Alaska - Cold, Picturesque and Fabulous!

May 27th eleven fishermen from New York, Georgia, Washington and California converged in Sitka for 4 days of salmon and halibut fishing with Herb Tennell's Outbound Alaska Charters (http://www.outboundalaskacharters.com/). This was the second annual Alaskan charter for Excel Captains Justin and Jason Fleck. The rest of the Fleck charter consisted of Tim Turis, Basil Pappas, Jim and Tom Carlisle, Al Scow, Dan Felger, Auggie Roberts, Phil Reumler, and me. This was my first trip to Alaska.

Once we all checked into the Westmark Hotel, we had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant to organize the next day’s fishing. Tom had prepared a schedule for rotating passengers and boats so we would get a chance to fish with everyone in the party and split our time between the two boats – the 33 foot Micah with Captain Herb Tennell and the 30 foot Jagar with Captain Steve Runnion. We also agreed to split our fish equally for the trip regardless of who caught what. Then we each put $20 into a jackpot for the biggest salmon of the trip.

Alaska lived up to its reputation of being cold. The temperature ranged between 48 and 58 degrees all four days with the water temperature topping out at 46.6 degrees. I wore two pair of wool socks, 5 layers of clothes and two pair of gloves and my toes and fingers still went numb. The cold didn’t keep the fish from biting though. Each day cruise ships would arrive as we were leaving the harbor and they departed Sitka as we returned to dock. We missed the tourist crowds.

We met at the docks at 5:30 a.m. to head out fishing.

Both boats arrived at the fishing grounds around 6:30 a.m.

The first day I was fishing on the Micah with Herb Tennell. Captain Herb had the boat ready with G. Loomis rods and Shimano reels with counters loaded with 25 pound line all set up around the boat and baited with cut plug herring. Mooching for salmon is the method Outbound Alaska Charters uses in lieu of trolling. We each picked our spot and dropped our bait to the bottom in about 220 feet of water. “Seven quick winds then stop, then repeat the process until you reach the surface” instructed Herb. This gets the bait spinning so that it attracts the salmon. It didn’t take long until we all hooked and landed our daily limit of one salmon on the Micah. By 8:00 a.m. we were headed long to the halibut grounds, an area that Herb hadn’t yet tried this year.

Basil with a nice king salmon.

Justin with a big Alaskan ling.

Jim and one of his kings.

Justin, Tom, Jim, Tim, Me and Auggie with our Kings.

Dan, Jason, Tim, Jim and Auggie with kings.

Halibut fishing consisted of Shimano TLD 25 reels filled with 80 pound spectra set up around the boat. Two of the rods were set up with a double 10/0 J hook, a one pound weight and a salmon belly for bait. The other rods were set up with a short (24 inch) leader of nylon cord with 15/0 circle hooks and a two pound weight clipped to the spectra and baited with salmon collars and guts. We dropped them to the bottom then cranked up 5 winds and put the rod in the holder and waited in the heated cabin to get a bite. We were fishing in 330 feet of water.

The passengers on the Jaegar took a little longer to get their salmon limit on day one so they fished halibut closer to the salmon grounds. This proved fortuitous as the Jaegar caught several larger halibut (up to 70 pounds) whereas we struck out on the larger fish. A fun time was had by all and we were back at dock by 5:00 p.m. Alaskan Amber or Alaskan Summer Ale in the bar, dinner in the hotel and we all hit the rack.

Jim and Jason with Alaskan Summer Ale

A twenty legged starfish.

The Jager.

We repeated the process each day fishing salmon in the morning and halibut in the afternoon, rotating passengers and boats. The second day was foggy and we were treated to an aerial display from a couple of humpback whales before we began fishing. What a delight.

Frolicking humpbacks.

The Micah in the fog.

Fishing was good again as Al caught a 30 lb. salmon and Tom caught one that weighed 31 lbs. then Tom caught a 141 pound halibut. Tom had a good day.

Tom with his 141 lb. halibut.

The third day it was my turn to fish the Jaeger with Jason, Justin, Tim and Auggie. Now that was quite a day. It was difficult to fish while laughing so hard. Amazing how funny this group could be. Getting our salmon limit the third day took a little longer but it paid off for Tim with a 31 pounder and Justin took the JP lead with a 36 pound salmon. The afternoons’ halibut fishing honors went to Tim with a 150 pound fish. The Micah had trouble getting their last two salmon to round out our annual 3 fish limit of salmon so they left that for day four. Gramps took the Micah’s big fish bragging rights the third day with his 115 pound halibut. We went to the local sushi bar to celebrate the days catch this night.

Justin's 36 lb. salmon.

Tim's 150 lb. halibut.

Jason's golden eye.

Dan and his 115 lb. halibut.

Auggie and his big halibut.

Sushi Celebration!

On our last day, nine of us pitched in $20 for a one day halibut jackpot. Herb and Steve decided to have both boats make a 50 mile run south to the open ocean to pick up the last two salmon and try for some trophy halibut. The ocean was glassy calm! Very unusual and very pleasant. Phil hooked a nice salmon and when it hit the deck, he clinched the salmon jackpot with a 41 pounder! Way to go Phil. We moved out to the halibut area and set out the baits. About an hour later, the scents rounded up a 150 pound halibut for Jason which nailed the days’ halibut jackpot.

Phil and his JP King.

Halibuts are filleted on the boats, however, the carcus must be kept until the fillets are offloaded in dock. The boat returns outside the harbor to dump the remains. Salmon are gill and gutted on board then the fish processor (Quality Processing) fillets the salmon.

I took my Spot Messenger along on the trip and set the tracking feature on each morning. The following map is a compilation of the spots we fished each day.

There's an animosity between the commercial fishermen and the charter boats. The commercials believe the charter boats are taking their catch and are fighting back with a bumper sticker campaign. The bumber stickers are not very polite either.

Herb and Steve were both great. Not only are they very professional but they are fun to fish with too. They were always there changing our baits and netting or gaffing our fish. They provided sandwiches, chips, sodas and beer for lunch, plus plenty of snack foods throughout the day. One day we were even treated to halibut ceviche, halibut cheek sashimi and raw oysters. Talk about top notch. It was hard to say goodbye to our captains and call it a trip.

Sunday morning we headed to the airport for our flight home. Quality Processing met us at the airport with our fish fillets – two fifty pound boxes each. I also asked for some salmon bellies and collars to take home and Quality packed a 50 pound box of those for me. The airport was packed and check-in was slow but we all made our flight and our connections. More importantly, all our fish made the connections too.

Although I didn’t catch any trophy sized fish, I caught my share and I truly enjoyed fishing with good friends. As for my salmon collars and bellies? I marinated them in a teriyaki sauce and smoked them. My freezer was almost full with the salmon and halibut fillets but the bellies and collars topped it off.

We are all enjoying our fresh salmon and halibut for dinners and I can't make it much past breakfast before eating some salmon belly.

I am already looking forward to our next year’s trip.