Alaskan Adventure!

August 16th Dan Felger, Al Scow, Ed Seymour, Basil Pappas and I arrived in Sitka, Alaska for five days of fishing with Outbound Alaska Charters. We met for dinner in our hotel, the Westmark, and planned the next days' schedule. We agreed to meet for breakfast at 5:30 am and be down on the dock at 6:00 am. We reset our watches (an hour back for Sitka time) and called it a night.

Tuesday morning Herb Tennell, owner/operator of Outbound Alaska Charters, met us at the dock and we boarded Micah, his 30 foot skiff.

We were excited when Herb told us we were going to make the long run to fish for larger king and silver salmon. We squeezed into the cabin bench seats (feeling like sardines) and settled in for the trip to the open ocean fishing grounds 50 miles down the coast.

 

Technorati Tags: Dan Felger,Max,Ed Seymour

Traveling at 27 knots, the two hour trip is a kidney pounder even in calm seas.

Alaska doesn't have the most comfortable fishing conditions but this was summer and we still faced rough seas, rain, and 55 degree temperatures. Four layers of clothing, wool socks and gloves plus foul weather gear are a requirement. And for a woman, there's the added discomfort of 10 to 12 hour fishing days in a boat without restroom facilities - a well trained bladder is a must. Only rugged anglers fish in Alaska, however, for those that do, the rewards are great.

Our path south meandered through pine studded islands on waters sprinkled with sea otters crunching on crustaceans.

Young eagles soar over the forests and seas searching for food. One morning we spotted a deer at waters' edge on our path out to sea.

We were told of bears, but failed to see any.

It took an hour to reach the open ocean and another hour to reach the fishing grounds. Along the way we frequently viewed whales frolicking in the cold Pacific Ocean.

Herb set up on his favorite spot and had Max, his deckhand, kick over the anchor.

The rods had already been set up and baited with cut plug herring. Herb gave us a refresher course on "mooching", a process of working your bait through the water column to attract salmon. We were fortunate that our first day included sun and reasonably calm seas.

We fished hard for 6 hours and were rewarded with 5 king salmon (limits - 1 fish per day per person with a max of 3 per year), 3 lingcod, and 24 silver salmon (just 6 fish shy of limits).

Technorati Tags: Ed Seymour,Jan Howard,Al Scow,Basil Pappas,Dan Felger

Back at dock, we cleaned up and met for drinks in the hotel to celebrate our first days' catch. We decided to take the shuttle to the Channel Club for dinner - a good choice. My fresh halibut with lemon beurre blanc sauce was a show stopper.

Overnight the seas had come up and on day two we faced 25 knot winds. Halibut fishing was our goal but Herbs favorite halibut spot wasn't possible in rough seas. A closer ocean spot was chosen and the halibut baits (salmon guts) were dropped to the bottom.

To be successful at halibut fishing, Herb advised, you need to devote a day to the effort. Once baits are dropped, you wait for the scent to attract the fish. First come the yelloweye, then small halibut and if you're are lucky, the big 'buts arrive. After two hours we only had a couple yelloweye and the seas seemed to be getting worse. The pitching seas and constant pounding in an aluminum boat was more than the group could endure for an entire day. At 11:00 am we asked for relief. Not wishing to give up, Herb took us to a calmer area between the islands and set us up for salmon. This salvaged the day because we put 5 more king salmon and two silvers on board. Land sure felt good under our feet at the end of this fishing day.

We split up for dinner. While Ed and Al went for pizza, Basil, Dan and I opted for our favorite, sushi and sake. Just as our salmon hand rolls arrived, Herb and his family came in. It seems it's their favorite too. It was great meeting his wife, Holly, his 3 year old son, Hunter, and his 1 year old baby girl, Brook. I was fascinated to see Hunter in his miniature XtraTufs.

Day Three - same morning routine with us on dock around 6 am. We were apprehensive about the weather. As it turned out, the winds and seas were coming down and we were making the run to the famed halibut grounds.

Rough seas pushed our travel time to two and a half hours in barely endurable seas. Salmon guts were once again sent to the bottom.

After a couple hours, small halibut (referred to as chickens) showed up. These were released in hopes the bigger models would show up. Shortly, we were rewarded with a couple 30 pound fish. We caught silvers in between the halibut bites and watched colorful puffins bob around the boat. Then Dan pulled in a 50 pound halibut. A nice fish too.

Suddenly my rod got hammered. I grabbed the rod and started winding. We were in 300 feet of water on a Shimano TLD30II reel spooled with 130 pound spectra with a 300# mono leader tied to a Mustad 13/0 Circle hook. This fish wasn't going anywhere but up. When my fish surfaced, in not more than 5 seconds, Herb whacked the fish in the head, stuck a gaff in it and yanked it on board. There lay 180 pound halibut at my feet. What a toad!

