Beauty flat calm morning on the Strait, with even some bright sunshine. Unfortunately, we chalked up our third skunking in four trips, except for a small barely legal one which went back. Of course we got two rockfish and two ling cod as well but you can’t avoid them when bottom bouncing!! Strange how the ling cod are not affected by the retrieve from the depths but the rock cod have to be lowered with the release gear as they are completely incapacitated by the pressure change from 130’.
The major event of the day was being come alongside and boarded by a police patrol boat, off the Bluffs. They had a U.S Coastguard person with them and said they were part of a joint team which could patrol either side of the border. Not only have we never have been checked before in 7 years fishing off Sooke but in fact this was the first time I have ever seen a patrol boat out there!! Not that they could do checks at the Trap in the summer or they would cause chaos! Anyway all was well with the boat equipment checks, except my flares were out of date, so a trip to Trotac is required to remedy that one!