2025-08-08 Marguerite Bay with Tyler & Megan

My oldest grandson Tyler and his girlfriend Megan came up from Olympia Washington for a short visit. We were supposed to run up to Wrangell and take a guided tour to Anan Creek Bear Observatory, but the weather prevented us from making that trip.

As a backup plan I had 2 trips scheduled and this was the first one. The plan was to do some salmon trolling and then head out to Marguerite Bay in Western Behm Canal for the night.

We pulled out and headed for Vallenor Point on the NW tip of Gravina Island. The weather was rainy, cool and breezy. My buddy Terry was with us for this trip as well. He was supposed to go up to Wrangell with us but when that trip was cancelled, he decided to come along on this fishing trip.

Here is a map snippet that shows where we started out salmon trolling.

We started trying to troll around the corner at Vallenor Rocks, the blue track in the lower part of the map. But the weather was pretty snotty, and it was really uncomfortable trying to fish there. So, then we pulled the gear and moved to inside Clover Pass, the blue track in the upper part of the map. It wasn't as rough in there, but it was just as windy, and it was difficult to keep the gear fishing in those conditions.

Finally, I just gave up the effort and pulled the gear and headed up into Western Behm Canal for Margeurite Bay. Here is a map snippet that shows the run up North to Traitors Cove. Marguerite Bay is inside Traitors Cove.

On the run up there, Terry manned the helm while I prepared my 2 shrimp pots.

Here's a more detailed map that shows Marguerite Bay within Traitors Cove. The blue X more the left side shows where we dropped our shrimp pots on the way in. The blue X more to the right shows the approximate location of the USFS dock.

When we got there the dock was full and there was no room for us. This is a risk that you always take with these USFS docks. They are first come first served; there are no reservations. There is a mooring buoy near to the dock, so we went there and got tied up to it.

Shortly after we were tied to the mooring buoy one of the boats at the dock left so we fired up and got over there quickly and got a spot at the dock. It's much nicer being on the dock because you can get out and stretch your legs whenever you want, or you can fish from the dock which is what Tyler wanted to do.

I apologize for not getting many photos of this trip. The weather was not conducive to picture taking and I was very busy with securing the boat, cooking the meals and cleaning up.

I did snap a few pictures with my cell phone of the dock itself. The USFS hired a contractor to replace most of the dock this season. You kind of have to know what it looked like before to fully appreciate the new dock. They did a great job, and the new dock looks terrific.

It had been very wet and windy all day but in the evening after dinner the weather cleared up and it was actually a pretty nice evening. I set up my fire pit on the dock and we sat out by the fire until almost dark.

When we sacked out for the night, we discovered one oversight the crew had made when working on the new dock. The ramp is supposed to slide back and forth on plastic or fiberglass skids as the tide moves it up and down. They did not replace the plastic/fiberglass skid plates and so the ramp was sliding metal on metal during the night, and it sounded like artillery fire. I hope they remedy that.

It rained very heavily over night, but we were all snug and secure on the boat.

In the morning when I got up, I discovered that Terry had taken sick in the night and had not gotten any sleep at all. I set him up in my bunk on the flybridge so he could at least stay warm and possibly get some sleep during the day as we were moving about the cabin.

Tyler, Megan and I walked up in the rain to the fish and bear viewing platform that is about a mile up the logging road. It was very rainy and even though I had rain gear and boots on I still got pretty wet.

The bear and fish viewing platform here is not nearly as good as the one at Anan Creek primarily because it only has Black Bears, and no Brown Bears. But it is still neat to see the bears fishing and catching and eating the fish down in the creek.

Here are some videos of the bears we saw while we were there.

This next video is interesting to me because it shows some bear behavior that I don't understand. There is a fish trapped in the rocks not 2 feet from the bear, but he ignores it and continues fishing for a new fish.

And I'll wrap up with one more short video of a bear walking across the beach. The bears are incredibly strong and agile, and they can easily walk on slippery logs and clamber up very steep hill sides.

One behavior that I have seen repeatedly both at Anan Creek and here is this. Early in the season when the salmon are plentiful the bears are very picky eaters. That is to say they will catch a fish and then eat either just the brains or perhaps just the eggs if it is a female. Then they will just let the rest of the fish drift away and they will start fishing again. As the season gets near the end and there are fewer fish in the river, they will many times eat the entire fish from head to tail, fins, bones and all. As the season gets even later and there are few if any live fish in the creek, they will drag up rotten half-eaten carcasses from the bottom and eat those.

There's not much more to say about this trip.

We made our way in the rain back to the boat and I got all the gear stowed and made ready for departure.

We pulled the shrimp pots on the way out, but we only got less than a dozen shrimp. Sorry I did not get any photos.

The ride back was somewhat lumpy in Behm Canal and then downright rough inside Tongass Narrows.

We got into the slip at about 5:15 PM after logging 58.6 nm on this adventure.