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Next, Ed's rod went off and Herb yanked over a 160 pound fish. We were limited out at one halibut per day per person.

Technorati Tags: Basil Pappas,Jan Howard,Ed Seymour,Dan Felger,Al Scow

Fortunately the seas had come down and our trek back only took 2 1/4 hours - still uncomfortable but not as bad as the day before plus we had the excitement of our day's catch to discuss. Happily, drinks were on me this night.

Max filleted or cleaned our fish each day on the way back to dock. Watching him wrestle with the big halibuts this day was amusing. What a struggle to singlehandedly flip a 180 pound slimy fish with no handles so he could fillet both sides.

Friday we were put on Herb's other boat, Yager, with Captain Steve Runnion. Yager is smaller (26 feet) but Steve is great to fish with as well.

Unfortunately, Steve has no deckhand so he had to do it all himself. It was incredible how he could manage docking/undocking, anchoring/raising anchor and all the deckhand duties as well as run the boat. Impressive. Steve informed us the wind had come down to 10 knots with scattered rain. Welcome news. The Yager is a little slower than Micah so we settled in for the 2.5 hour trip back to the salmon grounds. Once there, we fished hard - thankful we had warm gloves to keep our hands warm in the 55 degree temps with winds coming off the snow capped mountains. We caught 4 kings including Basil's 45 pound trophy.

This fish took him around the boat 3 times and refused to come to the boat for 45 minutes before Steve netted it.

We rounded out the catch with another 14 silver salmon and 1 yelloweye. Fishing was a bit slower so it took us 7 hours to get the job done. Basil was happy to buy drinks this night.

Last day! Back to the salmon grounds. Steve told us we were going to have to endure 0 knot winds gusting to 2 knots in the afternoon. YES! After we meandered through the islands, we met a calm sea and sun - a gift for our last day. We were fishing by 8:30 am. An occasional fish came through but it was slow. Just after noon, the switch turned on and the fish arrived hungry. During one point we had 3 fish going. Since I wasn't hooked up, I cleared the rods and helped Dan and Al get around the motors in the stern. Basil's fish came up first so I grabbed the net and scooped up his fish. Then both Dan and Al's fish came to the boat at the same time so I netted Al's fish while Steve got Dan's. By 2:30 we had 25 silvers, 2 halibut and our last king salmon for full limits and what a last fish - a 36 pound king for Dan.

A fun and successful day.

 

Back at dock, Steve cleaned our fish and turned over another two totes full of fish to his processor, Absolute Fresh) They do a great job! And if you run out of your own fish after you are home, you can order more and have it shipped to your home.

We all met in the bar at 6 pm so Dan could buy drinks to celebrate his 36 pounder. Thanks Dan. Dinner was undecided so based on our servers recommendation, we walked a couple blocks to Van Winkle's for dinner and to celebrate the end of a successful trip.

We flew home Sunday. Absolute Fresh delivered our fish to the airport. We each took home four boxes of vacuum-sealed frozen salmon, halibut, lingcod, and yelloweye rockfish.

The reward!

SCI Kicks Out Limits of Bass!

Jim Carlisle and I arrived at Fisherman's Landing early Monday afternoon and found parking immediately. This was not a good omen! Open parking spaces in the middle of August means that off-shore fishing is so slow that boats aren't filling their spots. We were heading out on the Pacific Dawn on Joe Schlater's 1.5 day charter. The Pacific Dawn was one of only two boats heading out that night.

Captain Pat Cavanaugh polled the passengers to determine if the group wanted to head 120 miles off-shore chasing bluefin or albacore in the hopes the fish would finally begin to bite or fish for calico bass at San Clemente Island. We were not optimistic that we would be the lucky boat to land a tuna so we chose SCI over a long boat ride. We picked up a load of anchovies and sardines and departed the bait receivers by 11 pm.

Pat was our Captain with Dustin as second; Whitney anchored the galley with Man Dog (Mike), and Mo on deck. There were 19 passengers most of whom have fished together on this Charter for years. Jim and I were new to the group.

I woke up around 4:30 am Tuesday morning to the smell of fresh brewed coffee. We were just sliding into Pyramid Cove and the squid boat was just finishing a wrap. Pat positioned the Pacific Dawn beside the squid boat and they passed over a few scoops of live squid.

 

We began fishing in the cove then gradually worked our way up the back side of Clemente eventually finding good conditions at the West end of the island. With good conditions came suicidal calicos. Most of my fish came on the anchovies but sardines, surface irons and Sluggos worked well too.

Afternoon snack consisted of Teriyaki smoked salmon collars, albacore paté, elk meat sticks, and pork sausage (courtesy of Joe and his hunting successes). By late afternoon, we had limits of calicos and needed to find another species to fish. The Navy had closed the east end of the Island in the afternoon so Pat took us around to the front side to look for some yellowtail or seabass.

