After about three weeks of work making Teal ready, we shoved off for Carrol Inlet for a shake down cruise and to catch some fresh seafood.Before we got to Mountain Point we were boarded by the Coast Guard and detained for about a half an hour for their frivolous safety inspection. After they released us we turned into Carrol Inlet, a favorite fishing ground of our neighbor Pete at Klamath River, and headed for Gnat Cove to check out the anchorage.
After sounding the area we would cover while at anchor and finding no hazards we set the anchor for the night at 55° 22.673’ N / 131°19.816’ W
The next day we set the prawn trap a couple of miles southwest of Gnat Cove in about 300 feet after a couple of hours of slow fishing for bait for the trap.We then headed up the inlet and found a mooring in a little cove above Osten Island and had lunch. I caught bait for the crab trap while still tied to the mooring.
We then headed back to Gnat Cove and set the trap in the recommended spot near the mouth of the cove, before re-anchoring in the same spot as the night before.
The next day it rained hard all morning. After lunch the rain tapered off and we tended our traps. The prawn trap yielded 16 of the largest prawns I have ever seen. The largest measured ten and a half inches from beak to tail. The crab trap produced no crabs, yet the bait was striped bare by sand flees, as was the bait in the prawn trap.
The next day we headed further up the inlet to our next prawn spot near Island Point. After setting the trap we anchored for lunch in the little cove under Island Point. After lunch we fished for crab bait on our way to the mouth of a good sized creek emptying into the inlet about half way to Osten Island. We set the trap and headed back to Gnat Cove for the night.
The next morning our prawn trap revealed that the sand flees had done in our bait again, we had just two prawns. The crab trap escaped the scourge of the sand flees and produced a nice catch of nine Dungeness crab. Five very large males that we kept, and two females, two smaller males, and a good sized Tanner Crab were returned to the sea.After cleaning and preparing our catch for the pot, we headed back to the Ketchikan Yacht Club, and enjoyed a wonderful crab dinner. We hung around Ketchikan for the next few days, before heading to Prince of Wales Island for the Amateur Radio Operators (Ham) Rendezvous at Dora Bay on May 10th.
More to come, stay tuned,
George and JoAnne.
