It was raining this morning, and Esther decided not to join us on our 140-mile road trip/fishing/beach walking adventure. The route looked like a mis-shapened lollipop.
With our annual non-resident fishing licenses ($145) secured, Linda, Steve, and I drove north to the first place on our list – Control Lake. There is a big turnout to access the lake and a small dock, but nowhere to go to fish from the bank easily.
However, there was a skiff with oars that is used to row to the Forest Service cabin on the lake. So, we decided to use it.
It was arduous rowing into the wind without good oars, but we made it work somehow.
Not long after getting on the water, I caught this teeny tiny cutthroat trout. Our first fish on this Alaska adventure.
After trying our luck in the middle of the lake for a while, we rowed a little closer to shore and cast along the edges of the grass beds.
I caught a cutthroat that was about 10 inches.
It was small and they had to be at least 14 inches to keep them.
Steve then caught one about 11 inches.
Not having any more luck we rowed towards the dock to tie up the boat and move on. While doing that, Linda caught a trout of her own – another one about 11 inches.
So, it wasn’t what we had in mind, but we were happy to catch a few fish.
After tying up the boat, it was already later than I expected, and it was clear today’s plan was a bit too ambitious.
We turned east toward Thorne Bay and stopped a couple of times to wet a line in the Thorne River. We threw out some lures and caught some tiny fish that appeared to be Silver Salmon fry.
The Thorne looked to be a great fly-fishing river, but we didn’t want to take the time to set up our fly rods and gear. And it's also a beautiful river and we're not sure why none of us took pictures.
We had a late lunch in a little spot in Thorne Bay called AK-49, and then headed north up the east coast on a gravel road. We stopped at Sandy Beach and walked around a bit, but Linda didn’t find the beach combing very interesting.
Just north of there, the trees parted and there was a nice turnout overlooking the ocean from the road. I pulled in and said “Photo op” just as we looked out to sea and saw a Humpback Whale do a full breach. It jumped twice but none of us was fast enough with our cameras.
Still, that was the first full breach any of us had witnessed, and it turned out to be the highlight of our day. Very cool.
We continued north on that curvy gravel road toward Coffman Cove, and that part of the journey took way longer than we thought it would. We saw several Black-tailed Sitka Deer and no people.
By the time we got to Coffman Cove, it was time to get back to Craig before Esther started worrying or worse, started Happy Hour without us.
So we hustled back south passing Staney Creek where we had hoped to fish and watch for wildlife. We made a quick stop in Klawock to fuel up and get a few groceries for dinner.
Back at the B & B, Esther had relaxing day and spent time with Kathy doing some more glass work.
Also, we had planned to go out for a meal, but Kathy gave us a salmon steak and some halibut. So we had another fantastic seafood supper.
It didn’t turn out to be the day I had planned, but it reinforced what I had been saying all along: “We didn’t allow for enough time on Prince of Wales Island”.
Super jealous of the whale breach. Happy for you guys though!
Posted by: Tracy Perkins | Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 08:56 PM