The main thrust of last week's column prior to the Victoria Day weekend was to do outdoor activities in our local area. It is one thing to pass on advice to other people, but my readers must wonder at times – "Does this old guy follow his own advice?"
Well for the record, last weekend I followed my suggestions to do things locally. I came up short on one aspect of it – the fresh water component, but that was an over commitment problem where the garden was the winner. Still two days out of three is not bad.
My first foray was in Area 14 waters where Chuck Ashcroft and I spent the whole day trying to find a halibut in local waters. We went prepared with our best halibut gear and detailed charts of appropriate reefs and shoals that may hold halibut.
The morning started with brisk northwest winds of up to 15 km/h and tapered off to calm by early afternoon. We were entertained by a pod of orcas that were travelling north toward Campbell River. Later on significant showings of blue-backs (immature coho) were around the boat for a considerable time. This is an encouraging sign for local coho fishing later on in the season.
If there were halibut in the waters we fished we did not get any bites in spite of fresh bait and halibut oil on our gear. However I would still rate the day as a success from a fish catching point view because we land two prime rock cod and a lingcod in the 10-pound range – not trophy fish, but sure trophies on the dinner table. We also had the thrill of having lines cut off as large fish we hooked in rock piles went into holes and cut the lines. Part of our problem for halibut may have been the result of heavy currents due to the very high tidal exchanges during the day.
Last week the long range weather for our area was the strong possibility of rain showers. Aside from unpleasant to be out in, it would have postponed any clamming or oyster gathering I had planned. As it turned out there were no significant showers in local waters, with the result that I had an ideal tide of 2.8 feet on Saturday.
If you have never done any clamming, one of the tell-tale signs you look for is little squirts of water spouting up among the rocks. It may indicate a clam or just a water squirt, but you dig anyway. Imagine my surprise when my first effort produced two prime cockles, (Elaine's favourite clam).
As I continued to look for little squirts coming up from the rocky shoreline I was rewarded with the several more cockles that we consider trophy clams for their high portion of clean white meat. In the course of an hour my bucket had a collection of littleneck and cockles and it was time to gather my oysters and head home. For the record my clam bucket had 43 clams, plus 15 prime oysters.
On my way home I stopped by the shoreline and filled two water cans with fresh seawater to put my clams in overnight so they would spit out the sand. I find it simple to carry the water in extra cans rather than carrying my clams in water-filled buckets that tend to spill sea water in the back of the truck, and besides they are heavy to carry.
To complement my local fishing and gathering rewards, Elaine applied her more than considerable culinary skills in creating our own local trophy class seafood banquets.
For dinner on Saturday we had a fillet of rock cod baked in parchment paper and garnished with a lemon sauce, enhanced with our own asparagus; finished with rhubarb crisp for desert from the garden and white wine.
For dinner on Sunday we had clam chowder supreme and select oysters fried in Elaine's personal batter. No dinner is complete in our home unless there are flowers on the table from Elaine's flower garden. On Sunday it was lily of the valley and small bluebells.
By all standards the Comox Valley is a trophy-class place to live, garden and harvest the bounty of the sea.
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See you at the Fish and Game Club outdoor show.
Ralph Shaw is a master fly fisherman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 for his conservation efforts. In 20 years of writing a column in the Comox Valley Record it has won several awards.