Ketchikan to George Inlet, July 6

After five days at the Ketchikan Yacht Club catching up on domestic and boat chores, email, blog posting, communications in general, and watching it rain, we decided to hold off on our plans to circumnavigate Ravillagigedo Island, through Misty Fiords National Monument, for a period of better weather.
It would be a shame not to see the fiord's during clear sunny weather if possible. We went into George and Carroll inlets to do some fishing and see the upper part of Carroll, which we hadn't seen the last time we were there.





When we got to Mountain Point, a local favorite salmon fishing area, we broke out the trolling gear, and fished to Herring Bay without a hit. We put up the fishing gear and headed to the top end of George Inlet.









We checked out all of the possible anchorages along the way to the suggested prawn spot where we set our trap before going into Tsa Cove, where after sounding the cove, we decided to anchor for the night. 55° 30.040’ N / 131°27.650’ W
There was a fair-sized stream of fresh water emptying into the cove, a likely spot for crab, so I rowed the skiff out to a spot off-shore from the stream and set the crab trap.

It was a quiet anchorage, although it rained most of the night. The next morning, after breakfast we motored over to the spot where I had set the crab trap. We hauled it in. Nothing but a large Sea Star which didn't want to leave our trap or the bait. He had about 15 points. We then went out where we had set the prawn trap and hauled it in. Just a dozen shrimp so small we threw them back.

We motored back down George Inlet to California Head and into Carroll Inlet, to the prawn spot where we caught a few very large prawns, in spite of a sand flea invasion, the last time we were in Carroll Inlet. We set our trap using canned tuna in a bait jar thus the bait escapes the sand fleas. We then went up to the spot where we caught good-sized crab on our last visit. We set our crab trap before going back to Gnat Cove to anchor for the night. 55° 22.675’ N / 130° 19.795’ W.

The next morning the prawn trap produced nothing, but the crab trap gave us five all better than 7-inch out of a total of ten. We then went over to a spot we found on out last trip to Carroll and immediately caught three bottom fish for bait for our next prawn trap set.




We set the prawn trap on our way to Shelter Cove further up the inlet using the fresh bait and hoping not to be hit by the sand fleas so wide-spread in Carroll Inlet. We then went into the Cove and tied to the public dock for the night. 55° 32.110’ N / 131° 20.905’ W






There was some activity at Shelter Cove. There was a logging camp for a logging operation working in the area, a road building crew landing at the dock daily that were building a road into a new area, and US Forest Service crew policing all the work going on.





The next day after lunch we went further up the inlet to the Swan Lake Power House and got permission to spend the night at their dock. 55° 37.050’ N / 131° 21.525’ W
This is the site for the generation of power for Ketchikan, and there is power available on the dock. We plugged in so we could run our 110V heater which helps keep the condensation inside the boat to a minimum.

We sat in the boat for the most part watching it rain. For a brief moment, we saw wireless connection. It disappeared rather quickly. They may have shut down for the night.




The mail plane didn't seem bothered by all the rain. It came up to the dock unloaded packages, loaded packages and power house crew flying out. It all took place in just a few minuets.






The next day we stopped on our way out just below Shelter Cove and hauled our prawn trap. We were only able to catch a few prawns before the sand fleas took charge of the trap, but some of them were huge.





We spent the rest of the day trolling for salmon around Mountain Point before heading into Ketchikan. We hooked three or four coho, but only got one to the boat. And it shook the hook during its fight to stay out of the net.

We will spend a couple of days in Ketchikan making ready for a trip over to Moira Sound on Prince of Wales Island, the third largest island in the US, behind Kodiak, and the big island of Hawaii.

Stay tuned,

George and JoAnne