Monday, August 12, 2013

Operation Halibut


 
August 5, 2013

We set out once again to bring some halibut home.  Steve called John of JZ’s fishing charters Sunday afternoon since we had completed our work at the RV park. We thought a nice reward would be to fish rather than dig in the ditch.

John answered the phone and said how about tomorrow? Well sure we can do that. You know what that means, yap we have to get up at 0400!  Aw we can do it for the chance of some halibut.

We arrived at JZ’s boat around 5:45 and hit the water at 0600.  We enjoyed the ride out and the beautiful day on the water. The water was like glass which made it even better.

Captain John and his first mate Myrna (his wife too) were great fun and enjoy what they do for a living.  We hit a couple of places for halibut and had success!  Steve was a happy guy as we actually both caught our limit which was great. Now our freezer has halibut to keep the salmon company.

We still had a few hours left to be on the water so went for some snapper and lingcod. We journeyed to a couple of snapper and lingcod spots and at the second one Steve landed a nice sized snapper. It was my turn to get one as he put the pressure on me. I had to take his challenge to catch a bigger snapper than he did. You see I caught the biggest halibut!

So I figured out if I held my mouth a certain way and spoke the right words the fish would come. Well I guess it worked as I got one on the line and reeled, reeled, reeled, kept reeling, and finally the fish was at the surface. We were all excited about what it might be and low and behold it was a snapper. Guess what? Yap you were right it was bigger than Steve’s! Now I didn’t really care about that as we really just wanted some fish!
 

Red Snapper success
Funny how the Captain didn't kiss Steve when he caught one
 

We fished a bit more so John and Myrna could get a snapper as well. We ended up with a third snapper so we brought the poles in, secured the seven fish we had managed to snag, and headed for the marina. A great day on the water but catching the fish made it all the better.
Success on the water - Yippee
 

Captain John and Myrna were great teachers and hosts and we would recommend them to anybody that wants to come to this area and go fishing. You can’t go wrong.
Captain John and Myrna

JZ's mascot

Steve, Myrna, John and the big cat

What a successful fishing boat looks like!
 
 
Once the fish were cleaned, we headed to a restaurant at Telegraph Cove so the chef could cook a piece of the halibut for our lunch. Talk about fresh from the boat fish and chips! Awesome!

We arrived back at the trailer around 5:00 and finished processing the fish. We were happy, Izzy was happy and the freezer full! What a day!

There was one more place folks told us we should see on the north island before we leave the area. This place is called Cole Harbor and was a mainstay back in the 30’s and 40’s for whaling. There is a bit of Canadian air force history there too. We had a chance to tour a small museum and walk on the dock. There was quite a bit of activity for a town that has only a small general store.
A picturesque spot at Cole Harbor
 

We decided to hit the road once again on Monday August 12th. Our freezer is as full as it can be and there are many other great places to see!

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