Deep Creek Halibut Fishing

May 1, 2011

Went halibut fishing off of Deep Creek with a Kayak.  Rented a AIRE Seat Tiger inflatable Kayak from Alaska Raft and Kayak and took Greta with me.  I used my Malibu – Mini-X.  First time fishing in a Kayak for her, but she’s a tough Alaskan who commercial fishes so no issues there.  Reality is I brought her along to save me when I got in trouble!  Couldn’t get any of my “guy” friends to go.  Hmmm…

I get there about 10pm the night before.  PERFECT conditions just like the forecast.  Slept in my car, woke up the next morning to North 10 mph with some chop.  No problem, Greta Shows up, we drive 3 miles south of Deep Creek campground to get out of the no fishing zone.  The plan is to launch, let the current take us South, and when the tide turns, let the tide carry us back.   That was the plan at least.

The wind picks up to, the tide turns creating currents that flow against the tide.  It causes a chop of one to two feet to form.  A fog bank comes barreling down on us and next thing you know it’s just miserable out there.  Not unsafe, just cold, damp, windy and rougher than I like.  The Sea Tiger was a great Kayak but with so little of the Yak in the water and the fact it’s an inflatable made it tough to handle in head winds.  If she got 10 to 20 deg off directly against the wind, the wind would turn her around.

It was also interesting the major difference in effect of the current and wind on my mini-x versus her Sea Tiger.  That was to be expected but I was a bit surprised how fast we would get separated.

No bites in the morning session.  Greta had something… Snag or fish we will never know.

So we wait for the high slack.  We talk to a group thinking about launching their drift boats.  We saw three drift boats total.  Greta ends up catching a ping pong paddle and about a 10 pound halibut.  She also lands a pacific cod.  My tally?  Two Irish lords.  

So Winner by TKO is GRETA! Had she caught anything over 25 pounds, it would have been a complete KO.  Next time Greta.

A small skiff trolling for kings said they had landed a rally nice one.  I was surprised at so few boats.  Maybe the word wasn’t out about the launches.  I only saw three or four boats that required a tractor launch.  All the other boats appeared to be small skiffs, river boats, drift boats..and oh yeah, kayaks!

The water was much murkier during low slack.  It was clear enough to fish, but there was twice the visibility during high slack with more ocean water versus River water close to shore.  

 

 Here's a video I pieced together from my camera.  Greta was doing a much better job of taking pictures so hopefully she can add some to the mix.