Normally at this time of year I can't be out of town on Sundays because we play City League basketball games on Sunday afternoons, and I need to be there to run the clock and keep the score sheet. But since this Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday, we did not have any games. And since I have no interest in the Super Bowl, I was able to get out on Saturday for an overnighter at last.
I am still on a mission to get some shrimp, and I was also hoping to get some crabs. I thought that my last few attempts to get shrimp failed primarily because I could only leave the pots down for about 4 hours. On an overnight trip I could leave them down for over 24 hours, and I hoped that would do the trick.
My destination for this trip was to be Shelter Cove, which is up into Carroll Inlet. I've been there often, and it is one of my favorite places to visit. They are building a road to Shelter Cove from town and that saddens me. I envision pickup trucks from town loaded with firearms, alcohol, and fireworks. It will no longer be the remote getaway that it has been. But we are not there yet, and so I intend to enjoy that area as often as possible before that day arrives.
Here is my track for the trip as logged on my Garmin InReach satellite tracking device.
The little square blocks are where I either sent or received a text message. The Garmin InReach allows text messaging from anywhere in the world, which is a nice feature to have when you are out of cell phone service.
I left at about 6 AM, in the dark as usual for these winter trips. I like to get underway early and get some miles logged before daylight. I can run on radar and GPS pretty easily, but of course I have to run a bit slower. The radar does not pick up logs and other debris in the water and so I need to run only as fast as I'm prepared to hit a log.
The weather was cold, but calm, with a light mist falling in the harbor. When I got out into Tongass Narrows I encountered fog as well, which stayed with me for most of the outbound trip.
I had my shrimp pots all prepared and baited and ready to go, and I dropped them in a spot that a friend had told me about in Carroll Inlet where he has done well on shrimp in the past.
After I got the shrimp pots over, I could bring my two crab pots down and get them all prepared and baited. I've done well on crabs in about 70 - 80' of water right out in front of the Shelter Cove dock, so that's where I dropped them.
These USFS docks are first come, first served, and so you never know until you get there if there's going to be room at the dock. Since it is winter, and also the Super Bowl was the next day, I was not surprised to see the dock totally empty when I got there.
For this trip I had both my dog Nova and my cat Luna with me. If it's going to be just a day trip, I would normally leave Luna at home. But for an overnighter, she gets to come along. She tends to hide while we are underway and only makes herself known when we have stopped.
At home Nova tends to chase Luna around quite a bit, just to play with her. But in the very close confines of the boat, they seem to get along with each other much better.
I was securely tied up to the dock by 10 AM. The weather was absolutely beautiful for a mid-winter day.
I took Nova up the road for a short walk, once again letting her off leash. She is always a couple hundred yards in front of me, but she does look back from time to time to make sure I'm still coming. And if I call her, she does come back to me. The fact that I always have a pocketful of treats probably helps a bit.
I set up the tripod and took a selfie on the dock.
I quickly discovered that one of our recent winter storms had toppled a big tree right across the road. When I got back to town, I notified the Forest Service and sent them this photo and a couple of others of the downed tree from different angles.
I think this area is so beautiful when the weather is calm and there is a bit of sun showing itself. This is especially true in the winter when having calm, somewhat sunny weather is pretty rare. Here are just some shots of the scenic beauty of this area. I can't seem to get enough of it.
Nova, Luna and I had a nice evening on board, with my diesel furnace humming right along keeping us nice and toasty. I set up a thermometer on the back deck overnight, and in the morning, it was showing about 28 degrees.
On Sunday I pulled out at about 9:30 AM, with the first order of business to pull those two crab pots that were right in front of the dock.
I have to say that having that grappling hook to throw to snag the buoys is a big stress reliever for me. In order to get close enough to those buoys to hook them with a boat hook I have to momentarily lose sight of them as they roll beneath the curvature of the bow of the boat. The threat of getting a line in the props is just nerve racking. But with the grappling hook I only need to get within 15 - 20 yards of them, and I never lose sight of them.
I ended up with 19 crabs in all in the 2 pots. 9 of them were not legal to keep so I took 10 crabs home. A pretty good haul for me.
I was once again skunked on the shrimp, finding only one lonely shrimp in my two pots when I pulled them up. He got a get out of jail free card for the day. I don't know what I'm doing wrong on the shrimping, but I won't give up and eventually I will find them.
After pulling the shrimp pots we headed for home, getting in the slip with the assistance of a good friend at about 2 PM.
I logged about 50 nm for this trip.
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