Day 8
The squall line passed them by and morning arrived with clear skies. The Captain was in a hurry to leave the protected bay before the bugs got any worse. Just his arrival in the main cabin was now enough to get the boys up and the whistle was not needed. It was back to their quick breakfast of oatmeal with coffee for the Captain. Not much was said until the Captain’s coffee was mostly gone and he asked, “Where to?”
Johnathan said, “I think we should explore the river leading up to Delight Lake. It should be just about a mile walk.”
The Captain rubbed his chin and drank the last of his coffee before saying, “A plan for sure, but I’m not sure how good of one.”
Quinn asked, “What’s the lake like?”
“Don’t know. Never been there.”
Johnathan asked, “Why not?”
The Captain replied, “No reason for me to leave the boat. Besides I bet there are some zillion bugs and some black blobs hiding in the grass. I had enough bugs for several lifetimes when I lived in Nome.” He added, “Occasionally the fishing resorts will fly people into the lake. They fish for the salmon running up the stream. Seems easier to just fish the mouth of the stream because they all have to pass by to make it upstream.”
Johnathan was insistent they should go exploring so the Captain said, “Your trip. So, if you want to swat mosquitoes, go ahead. Just make sure you stay together and make lots of noise. Not that making noise would be hard for you guys.”
Mikey asked, “Why lots of noise?”
“You never want to surprise a bear especially if there happens to be cubs around. These are black bears and they will generally avoid humans. Best to let them know you are around. If you see a bear stay together and raise your arms to make yourselves look bigger and make noise.”
Kade asked, “Should we take a gun?”
“National Park and no guns allowed. Besides if you don’t know how to use them they are more dangerous than the bears.”
Johnathan said, “I think we should go.”
The other boys agreed and so Johnathan plotted their short course while the other boys got the boat ready for the short sail to the mouth of the stream. The wind in the open water felt fresh and free after the time hiding in the bay and as the sails filled so did their lungs. They dropped anchor behind the rocky point in protected water and prepared to launch the dingy. The Captain had dug out his only fly pole and was explaining the fly fishing technique to Kade. Kade listened but realized that it was more of a snagging technique than a fishing form. Fresh sockeye would be pretty good eating so he was going to try. The Captain handed Johnathan a bottle of bug repellent that looked about 20 years old saying, “You might need this.”
It was a couple of hours until the tide would start to turn and the fish begin their ascent of the stream so the boys decided to do the hike first and then fish. They hauled the dingy up the beach to the high-water mark and tied it to a log. Mikey was already swatting mosquitos but did not want to use the repellent. They started up the game trail along the creek and had not gone far when the first bear tracks were spotted. This was followed by several piles of black gooey scat and now the boys were not so sure of their plan. They continued only after using the last of the bug repellent in an attempt to keep the mosquitoes from carrying them off. They came to a thicket of willows and the trail was no longer distinct but the creek was right there next to them. They were about to push their way through the brush when something big began to move around. Quinn spoke for all of them saying, “I don’t think we should be going in there!”
Johnathan said, “We should be almost at the lake but if the brush is this thick we won’t be able to see anything. Let’s go back and see if we can catch some fish with the fly rod.”
Kade was leading the way back down the stream when he stepped in a pile of the bear scat. He was wearing waterproof boots so stepped into the creek to wash them off but the black gooey mess resisted his efforts. Quinn told him, “No way is the Captain going to let you aboard smelling like that.”
“Why don’t you help me wash my boots?”
“I’m not touching that yuck!”
“Well, maybe I’ll just put my boot in your bed tonight for you to enjoy.”
“No worse than your dirty socks. How about we use the beach sand to clean them?”
“Not a bad idea for a little brother. Let’s see if we can catch a fish. I’ll clean the boot when we get back to the beach.”
The tide was starting to come in and Kade selected the first riffle to fish. The stream was small enough he could fish from the bank. Johnathan was the first to spot the fish or rather the dorsal fins of the fish as they made their way up the riffle. Kade tried hard to catch one by carefully drifting the fly with no success. Mikey said, “There must be hundreds of them…surely we can catch one.”
Kade resorted to the Captain’s method of short quick retrieves and on the second cast yelled, “Fish on!” Seems the fish bit with its dorsal fin and headed for the ocean as soon as it felt the pressure. Kade was running wildly down the bank trying to stop the fish but to no avail. The leader gave way and Kade reeled in the line so he could tie another fly on. The boys took turns and hooked a number of fish but the fish always turned back to the ocean and broke the leader. The tide was flowing hard now and Kade figured it was his last chance. It took a few casts but then it was “fish on!” This fish was more intent on moving upstream which gave Kade a chance and with the other boys corralling the fish they finally succeeded in landing dinner.
They headed back to the dingy and spent a few minutes, beach combing while Kade cleaned his boots. When they arrived back on board the Captain nodded his approval of dinner and asked, “Any bears?”
Mikey went into a long description of the noise in the brush but Quinn interrupted him saying, “Kade tried to bring a bear souvenir back to the boat but we made him wash his boots.”
“Well, get this boat ready. If you would shake a leg, we can fish the high slack tide at the moraine.”
The Captain sat back and just watched the boys prepare the boat and said nothing. When they were underway he asked to see the chart, and pointed to a small reef just outside terminal moraine and said, “This is where we want to fish.” He then reached up and turned off the GPS and said, “Find it and you’ll find fish.” With that he went below.
