lingcod spit the hook. Just as well, we had plenty of fish to eat. Cleaned, filet the fish, and headed back to Sucia to find a place to anchor and do some kayaking and exploring.

Wednesday morning was a disappointment because the wind prevented us from our last opportunity to fish in Canadian waters. So we planned our route and headed for Friday Harbor. Because of the wind, we headed down the east side of Orcas Island. Much calmer. We spent a short time salmon fishing at Obstruction Point. The strong currents made this a bad idea. During one turn, the current pushed my downrigger line into the trolling motor. Luckily, no damage and no gear lost. On to Friday Harbor.

Thursday was windy again but only on the east side of San Juan Island. The West side was flat calm. We started salmon fishing at Eagle Point and despite the poor fishing reports, tried it anyway. After about 30 min of fishing, the Orcas showed up. We pulled our lines in, and for the next 2 to 3 hours we enjoyed watching a pod of whales. Great show. It was the high-lite of the week. The next day tried salmon fishing again. There were two guide boats at Eagle Point so I was encouraged. Just because no fish were being marked on the fish finder, and the reports were dismal, and no one was catching fish, doesn't mean I cant try. Well, no fish. Beautiful day though. Headed back to Anacortes Friday afternoon, dropped one crab pot for one hour, got two keepers, found our slip, cooked our crab, had a nice dinner, life is good.

Crabbed one more day then headed home to Spokane on Sunday morning. Awesome trip and as always, can't wait to go back.

Larry3215

8/23/2016 10:29:00 PM

Sounds like an awesome trip!

downriggeral

8/24/2016 12:08:00 AM

Nice Ling! Great eats for sure.

kec6334

8/24/2016 9:57:00 AM

You ever think of reading the regulations??? Lingcod season in marine area 7 is May 1 to June 15. ref page 111 of the WDFW fishing regulations. Did you know that there is a maximum size on lingcod? of course you don't know that, you haven't read the freaking rules. Larry, pls send me you full name and address so that the fish and game people can send you ticket.

nvan

8/24/2016 10:08:00 AM

kec6334, of course I read the regs and if you would read my post carefully, Tumbo Island is in Canadian waters and lingcod fishing is allowed this time of year. I appreciate your diligence in keeping to the regs to help eliminate poaching but before you jump all over someone's case, make sure you are accurate in your accusations. I do not appreciate it.

spenny1823

8/24/2016 11:26:00 AM

Congrats! Great ling. I'm heading up to my grandpas cabin this weekend up in BC and hoping to have the same luck!

Fillet'emyoung

8/24/2016 11:30:00 AM

nvan, Nice Cod and way to be Polite to say the least to The NFR Police.. kec6334..OUCH !! Read before you Bleed !!

Mike Carey

8/24/2016 5:14:00 PM

When this report came in I too made sure to read it correctly before letting it be posted.

kec6334 - do you have enough integrity to post a public apology to nvan? I checked your reports for accuracy - oh, that's right, you've never posted a report. :-(
It's "moment of truth" time...

bassplayer17

8/24/2016 6:10:00 PM

And that's exactly why I don't post no more. What a joke.

seaark

8/24/2016 7:45:00 PM

Sorry, that guy jumped on you so hard. Clearly you said you fished Canadian waters. I do want give you a heads up though. If you have lingcod on board you cant fish in Washington for salmon with a dead ling on board when lings are closed. Same with halibut. Also if you caught a salmon in a open area, say area 7, you cannot stop in a closed area. For example, you can't go get a salmon in area 7, then go to area 8(closed for salmon) and go crabbing with a salmon on board. Not saying you did that , just trying to save people a ticket.

joechiro30

8/24/2016 9:53:00 PM

nvan- you did nothing wrong nice catch! You have to read your report however to know that you fished in Canadian waters. Before reading your report on the list it Has San Juan and fished for long cod. You may be baiting yourself with that guy accusing you. It should say BC waters instead so people know off the bat that you did not fish in area 7. I too thought that you were fishing illegally till I read your report. However that guy did not read your report before making an accusation which is not right. He should apologize. My 2 cents

nvan

8/24/2016 10:06:00 PM

We only fished one day in Canada, cleaned and packaged our catch prior to leaving Canada waters. I listed area 7 because the majority of our time was spent there. I appreciate all of your comments.
Tight lines.

Mike Carey

8/25/2016 6:21:00 AM

Since kec6334 hasn't responded we'll move on. But he won't... people that harass on reports don't have the privilege of being a member of this site. Goodbye kec6334

nvan

8/25/2016 8:53:00 AM

Thanks Mike. On a side note, your report and video of your halibut and salmon trip to Canada was great! Always enjoy reading about your adventures.

kec6334

8/25/2016 1:16:00 PM

My error. Sorry. Nice fish.

nvan

8/25/2016 1:31:00 PM

Thanks

Trouttrakr

8/25/2016 4:08:00 PM

LOL Wow.... Great reading...

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