As the boat entered the cove, I heard those words roll off of my son's tongue. I'm not surprised, as he has always had a witty quip or sarcastic come back for every occasion. On this particular day, we were returning from a good day boating and fishing the waters near The Prince of Wales and surrounding islands.
The day had been absolutely perfect weather wise and consequently the water was calm and smooth as glass. We spent a good deal of this day enjoying the sunshine and explored the islands from the boat and enjoyed a couple of on shore explorations.
Earlier that morning, we had laid down a long line. As the boat pulled away, I looked back at the bright colored ball floating and wondered if today would be our lucky day or not. These balls are labeled with a permanent marker with the name of the owner of the line and his or her address. These lines are the locals "grocery store", as are the surrounding woods. The nearest actual store is two to three hours away (one way) and that involves a combination boat/ drive/ or fly trip. In the summer, when fishing guests arrive at the lodge by float plane, so does fresh produce and dairy items. On occasion, barges bring their fuel or large items ordered or purchased.
Lee gave my daughter and I a wonderful tour of the islands on this particular day. We boated out to open water where he pointed out three islands; Whale head, Warren, and Coronation Islands. The later two are protected wilderness, meaning there are no roads, habitation, hunting, or logging done there. As we snapped photos of these three islands, Lee pointed out the next island past them would be Japan. This statement left us all staring at the horizon in awe.
Our first shore excursion gave us the opportunity to see totems up close and personal. I was so intent checking out the shore that I missed how Katie had departed the boat. I soon found myself in a terribly awkward pose standing atop the bow of the boat. Between Katie's hysterical laughter and Lee's (barely under his breath) swearing, I quickly squatted and took mental note to pay better attention from here on out. I had to laugh at myself too. We hiked up into the woods and as promised there were two totems standing the test of time amid a forest of trees and a history we could only imagine. I found myself whispering and respecting the silence of this reverent spot. This area was once inhabited by the Tlingit tribe. The waterways had once been lined with families camped along the shores. They fished along the streams in this area, widely known for its salmon. My imagination was running full force backwards in time as I stood on the mossy floor of this island. Feeling like I was an intruder and even wary I might upset the ancient ghosts by taking pictures, I was almost thankful to head back to the boat. Mindful that I had been warned of the damp rain forest mossy floor could be slick, I still took a fall as I descended the slope. I glanced back quickly at the wooden statues half expecting a smile etched in the wooden faces.
Back safely in the boat, we cruised the waters spotting countless birds, ducks, geese, and seagulls on the waters. A few times we would see a bait ball. It was explained that a bait ball is an ever growing group of birds flying in a circle and hovering above the water surface. This happens when a large fish is feeding on fish or a group of fish below surface, the debris floats to the surface providing food for the birds. Wildlife abounds in this area and we later saw a group of bald eagles flying above trees on, aptly named, Eagle Island. Whales were viewed daily and this day we settled on the edge of a cove and watched the fins and tails or eight orcas hanging out. We decided they were most likely moms and their calves. Katie and I had crawled out on the front of the boat to get a closer watch and hopefully coax one to come up farther out of the water. As we sat there in the sunshine and watching whale spouts shoot up here and there, my son relayed a story when he was tagging along behind a cow and calf orca and as he closed in just a little closer a massive whale breached right in front of his boat. Evidently the male was being protective and issuing a back off order. This story made me a tad nervous, so I wasn't entirely opposed to the suggestion we climb back into the boat and continue the cruise.
We drove to a point of an island and as promised, there in clear view was the grave of Chief Tonawec. Lee had told us that there were two wooden statues standing guard at each end of the wooden grave. The legend is as you boat by, you are to throw an offering into the water to the Chief and good fortune will come to you. As we snapped our cameras in awe once again, Lee handed me back his beer and reminded me to "pour a little offering out to the chief, but don't be too generous" he smirked. I did as he requested and bent down to reach into my back pack. I poured out two white Tic Tac mints and silently tossed them into the waters.
We were able to get some good fishing in that day. I landed a flounder, which is a flat fish. Flounder and halibut are bottom swimmers. They have an ugly brown speckled side and the other side is white. The swim in camouflage with the brown side up. When these fish are born they have eyes side by side, but at about six months of age, one eye migrates to the other side of the fish. They are a good tasting, but ugly fish. When we returned early that evening to bring in the long line, Lee noticed right off that the ball had moved some. This made him think that we had something good on the end! As he started winding up the hundreds of feet of line, we found a couple of sand sharks had been caught on the line. The hooks are spaced out, so we waited in anticipation for each hook to appear, disappointed when something had stolen our bait. The line became more strenuous to reel in, so it became obvious we had something attached. To our delight, we saw the first halibut surface and he wasn't happy either. These fish are fighters and once again, Katie and marveled out how Lee does this all alone at times.
Driving back to the lodge, I glanced to the back of the boat. Both fish were hog tied and still flopping. Lee yelled back to the rear of the boat, "settle down there, fellas."
Back at the lodge we were fighting what little daylight was left to get these fish hung up for a photo op and cleaned and processed. The fish were measured and we proudly placed the 92 and 109 pound labels on them before setting up the camera timer. I insisted my flounder be in the picture as well. He wasn't a shrimp but looked so next to the halibut! Lee made the fillet process look easy but as I took my turn, I found an even deeper appreciation for the fish was slick and heavy and getting a clean cut proved difficult. As we flipped the fish over, he remarked that wasn't too bad, but I took note my fillet had notches where his did not. As we finished up on the fillet table, Lee made a comment that Chief Tonawec had granted us good fortune today. It was at this point, I remembered my two white mints and told Lee and Katie at my offering,
Coincidence or good fortune, it makes for a good story. Luckily, we have the pictures to make us look like heroes...........this isn't just one of those legendary fish stories where the fish gets larger and larger.
At least not this time..
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