Fishing Ucluelet, BC

In Uclulet, BC. Went off shore today and caught 2 king salmon. Beautiful sunshine and very little swell. Back to the town here for some marine/ fishing supplies. Then out to check crab pots and put down the shrimp pots. After that another run out off shore for slack tide to try for salmon and halibut again. Cool Change feels good being home.

Getting ice for the coolers and the fish isn't like your normal grocery store run. It is ice mixed with sea salt making it colder and longer lasting. This commercial ice stop has chutes that flows the ice to the bottom interior of the commercial fishing boats. Our boat is a little bit more tricky trying to get the ice into a few coolers on deck. But, this guys got it figured out. Okay, so it looked like winter on the decks of Cool Change but I got the overflow scooped into the coolers with the dust pan. Not like we are eating it.

 

We worked hard for the salmon. There were days when the swells were quite large and our crew didn't quite have their sea legs yet. There was a bit of chumming going on but I don't think that it helped to lure the fish in.

                                    Here is the king I caught on a pink hoochie.

                                                                   Molly's silver

                                                                       Myras's King

                                             A group effort by Myra, Alex and Mark

                                                                Mark and his King

                                                             Alex and his dandy King.

                                                Martin, Alan and Mark cleaning our catch.

                                          That's a nice full cooler of  a variety of fish.

We set out 3 different traps for crab at about 25ft of water. We usually catch Dungeness and Rock crabs. We can only keep the males so that the females can keep producing. We did pretty well with the Rock crab this year and feasted heavily. The Dungeness was a flop, only catching one.

                         Myra's first trip with us. She used to live in Alaska so this is natural.

                                                           Oooh! That's a dandy!

 Steamed in a covered pot of water for 10 minutes and then dip the meat in melted butter. Divine!

                                     And all of the remains go over board. Easy cleaning!

The shrimp pots, we have 2, get put down in a different area and have leaded line to keep them on the bottom. We drop them in 300ft of water. We add to it a basket of 1/3 cp of prawn bait, bought at the store, and away it goes. After the haul is brought up, after a period of time being down, we throw back the little ones to grow and remove the heads from the larger. Throw them on the BBQ and what a great hors d'oeuvre. We found when we cook them into a meal, like shrimp alfredo, they get wet and mushy.

                                                            Alex pulling out the bait pot

                                                 The bait looks and smells like dog food.

                                  The head comes off too Molly , not just the leg.  (:

                                                                And what is this??

We also picked up clams and mussels that I steamed on the stove in white wine, butter, garlic and Italian seasoning. We BBQ oysters right on the grill in their shells until they opened. This is the best way that I have ever had them. Good tip Myra!

 

The scenery is beautiful all around us. The fog rolls in too and makes it appear very cryptic.

                                          Now, how did those trees grow on those rocks??

                                                        Red right return, GREEN left.

                                          Sea lions in abundance. They were super vocal!

                         The colors in the sky were amazing. I couldn't stop snapping photos.

We also got in some hiking on the Pacific Rim Trails

Mark and I had time in between fishing and guests on board we anchored in a nice bay out of the way of all boat traffic and just relaxed. In the morning we got out and did some paddleboarding and had about 15 seals around us.

Our ocean trip has come to an end. We are now waiting for the BC Ferries to cross and get back to the states. We did good fishing and had a great time with friends and families. I also loved our time beachcombing for seaglass, driftwood and shells. We will be back again next year.