Dustin had his 8-year old son (Cameron) on the boat. He was a delight and definitely knows his way around the boat. I found him pinning a squid on a hook for a passenger afraid to do it himself. One point during the day, Dustin and Cameron went on top of the wheelhouse to look for bird schools and breaking fish.

As we traveled around the west end, we could see one of the military's training areas which looked like a replica of an Afghan village. The island has had a lot of development since I was there last.

Pat checked out cove after cove. We picked up a few more calicos but no game fish. As we were traveling, Whitney cooked up Pork Loin roast with a lobster cream sauce. It was first call for dinner just after sundown. Amazing what Whitney can do with two hot plates and a grill. I hit the bunk by 9 pm and slept right through the night to the gentle rock of the boat.

I awoke this morning around 4 am to the sounds of hard rock and the crew filleting fish on deck. ETA to dock a little after 6 am. We packed up our gear and paid tips and tabs. I was home before 8 am.  By all counts this was a great trip - great crew, clean and comfortable boat, flat calm seas, biting fish, good food, and good friends. There is a twinge of disappointment with the lack of tuna but that is not something the Captain or crew can control.

Success II Fishing

I got an invitation to fish with Linda and John on their boat the Success II this week and I jumped at the opportunity. I drove to San Diego Wednesday morning to board their boat which was moved from Cabo this spring. Captain Cubby Pahl, his son Tyler and second captain Chris had just arrived. Linda, John and Vince (John's golfing buddy) were there a few minutes later. We left dock under unusually sunny skies for the coast this year and headed to the bait receiver. Cubby loaded about 15 small scoops of big, beautiful anchovies into the bait tanks and we were on our way.

La Jolla was rumored to still have some big white seabass so if we wanted to try for those we needed to make some squid - the small market squid not the big humbolt squid. To my surprise, we had to catch them during the daylight hours in about 70 feet of water. I started with the usual small, single, weighted squid jig. When that didn't work, I switched to the chain style of tiny squid jigs that we use at the Channel Islands. Instead of jigging the entire water column that I normally do, I had to drop the jig to the bottom and let it rest there a minute or so then start winding. If I felt any weight at all, there was a squid; if not, I would drop back down. These squid were lethargic and provided no resistance at all. We had to really work at it to get 25 to 30 pieces of squid. Once it got dark, I tried making squid again, but it was useless.

Cubby anchored up in about 80 feet of water then we set up all the rods. Two 40 lb. outfits with white jigs baited with squid were set out on the side rod holders. One 40 lb. outfit was set up in the port stern rod holder with a small balloon tied 20 feet up from the hook and baited with a squid (similar to our balloon fishing for tuna). Another 40 lb. outfit with a flylined squid was set in the starboard stern rod holder. Linda fished a flylined squid and I fished a squid with a small sliding sinker. John, the perfect host, made a pitcher of margaritas, a couple of rum and cokes and served us on deck.

The ocean was a nice 66 degrees and smooth as glass. As the sun went down, the marine layer dropped in creating a suffocating blackness offshore that felt like it would swallow us. Fortunately we had the shoreline lights to comfort us plus the dim lights on three skiffs closer to shore and the boat just upwind from us - whose captain is a friend of Cubby's.

Around 9 pm, we had a delicious dinner of BBQ ribs, caesar salad, macaroni salad, and French bread while floating on flat calm seas. After dinner, we all went back out on deck and actively fished (we took the rods out of the holders and held them) waiting for a bite. By midnight, the boat next to us had two white seabass at about 40 lbs. each so they pulled anchor and headed home. Those fish were caught on the balloon rigs.

By 2 am all the guys were asleep either on the fly bridge or in the salon; just Linda and me left on deck. Loads of fish fry flitted around on the surface under the lights. Eventually the squid floated but still didn't want to bite. I only managed to catch 4 squid all night. Without a single bite and dawn breaking, Linda and I dozed on deck. About 5 am we went inside and lay down to catch a few minutes sleep. At 5:30 Cubby woke us and said we missed it. One of the rods went off 5 minutes after we went inside. After a 20 minute fight, he landed a 47.9 lb. white seabass and what a beauty it was!

We fished hard for another couple hours then Cubby moved the boat to the Del Mar area and we fished for calico bass. It was very good calico fishing - not huge fish but good fishing with all fish released. If we cast into or right next to the kelp, the calicos jumped out of the water to ambush the bait. If we cast away from the kelp, we hooked mackerel or small barracuda. We didn't keep count, but we must have caught 50 to 75 calico bass for the morning.

We called it a day around noon and headed to the barn. Cubby slid the boat back into its' slip and tied her up. We packed up our gear and Cubby filleted the seabass while the local captains came to watch. The fish was a female with immature eggs. Linda and John insisted we all take home some seabass. We can't wait to taste ours. Linda and John's generosity is incredible and so appreciated especially by me. Thanks my friends and to Cubby Pahl for providing us with a great time on the water.