Klewnuggit Bay (East Inlet), and Farrant Island Lagoon | BC

We left Prince Rupert a little on the late side (after 10am). We gathered our crab traps (six females, and one keeper male), had breakfast and then got underway. We were originally aiming for Lowe Inlet in Grenville Channel, but decided we should try a new place, and the east inlet of Klewnuggit Bay looked intriguing.

It was beautiful. When we arrived (6pm-ish) it was gray and a little rainy (as it had been all day). We set the crab traps out and made dinner (crab with spinach tortellini and a brussels sprouts salad). In the morning, it had cleared up a bit and the water was mirror still. Like this:

I took a bunch of cool reflection photos, but I want to play with ‘em a bit before posting, so they’ll come in another post.

We took the dinghy to explore a little and retrieve the crab traps. (We had three keeper males.)

Stream at the head of the bay:

Airship at anchor:

Blue sky, even!

Kevin said he saw a bunch of fish on sonar just outside the East Arm, so we decided to anchor and see about doing some fishing. We found a spot on the chart that looked like a slight rise between two deeper parts, and thought it looked like a place halibut might go…so we dropped two halibut lines. We pulled up three spiny dogfish (put ‘em back) and then…we got what we were hoping for. A 48.5 inch, 57 pound halibut! This one was quite a fighter too. Kevin reeled it to the surface, and I harpooned it right where I needed to. Woohoo, our second halibut (and the biggest fish we’ve ever caught).

We left Klewnuggit Bay around 2pm (after all the halibut hubbub) and headed for Hartley Bay. But then as we were reading about different spots on Grenville Channel, we found Farrant Island Lagoon. You get to this anchorage through a narrow entrance between Pitt Island and Farrant Island, on the west side of Grenville Channel, through a tight spot called Hawkins Narrows. On a Spring tide, the current can run to 8 knots in Hawkins Narrows (and it’s about 10 feet deep on a zero tide I think), so it’s preferred to go through at high slack. We were about an hour and a half before high slack so the current would be going with us, but the moon is half full (or empty, depending on how you look at things) and the tide swing is only about 8 feet, so we gave it a shot. We had just over a knot of current going with us, but it was no big deal and we went through easily. Once the bay opens up, it’s beautiful in there. Farrant Island Lagoon is a ways in, through another small narrows and once inside it feels like you’re in your own little secret anchorage. We put the crab traps out and went for some dinghy exploring while it wasn’t raining.

Approaching Hawkins Narrows:

Anchored:

Exploring:

Definitely a “come back to” spot.

We pulled anchor this morning just before 7am and went through Hawkins Narrows about a half hour after slack and there was no noticeable current at all. Back in Grenville Channel now and it’s foggy and rainy and a little choppy. Our next destination is Khutze Bay. We decided that as we make our way south, we’d try to stop at more places we haven’t been before, but there’s nothing we found on the chart that looked as good as Khutze Bay, so we’re going back. 🙂