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.
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).
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!
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.
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!
posted by Pêcheuse at 12:33 PM
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