Alaskan Adventure

Early in the morning on August 14th, I boarded Alaska Airlines Flight 515 to Seattle. There I met up with al Scow arriving from LA, and Basil Pappas and his friend, Glenn, from New York, to continue our travels to Sitka, Alaska. After a two hour flight, we arrived in Sitka and checked into the Westmark Hotel, did a little shopping for wine, fruit and snacks then met back in the bar for a quick lunch.

Excitement was high to commence fishing the Alaska wilderness. Of course, our goal was to catch limits of fish to take home. And what are the limits: 1 king (Chinook) salmon per day, per person to a maximum of 4 per year; 6 silver (Coho) salmon per day, per person; 1 halibut per day per person either under 44 inches or over 55 inches in length; 1 lingcod per person, per year; 1 yelloweye per person, per year and all the black bass you want. Were we greedy in our desires? Perhaps, but the Alaskan Seafood, freshly caught, is the best!

Wednesday morning at 6 am, we walked across the street from our hotel to the marina and boarded Yager, one of two boats operated by Outbound Alaska Charters and owned by Herb Tennell. Steve Runnion was our Captain and this was my third trip to Alaska fishing with Steve. Outbound has been operating about 15 years and usually fished an area they had been successful keeping secret. We had been very successful on previous trips fishing the area for salmon.

Steve welcomed us aboard and had us complete the appropriate paperwork then said to settle in for the 50 mile (2 hour) trip out to the promised land. The first hour of travel is through an inside passage that breaks out into the ocean for the second hour of the trip along the coastline. Our weather was a cool 52 degrees but the heater in the cabin kept us warm for the ride.

Herb was already in the cove with his passengers catching silver salmon when we arrived. Steve had already set up the salmon gear (G Loomis rods, Shimano Tekota Reels (with Line counters) filled with 25# mono and appropriate leaders to fish cut plug herring. Steve operates without a deckhand and is amazing how he manages to do it all himself (bait hooks, clear tangles, net and gaff fish and still operate the boat).

Steve set the boat into a drift, baited the hooks and said to drop to the bottom and work the bait back to the surface. He reminded us that all we would feel if we got a bite was a barely detectable tap on the line - then we should start winding until the line comes tight and lift the rod a little to set the hook.

This was Glenn's first trip to Alaska and he was blessed with beginner's luck. What a great day he had. His first fish was a beautiful king salmon. The rest the day he added his first halibut, lingcod, silver salmon, black bass, quillback and a skate (released) to his catch. He was on fire!

As the day progressed, we all contributed to the day's catch that brought us full limits of silver salmon, halibut, 2 king salmon, 2 lingcod and black bass. Something different from previous trips was that we were able to catch our halibut in the same area on the salmon gear while fishing for salmon. No going out to deep water and dropping down 300 feet with ropes baited with salmon guts and bellies. It was much more fun catching halibut on the salmon gear.

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About 2:30 in the afternoon we headed back to dock - tired but thrilled with our catch. On the way back, Steve used Glenn's skills as a captain and had him drive while Steve cleaned the fish.

Salmon were gill and gutted, halibut filleted but had to keep the carcass to verify its size, rock fish filleted but lingcod had to be kept whole until the boat was tied up at the dock.

After a quick shower, we had a beer in the bar to celebrate our catch. Later, we caught the shuttle to the Channel Club or a delicious fish dinner - fresh silver salmon.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we repeated the same routine - 6 am departure to fishing grounds, fish 8 am to 2:30 pm and return to dock around 4:30 to 5 pm. Unfortunately, not every day had the success of the first day due to a difficult but not unusual issue when fishing is slow. One of the other captains in the Sitka area, jealous of Steve and Herb's consistent catch,  managed to learn there was a secret cove and told the entire fleet. When we departed Thursday, we had what looked like an armada of fishing boats following us to the fishing grounds. The same cove Steve and Herb had fished for years with no more than two boats there now had close to thirty boats.

Needless to say, the salmon were pounded and it was difficult to get our limit of silver salmon and we struck out on the halibut all together. At least the quality of the silvers were a little better this day. The wind came up in the afternoon making for a brutal, gut wrenching and kidney pounding hour and 20 minutes before reaching the inside passage and calmer waters.

Less boats made the run on Friday out to what we now know is Sandy Beach, but the boat pressure from the previous day seriously affected the bite. We only caught 10 silver salmon, 2 king salmon, 4 halibut, 2 yelloweye and 1 lingcod.

A change in the weather was predicted so we experienced a misty evening with the rain during the night. Miraculously, by the time we reached Sandy Beach Saturday, the sun was out and it was the best weather all trip. And surprise - only a couple boats were fishing in the cove. By noon, we had full limits of silvers, 1 halibut and 2 yelloweye.

Back at dock, we thanked and tipped Steve for the great trip and promised to return. We celebrated our successful trip with dinner at the hotel. I had a fabulous dinner of crab stuffed halibut. Sunday morning, our fish processor, Absolute Fresh Seafoods, picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the airport.

Our boxes of fish were already on carts waiting for us - four 50 pound boxes each! We split all the fish evenly among the 4 of us. When you consider that the cost of buying salmon and halibut from Alaska is $19 per pound (plus shipping), our catch was worth $3,800 each and the trip cost was only $2,800 plus air fare. We did have to pay $110 to Alaska Airlines to check the four boxes of fish, but a small price to pay to get our fish home.

Basil, Glenn and I boarded Alaska Flight 68 to Seattle for a 10:40 am flight. We were delayed 20 minutes because the captain said we were so successful catching fish, that he had to run the aircraft performance numbers to be sure the airplane could handle the weight safely.  After a transfer to another aircraft, I finished my journey arriving home about 5:30 in the evening to 95 degree weather.  Yuk!  It took me an hour to move everything out of the freezer and load the 4 boxes of fish inside.  It’s a beautiful sight though – all that bright red salmon shining at me when I open the freezer.

Monday evening we began to enjoy my Alaskan Harvest – a delicious dinner of fresh coho salmon.