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Portage Bay and Pybus Bay

We got away from Petersburg Saturday morning on the lazy side (10am or so), stopping at the fuel dock on our way out to fill up. We thought maybe we’d go all the way to Pybus Bay, or maybe we’d fish and stop in Portage Bay … we ended up doing the latter and fishing our way along the shore from Petersburg to Portage Bay and caught a big Chinook, so it totally paid off!

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First keeper king salmon at 32 inches! (Our scale rusted out, so we don’t know how much it weighed, but we DO know that we got 10 beautiful filets out of it.)

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We anchored Saturday night just inside Portage Bay. Portage Bay is a scenic, open anchorage…well-protected and room for many boats. We took the smallest salmon filets and grilled them for some salmon tacos, and I made a brussels sprouts/cucumber/scallion slaw. Yummy! Portage Bay last night:

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Our route from Petersburg to Portage Bay (23 nautical miles, 6 hours 52 minutes (includes fishing time):

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This morning (Sunday) we popped up early and decided to take advantage of the calm water in Frederick Sound.

Portage Bay this morning:

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We fished a bit more but didn’t catch anything, so we eventually pulled our lines in and headed for Cannery Cove at Pybus Bay.

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Like I said, it was calm calm calm in Frederick Sound today.

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The weather was perfect, and exactly what you want for Cannery Cove scenery.

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We anchored in 60 feet or so, put a couple halibut lines out, then went to set out our two crab traps.

We’re pretty certain of the crab sitch, less certain of the halibut sitch. We grilled some of our freshly caught chinook for dinner (with caesar salad and rosemary garlic potatoes) and after dinner I noticed one of the halibut lines doing a little dance, but I think we tried to pull it in before the guy had enough time to really get a good taste of that salmon belly. Lesson for today (we’re learning): let them enjoy their meal before trying to reel ‘em in!

More around Pybus Bay:

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The moon Sunday night in Cannery Cove:

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Today’s route from Portage Bay to Pybus Bay: 38.0 nautical miles, 7 hours 53 minutes (includes fishing time):

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3 Comments

  1. This entire post is basically a magazine spread. Amazing shots. If Nordic doesn’t use the opener in their own marketing, they’re insane.

    That salmon looks like it would produce some serious sashimi 🙂

    • Thank you Michael! I can’t wait for you guys to have a boat so you can join us up here! 🙂

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