Monday, August 26, 2013

Gone Fishin!

Yesterday we headed out towards James Island with a little fishin trip in mind. We couldn't have picked a better day to be on the water considering the whole south coast was in a wind warning except for Haro Strait.

Robyn preps her ride while other kayaks launch at the boat ramp. What a glorious day!!

Launching out of Island View Beach right at 10:00am against a slight ebb we paddled across Cordova Channel to the sand bluffs on the south end of James Island. Along the way I set my fishin line and trolled it behind my kayak on our way to Sidney Channel. One thing we noticed was a kelp bed on the south tip of James that we have never seen before and I had to take a wide track around it to avoid hooking the bull kelp.

Robyn hugs the shoreline while I navigate on the outside of the kelp bed.


Kayak Man .. GoPro, Scotty rod holder and nothin but sun!!!

Making our way up the eastern side of James Island past the golf course we had to paddle against the ebb current which slowed our pace down a fair bit. What the heck .... we were in no rush since we were just fishin anyway. :-)   After making the point by the Powder Wharf we were then pulled into the back eddy that whisked us up towards the north end of the island. If you look at our track you can see where our speed whet from around 1.2 kts against the current and then it jumps to around 3.7 kts in the back eddy.

As we reached the northern tip of the island there was a little tide rip with small standing waves which we played in for a bit after I gave up fishin! While riding the waves I realized that it would be real ugly if I rolled with my fishing rod still in the holder. Note to self ..... take rod out of holder when having fun!


It was just one of those Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah type of days so we landed on the sandy beach near the marker on the NW tip of the island. Staying below the high water line we enjoyed a lunch of salami, pepper cheese and crackers and read our e-readers for a bit. We had never landed on James Island for a break before so I kept an eye out for any of the locals that might try and chase us back out to sea. As a note, some of our Facebook friends commented about a rottweiler guard dog they have encountered before but we didn't see it.


Lunch on the James Island  spit beach.

For a change of pace, we Dah-Doo-Dee-A-Zipped our way back across Cordova Channel towards Bazan Bay and made our way down the coastline towards Island View. Along the way I spotted a deceased baby seal (sorry no picture permitted as this is a family blog) entangled in a ball of bull kelp. So sad :-(

We paddled back around Cordova Spit and made our way back to our put in location arriving just around 3:30pm. It felt good to get back out on the water again after a few weeks off and we are looking forward to our camping trip this coming weekend on D'arcy Island. We are going rain or shine!!! Must pack guide tarp last to put up first.! LOL


Kinda looks like we paddled around Africa huh?

2013 Paddle #52 Gone Fishin
Distance:  9.24 nm ( 17.11 km)
YTD:  287.80 nm ( 551.52 km)

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