Monday, August 19, 2013

Sitka, Alaska 2013

Early on Monday morning August 12th, I boarded Alaska Airlines for a flight to Seattle to meet Basil, Al and Glenn for our flight to Sitka. After a two hour flight, we arrived in Sitka and checked into the Westmark Hotel, did a little shopping for wine and chips then met back in the bar for drinks and dinner. We were anxious to begin our Alaskan Fishing Adventure.

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Excitement was high to commence fishing the Alaska wilderness. Our goal was the same as last year - to catch limits of fish to take home. This year limits were: 1 king (Chinook) salmon per year, per person; 6 silver (Coho) salmon per day, per person; 1 halibut per day per person either under 45 inches or over 68 inches in length; 1 lingcod per person, per year; 1 yelloweye per person, per year and 4 black cod per person, per year. Were we greedy in our desires? Perhaps, but the Alaskan Seafood is the best!

Tuesday morning we all met on the dock to board Yaeger, one of two boats operated by Outbound Alaska Charters and owned by Herb Tennell. John was our Captain this day. Introductions were made and the appropriate paperwork completed then we followed Herb and his group out of the harbor. As last year, we headed south about 50 miles to the promise land south of Whale Bay. The first hour of travel winds inside around islands until we reach the ocean for the last hour of travel.

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              Salmon Grounds

There were a couple other boats in the area already catching fish. We quickly dropped our lines in the water and started catching silver salmon. After barely one hour, we had full boat limits of silver salmon. John moved the boat to deeper water so we could fish for halibut. By 2:30 pm, it was time to head back to town. We had added 4 yelloweye (trip limits), 8 black bass and 2 halibut. We arrived back at our hotel by 4:30 pm for a wonderful hot shower, then to the hotel bar for drinks followed by dinner at the Channel Club.

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Halibut Grounds

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Wednesday morning we were up bright and early, on the dock and ready to head to the fishing grounds. Herb said we were fishing with John on Yaeger again but today we were headed to the black cod grounds. It was a shorter ride this day and the weather was pretty nice considering we were 8 miles off shore. We stopped short of our destination to fish long enough to catch a few pink salmon for bait.

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        Black Cod Grounds

Porpoise were on the spot when we arrived. John set up two electric reels with a two hook gagnion on each, baited with pink salmon guts and roe. It took 10 minutes for the two pound weight to reach the bottom. It took another 10 minutes for the electric reel to bring the fish up from the bottom - 1,700 feet deep. The first fish we brought up was a big shortraker. First one I've seen. They look much like our cowcod. The second rod had two black cod on it but one dropped off before we could get it in the boat.

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Off in the distance was a sperm whale lazily swimming on the surface about a mile away. Close to the boat three orca's breached - one was just a baby. We felt a couple fish jump on the lines so we started the motors to bring the line up. Suddenly, the sperm whale turned towards our boat and started coming our way. Then the whale dove and in seconds was picking fish off our lines - a quick tug and one line was empty. The second line was still close the bottom when the whale grabbed the fish off that line and must have hooked himself because he took off and broke the line.  We only got part of the spectra back.

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John made a move to try to get away from the sperm whale. More spectra was loaded on the empty reel and both rods put back in action - dropping back down to 1,700 feet. We could see a humpback whale and two sperm whales in the distance but they didn't bother us again. When it was my turn to man the reel (we guided the line on the reel so it didn't bunch up in one place), I had a 30 pound black cod on the line. By day's end, we had 12 black cod, 4 shortraker, and 2 silver salmon.

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After a nice shower, Basil and I visited the fish processors, Absolute Fresh Seafoods. Eleana said she would pick us up at the hotel and take us and our fish to the airport. We told her what time to pick us up on Sunday.

Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday - back south on the Yaeger with John and limits of silver salmon plus 4 king salmon in barely an hour. John moved us out to deeper water and we picked up our 4 halibut for the day and we were headed home by 12:30 pm. Before reaching dock, John took us to just below Redoubt lake to see a short waterfall with pink salmon pooled up below the dam ready to go up stream and spawn.

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Friday we changed boats and fished on the Micah with Herb. We headed back south past Whale Bay and did it again - limits of silver salmon and one king salmon in one hour. It took a little longer to catch our limit of halibut. We were still back to the dock early - 3 pm.

Saturday the weather turned sour - small craft advisories, 20 knot winds and driving rain. Herb took us to fish inside Sitka Sound where most the other boats fished. Even in tough conditions, the silvers bit. It took a little longer for limits but we were still back at dock by 3 pm with full limits of salmon. What epic fishing! Both our captains said it has been the best silver salmon fishing they have ever seen this year.

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After my shower, I went shopping and bought a T-shirt to remember this town. It says "Sitka, a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem!" We followed the traditions and had drinks and dinner in the hotel bar to celebrate our fabulous catch.

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We all flew home Sunday morning with 4 boxes (170 lbs.) of fish fillets. I overheard the Captain say they had to bring in a larger plane than normal to accommodate the 20,000 pounds of fish all the passengers were taking home. I know we did our share.

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