Ken and Donnas Adventures: Doing Our Bit To Evade COVID

Our summer arrived and, during the three or so months, it gave us many wonderful days to enjoy the fruits of this great season.

We spent endless hours in the yard cutting lawns, weeding, trimming and generally making everything look good so we could enjoy the yard during the summer months. It has not been the very best summer we have enjoyed here so far. We have had a lot of windy days and wind, combined with the rain has (excuse the pun) put a damper on some activities.

After the Summer Solstice, which this year was Jun 20, the sun has begun to sink ever closer towards the horizon. At the Autumn Equinox, approximately September 21, the sun will sink below the horizon, and the North Pole will be in the twilight until early October, after which it is in full darkness for the Winter. It's a fascinating subject, for sure.

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July 12, this year saw me, my good friend Wayne and his brother Ken depart for Winter Harbour, a very remote area on the Northwest corner of Vancouver Island. We drove to Port Hardy and from there took the short drive to Coal Harbour where we put their boat into the water, parked the truck and boat trailer and took the hours ride to Winter Harbour. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast for the duration of the fishing trip. It rained quite heavily on the way to Winter Harbour but the forecast was for calmer seas and better weather the following day.

The next morning, we were up at 4:30am and out on the water after a quick breakfast by about 5:15am. It was just getting light when we left. The forecast was good, so we thought we might target some Halibut about eight and a half miles offshore. I had never caught a halibut but the other two kept jibing me about how difficult they are to get to the boat once hooked. Yeah, yeah I thought. We shall see.

That day, we brought about 11 Yelloweye Rockfish into the boat. Yelloweye are a protected species of fish and if caught, must be returned to the Ocean as soon as possible. They live way down on the ocean floor and have a swim bladder inside them and when they are brought to the surface, the swimbladder expands. The boat owner must have a way of returning them to the deep without harming them. Wayne and Ken have a clamp they clip on the jaw of the fish, set the release at 200 ft and then hook the device to a downrigger with a cannonball on the end weighing 15 pounds. They then lower the cannonball and the clamp automatically opens at 200 ft down and the fish will hopefully swim away. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans require the release mechanism to be immediately available to despatch the fish back to the depths upon being caught. These fish can live for over 150 years and are a delicacy in various places in the world. We estimate we put back around $1000 worth of Yelloweye.

Below is one of the smaller Yelloweye fish we caught. Most were around 10 to 15 pounds in weight. If you look carefully you can see the swimbladder expanded in its mouth.

We had no luck at all with Chinook Salmon. Ken did hook one which we thought was about 25 pounds but it slipped off the barbless hook as we were trying to get it into the net.

By day three we were having incredible luck with the weather so we set off for the Halibut grounds again. That is where the guys taught me a lesson....... A BIG lesson.

We dropped our lines onto the sea bed. We had found a shallow area about 240 feet deep about eight and a half miles out into the ocean. That's where we anticipated the Halibut would be. We dropped around 450 ft or Anchor rode which stopped us drifting away. No sooner had I lowered my bait to the floor of the ocean, I had a bite. I wound it in. It was my first Halibut, fairly small around eight to ten pounds but good eating nevertheless.

Ken hooked two larger Halibut right away and then we hooked some Ling Cod, also good eating. Below is the days catch just before we filleted and froze the fish.

And now for something completely different. On the last day, we headed back out to the area we had been to the day before, using the GPS, we located the exact spot. I tackled up and dropped my bait to the ocean bottom and almost immediately, I had a hit.

Oh my goodness. When I struck to hook the fish, the rod went rigid and the line began vibrating. What On earth was it? Had I hooked the bottom or what? Then the rod began to shake and I knew I had a monster on.

Both Wayne and Ken have hooked into 70 and 80-pound Halibut and there is no question, the larger ones are heavy and slow to bring to the boat. But I was hooked into something both of the brothers believed was a 200-pound+ halibut. I could not for the life of me hold onto it. In the end, all three of us each had a go at bringing the Halibut in but no luck, so all three of us got on the rod and nothing. The fish was taking out the line as if the tension had been released when in fact, it was locked right down. In the end, the 150-pound test line on the reel gave way and the line broke.

