Duncan just returned from Halibut fishing. Read about his stormy adventure below.
“We departed Port Hardy on Friday at noon for a halibut spot we like to fish near the Goose Bank in Queen Charlotte Sound.It has produced well for us this time of the year in the past, however it is 10 hours from land and with no other boats around it can be a little risky when the weather decides to turn.
Unfortunately by the time we arrived on Saturday morning the weather had deteriorated. Southwest winds had built the ground swell up to over three metres and moderate winds had turned into a gale warning. We decided to keep sailing for fishing grounds in the southern Haida Gwaii near where the famous hot springs used to be. This allowed us to hide out from weather if needed and have better overall protection from a southwest wind.
We started setting hooks Sunday morning. We set 3 strings of longline gear baited with fresh salmon and frozen squid. Each string is made up of six skates, a skate of gear is 300 metres. As the long line is being set out we snap baited hooks onto it and attach anchors to the end of each string. Around lunchtime we started hauling back to find some very good fishing. We worked through the night and into Monday morning, a forecasted gale force storm was going to make Monday into a weather day.
We took Monday to do a few repairs caused by the weather and had a good rest. After hauling back our first string on Tuesday things were looking good until we ran into some mechanical problems caused by some bad fuel, luckily a local boat from the Haida Nation the MV Gwaii Haanas was able to tow us back into safe refuge so we could make the necessary repairs.
Even with repairs we still had to limp through the remainder of the trip. Luckily the weather was great and fishing even better on Wednesday so we were able to nearly fill the boat before taking off Wednesday evening. After hauling our last anchor aboard we set a course directly for Port Hardy. A Northwest forecast had the wind at our backs for most of the trip and made for smooth sailings. We arrived in Port Hardy early Friday morning and began offloading our catch so it could be validated and shipped to Vancouver.
We hope you enjoy your Halibut and really appreciate you supporting independent fishers.
Sincerely,
Crew of F/V Georgia Girl
