St John's Harbor, Milbanke Sound - June 18

I wake up this morning with a pain in my back and spend the first few hours of the day wondering if I will be fit to fish. Barrie and I both work on chores. We have been aboard almost 8 weeks and there is a bit of deep cleaning required. We work until lunchtime and by then my back has loosened up and I am feeling much better. After lunch, Mel comes by with his fish boat and picks us up. We join eight more fish boats and find the fishing slow. Generally the big salmon runs do not arrive until August but Mel says there should be more fish out here. He fished this morning with another friend and they came back empty handed. Finally, we hook a fish and bring in an 8 pound salmon. Forty minutes later we reel in a 13 pounder. We are done for the afternoon and head back to Mel's boat where he kindly guts and filets our catch. Bernice helps us prepare the fish to put in the freezer in a way that will meet Canadian Fish & Game requirements. We agree to try our luck again in the morning. With prized fish in hand, we head back to our boat and rearrange the freezer to make room. I keep out one piece and we have fresh (just 2 hours old) salmon for dinnerr. Mel will be picking us up at 4:30, so we set an alarm and head to bed early.