Graham Fishing off of Tumbo

Now there was a time when the “Queen Mary” wouldn’t have been big enough for my son Graham and I to not have had our challenges, but fortunately we have both matured and like nothing better than to get out on our 21′ Trophy to spend time together. Our “Father / Son Bonding” experiences used to be  less than sterling, but fortunately today there is nothing better than time spent together with the 4 of us – Lylene, Chandler, Graham & myself – it took a while to get there but wow was it ever worth the effort.

The tide was good, the weather okay, the Puget Sound at our door step & Graham & I were ready for a day on the water. Salmon fishing is closed in the Puget Sound, so we decided to go to Saturna Island, which is just across the US / Canadian line. We needed a Canadian fishing license which you can buy on-line, and while I’m still a bit unclear as to the regulations, we wanted to make sure that we were able to get back home again without violating any US / Canadian immigration laws.  If I understand it correctly, we needed what is called an I-68 from US Customs. With the I-68 documentation, you are not required to physically check into a US port and clear customs.  Instead, once you are back in US waters, you need to call an 800 number,  tell them where you are, what you have been doing, confirm that you have not touched Canadian soil, anchored in Canadian waters or tied up to another boat in Canadian waters and provide the Customs official on the other end of the line with your ID number.  If there is anyone out there with additional information, please jump in & leave a comment – any personal experiences would be great.

Fishing Along Tumbo Island

So with I-68, Canadian fishing licenses, frozen herring and lunch in hand, off we went to Saturna Island. When we left the dock at Squalicum Harbor the weather was a bit iffy ie: overcast and a good sized chop once we rounded the North side of Lummi Island.  When the tide changed though, the water leveled, off the skies cleared and you couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. We fished along the

South side of Tumbo Island, moved to the South side of Saturna Island & later in the day fished along East Point and  Boiling Reef.  While the salmon were safe yesterday we did catch a couple of nice ling cod which we released for another day.

Sea Lions on Boiling Reef

These characters entertained us all afternoon. Whenever we got close to them, they let us know that they didn’t think too much of us being in their neighborhood.  There must be some sort of social arrangement agreed upon between the seal & sea lion population, as the seals were congregated on one end of Boiling Reef & the sea lions on the other. Personally, I think the seals just didn’t care for their noisy & odiferous neighbors and preferred to stay away from them.  If you’d you’d have been with us &andgot a whiff of them, you’d know what I’m talking about.

It must have been around 7:00 when we pulled in our gear & left for home. Once we crossed the US / Canadian line we stopped & called US Customs to confirm that we were returning to the US.  They just asked us a couple of questions and told us to head for home – pretty simple process really. The water was flat calm so we poured the coals to all 250 horses hanging on the end of our Trophy & made it back to Squalicum with smiles on our faces -  checking our calendars & tide books for our next outing.

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