Now I know what they were talking about when they said, "You'll soon learn that halibut fishing is not something you will look forward to"..... What a day. Even if we had brought it to the boat, it was way over the limit and we would have had to have let it go. I can only liken it to trying to wind in a three seater settee from the bottom of the ocean.

We trolled for a short time after for Chinook Salmon but they were elusive this time around, so we decided to cut our trip short by a day and return to Courtenay. A fun time for sure. And what an education.

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It's really hard to comprehend where the time has gone but, Donna and I celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary at home on Vancouver Island August 7th.

That same day, we were delighted to have a friend from Calgary, Elver Leon arrived with his friend Roy from Barry, Ontario to help us celebrate our Wedding Anniversary. Elver brought with him his new fishing boat which he parked in our driveway before heading out to Port Hardy to go fishing with his friends. It's really lucky that we have a 40 ft. long driveway, large enough to park a full-sized Greyhound bus or RV on. I had planned to go as well, but time did not permit as it conflicted with our timetable.

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The flowers are all but out now and we think the front and back yard looks great.

We had lots of weeds, clover and buttercups and moss in the lawn but our treatments have rid us of all of those items and the lawns look good now

We have worked hard on the flowerbeds adding Crocosmia, Hydrangeas, Lillies and all sorts of different items

We have trimmed and shaped the trees and bushes.

They look good

We ripped out the awful hedge we had and the white fence.

Finally, we removed the white metal fence in the front of our property which was an annoyance to both of us as it created a sort of barrier and we did not like that. We also took out the hedgerows where the earth is now. I am going to lay my own concrete to fill in the remaining areas which will add more space to the front patio.

I filled in one of the beds and concreted over the earth. It will darken as it ages.

The weather has been fantastic on the island over the past couple of weeks, sometimes into the low thirties which is hot for here as the humidity climbs because of the ocean effect and we don't have central air conditioning.

August 20 arrived along with my 72nd birthday. We had a lovely sit down supper, just the two of us but Donna did a lovely job cooking. That day, Wayne and I (actually Wayne did all the grunt work) replaced the lower batons on the front patio which was one heck of a job but, it looks nice now. After three days of torrential rain, it looks like a nice day so I propose to calk and paint the batons if they have dried out.

The batons replaced but before painting

The finished product just awaiting a second coat of paint

Yesterday, Donna and I went to Siefferts - a farmers vegetable outlet where we can get really farm fresh home-grown veggies and fruit. It occurred to us that we did not have much to do and so we picked up five pounds of beets and a few more mason jars and switched on YouTube on the TV and watched how to pickle beets.

Here's the result.

Donna returned to Siefferts yesterday and picked up ten pounds of pickling cucumbers. She spent most of the day preparing icing them and pickling them in 12 large Mason jars with some dill and garlic.

I was just outside this morning and although it is not cold, It feels as if fall is on the way. Some of the flowers are starting to look leggy after getting hammered by heavy rains over the past two days. Some baskets were hit quite hard and have died back so we might give them a few days and if they don't come back, we will begin the process of emptying the hanging baskets.

It's 19°C or 66.2°F so I won't rush into giving the batons a second coat of paint as paint should only be applied at a minimum of 18°C so I will let it warm up some before attempting that.

We are anticipating that in October, subject to weather and the COVID issue dying down, travelling to Calgary for a visit. That's of course, subject to there being no snow on the Cocquhala as it can get really treacherous on that stretch of highway and we no longer have the truck.

It looks like Fishing is on the cards for two days of next week before the large Salmon leave. Hopefully, we can re-stock the freezer with some more fish. We still have enough salmon, Ling Cod and halibut, enough to last us another year but extras do no harm. We will fish for Salmon and Ling Cod next week.

Well, that's about it for now so we will bid you all goodbye and enjoy the rest of your summer, but most of all, stay safe and maintain your distance from others. It's just not worth the risk and it does not look as if this is over anytime soon.

Please remember, if you are ever out this way, we are always up for a visit. We would love to reconnect with old friends and family.