Johnathan had already determined their heading and now they argued about how to find the Captain’s secret fishing spot. Quinn wanted to follow the depth contours. Mikey was already sketching the land forms to triangulate their location. Johnathan was trying to estimate their course by compensating for the current and wind. Kade said, “Sure looks like we can get pretty close by positioning the boat so we can see the two different inlets.” In the end, they used all four methods and sure enough the depth sounder confirmed their work. Their cheering and high fives brought the Captain topside who turned on the GPS and simply nodded his approval.
“Well, what are you going to catch with your lines in the boat? It is almost slack tide.”
The Captain took the helm and placed the transmission in neutral while the boys rushed to get their lines down. Johnathan had the first strike and reeled in a small cod. He was about to toss it back when Quinn said, “Save it and I’ll use it for bait.”
Quinn put the small cod on his large jig and sent it back to the bottom. He bounced the jig a couple of times and handed his rod to Kade saying, “Hold this for a minute while I grab a bite to eat.”
Kade reeled up a few feet to keep from getting snagged and just ignored Quinn’s rod. Something was starting to pull on the rod as Quinn came back topside and Kade handed him the rod without saying anything. It took a few seconds before Quinn realized he was getting a bite. When he set the hook, he was rewarded with two big head shakes and said, “I think I’ve got something big!” Then all hell broke loose as the line screamed off the reel and the food in his hand dropped to the deck spilling his dri
nk. He was thumbing the reel for all he was worth but then suddenly the line went slack. He was dejected saying, “I lost it.”
Suddenly just a few yards from the boat a huge shark surfaced with Quinn’s jig hanging out of its mouth and Kade said, “I don’t think so! Reel!” The shark stayed there looking at them with its teeth grinning in a huge shark smile as if to say, “What were you thinking?” The mouth had to be two feet wide and was wall to wall teeth but it was the eyes that were really scary. Black and staring as if it were eyeing them for its next meal. About the time, Quinn had reeled in the slack line, the shark took off for the deep. There was no stopping it. With a swipe of the great fish’s tail against the thin fishing line holding it; the line broke and the giant was gone. Quinn said, “I wish I could have landed it!”
The Captain replied, “We wanted nothing to do with that beast. The small salmon sharks are good eating but that fish was nothing we could deal with. It looked like it wanted to eat our whole boat.”
The Captain looked at the tidal current and said, “I think you need to find a place to anchor for the night. This current is going to build and we should use it to our advantage.”
Johnathan spoke up saying, “Can we anchor behind the point at Desire Lake?”
“Not the best anchorage in heavy weather but it is safe enough for what they are predicting. Navigator, plot your course and let’s get this boat moving.”
They anchored off the mouth of the small river but stayed aboard because the beach was covered by the high tide. Salmon were jumping everywhere around the boat but despite trying everything he could think of, Kade, was unable to hook any of them. That night’s meal was pan fried sockeye which was good but not nearly as good as the cedar plank salmon they had before. When the cabin was cleaned up the Captain began his story about mosquitos.
Let me tell you about mosquitos. My nephew, was up for the summer working on a boat project and we decided to go fishing north of Nome. The mosquitos he experienced was close to sci-fi. I could add a few other minor issues like the outboard overheating and losing the shaft key in 10 feet of water miles from anywhere. Dead in the water way down stream. Fortunately, a couple of other boats were part of the party and they hauled us back to camp. Dinner was burgers and skeeters. Not sure what we cooked more of. We had a good tent but the screen was so thick with mosquitos that you could not see through it. The whine of their wings made it hard to sleep because it was so loud.
That following morning I started rummaging through my camping gear. Found a fork prong that seemed about right. Leatherman out I began gnawing away a one inch section. Little more filing and I was pretty sure it would fit. It did, with a little fine tuning. Fished the rest of the day for pike. Had a fantastic day of fishing but my partner could not take the skeeters and crawled under a tarp just to hide. We had these insect hoods to protect our faces but the critters were so thick on them it was hard to see. Made it back to camp to notice our tent was gone. Strange. Parked the boat and then saw the reason. The tent and all our sleeping gear was hanging over some willows. The wind rolled the tent into the water. Nice. Had dinner with the gang and no option but to head back up river to the road where the truck was parked.
That part went fine, but as we approached the bridge, my partner was frantically looking for her truck keys. No luck. Spare key in the cab, but my nephew had locked the door. She was about to break a window, just to get away from the swarms of critters. I calmed her down and took the rock out of her hand. My nephew and I figured out how to remove the back window. Camper top had a sliding window. My nephew being the most agile climbed into the cab and unlocked the doors.
We managed without too much problem to get my MV Sears boat on the trailer and headed to Nome. It took a while to destroy the mosquitos that followed us into the truck but finally we had peace. Both my partner and my nephew were in disbelief of our misadventure. I only shook my head and said we made it. It was a great trip. We are safe and the fishing was fantastic.
Now you understand why we of the North do not like these little blood suckers. People have been known to go insane from the constant whine and biting of these little bastards. Best to stay in the salt water and avoid them.
Captain’s Log
Day8
Boys explored the trail up to Delight Lake but seems a bear in the brush discouraged them. Hooked a salmon shark by the terminal moraine but just for a minute or so. Came up and gave us the eye before heading off. Anchored off of Desire Lake a bit exposed but weather should be good. Will offer the boys the offshore experience.
Alaskan Sailing Adventure Page 8
