Tangled

Sunday July 23^rd – After a fun 2 nights at Dent Island Lodge we all departed the dock at 10am to make slack water at Dent Rapids then ran 15nm northwest to Blind Channel.

Blind Channel is a great place that’s very isolated; the only way to get to Blind Channel on West Thurlow Island is by floatplane or private boat. Our goal here was to 1, catch some nice Lingcod and 2, have dinner out at their restaurant.

Lingcod are easiest to catch at slack water and Blind Channel can run water at a pretty good clip. We had to wait a few hours for slack so we went for a hike to kill some time. This place has the most incredible (about a 2 mile loop) hike up a steep hill and through some amazing forestland. There’s even a huge old growth cedar tree that must be 10’ across. The hike was great, except for one bee sting on my ankle that got us all running down the trail to get away from the swarm we were sure was coming.

4:30pm Skylar and I jumped in the dinghy to hit slack water and find us some Lingcod. Skylar talked to a guy who caught a 40 pounder down the channel a ways but it was too rough in our 13’ dinghy to get there safely. We turned around to hit the spot we’ve caught Ling before and started fishing.

We didn’t have much time, dinner reservations were at 6pm and after fishing for a while it looked like we were going to get skunked. Then wham, we brought a nice one in the boat. We needed 2 to limit and time was running out. We kept saying just 2 more minutes, knowing the rest of our group was just about to go up to dinner. Just as we were about to give up I got another nice one on! As it came to the boat I grabbed the line to ease it into the net but in my haste the fish broke the line with one quick flick of his head.

I could see the fish swimming away but not very quickly. It must have been our lucky day because the fish was just barely tangled in Skylar’s line allowing us to gently pull on his line and get the fish in the net! We couldn’t believe it; I guess that fish was destined for our dinner table. Now, late for dinner, we pulled up to everyone all cleaned up headed down the dock. Proud of our catch, Skylar and I quickly filleted the fish, got cleaned up, and made it to dinner just in time for drinks to be delivered.

Monday July 24^th – After an incredible dinner the night before with all 14 of us, we left Blind Channel headed for the Octopus Islands on Quadra Island with Todd’s boat following behind. These are new cruising grounds for us and once again we had to hit a couple different rapids at slack. After navigating through an extremely narrow cut getting into the Octopus Islands we anchored in Waiatt Bay traveling 23.7nm.

We all went to shore, dug some clams, played on the beach then headed off for a 4 mile round trip hike to Newton Lake. This was an awesome hike though a beautiful forest and up a steep slope with lots of switchbacks. Just as we arrived at the lake Skylar and Zach decided to go off trail but were forced back with beestings. I decided to do a little fly-fishing. Determined to catch a fish, Zach, Skylar and I stayed at the lake while the rest of the group headed back down the trail. No luck! I packed up and the 3 off us ran half way back down the trail catching up with the rest of the group.

We had a great anchorage that night and all had dinner together.