Sitka 2016

I flew to Sitka Alaska from John Wayne Airport through Seattle on August 15th.  Al Scow, his son Rob and Pat Gallagher arrived from LAX to board the same flight to Sitka.  Once we checked into the Sitka Westmark Hotel, I walked to the Pioneer Bar and Liquor Store and picked up some wine and hit the grocery store for bottled water for the room.  We all walked across the street to the harbor to meet Herb and Riley (Outbound Alaska Charters) when they brought the boats in from the day's fishing. Fishing has been slow, Herb informed us as the waters were too rough to reach the promised land for the last 9 days.

Around 6 p.m., we met up for dinner in the hotel.  Ramon, who tends bar in the hotel, greeted us (he recognized me from previous years) and gave food recommendations.  Ramon is the real person that the movie character in "The Proposal" (with Sandra Bullock) was patterned after.

Ramon & Me

We boarded Jager at 6 a.m. and completed paperwork for our fishing licenses and we were off.  The plan - try to reach the promised land, a two hour trek south.  We reached the open ocean in an hour and bounced and pounded for another hour before we started fishing.  Jon Martin (our Captain) said the water had finally cooled off to the upper 50's.  It had been in the 60's.  Herb had brought his charter group out with us. 

Jon set us up on drift after drift without success.  This certainly wasn't what we were used to.  The waters were terribly rough so Al stayed in the cabin rather than risk falling again like last year.  Rob, unfortunately, was exhausted from work and combined with the pitching seas, he fell ill and likewise stayed in the cabin.

Pat with a big silver.

We fished until 2:30 then started the two hour trek back to dock. Fishing was very poor - just 9 silver salmon, 4 small halibut and 3 black bass for the day.  We really have been spoiled in previous years because 24 fish limits were normal.  

Riley filleting halibut on the way in.

We were back to dock by 4:30 and the sun was shining.  It was a good afternoon to walk the town and do a little shopping.  Pat picked up some shorty Extra Tuffs (his shoes weren't waterproof as stated) and I bought a Gage Jacket (red) at the Marine store.  We walked to Little Toyko (a short block) for dinner.  The crew and family of Outbound Alaska Charters were all there.  Pat Gallagher surprised them by picking up their dinner tab.  Very nice!

Wednesday was predicted to be the best weather of the week so at 6 a.m. Wednesday we were leaving harbor north to fish black cod.  

Al, Pat, Me & Rob

We stopped to fish salmon for bait just as we left the bay.  We picked up 5 silver salmon along with some pinks for bait.  Jon took us another 20 minutes out to where the bottom dropped from 1400 feet to 1700 feet.  Riley (who was decking for Jon), set up two electric reels, baited up two hooks on each and dropped them down.  10 minutes down - jingle jingle goes the line and push the button and 10 minutes coming up and we had two shortraiker on each rod. 

Black Cod Area

Rob with a Shortraiker

Rebait, drop to the bottom again, jingle jingle and push the button again.  This time we got black cod.  We continued to do this until we had full limits of black cod for us (4 each) and an additional 5 black cod for crew.  We moved back to the area we fished for bait and caught another 8 silvers (13 total for the day) and 1 halibut.  We caught more fish in this area than the previous day and our travel time was only an hour.  The weather was beautiful all day.

Pat with a Black Cod

Electric Reel

Pat and Riley

We had dinner at Ludvig's Bistro this night.  Very good food.  I had made reservations a month in advance and was glad I did.  We started with Black Cod Tips (collars) which was something we hadn't tried.  Everything we tried was good.

Thursday morning, same time, same place, but not as nice weather wise.  Jon pointed the boat towards yesterday's spot, a place he called the Cape.  We hit some rough spots along the way that Al called "Potholes".  The seas were rough but fishable and we had rain.  

The entire fleet including 15 to 20 commercial boats were there when we arrived.  Jon anchored and Rob, Pat and I fished hard.  Al stayed in the cabin due to rough seas.  Needless to say he got bored and wanted to call it a day early.  We were back in by 2:30 to 3:00 p.m.  We did manage 16 silvers, 4 kings, 4 halibut and 1 lingcod.  This was our best day so far.  We had dinner in the hotel again.

Friday we fished the Cape again but in much better weather.  We hit some "potholes" on the way out but the weather improved as the day progressed.

Just after we started fishing, the Coast Guard Helicopter arrived circling the boats.  Jon thought they were practicing.  He turned to Channel 16 and heard the copter say "What are we looking for?"  Response:  Is there a boat there?  Copter:  About 40 boats.  Who are we looking for?  Response:  A personal emergency beacon went off registered to a Michael and Janet Howard.  What a shock.  I grabbed my Spot Satelite Messenger which was sitting on the top of the bench seat behind Al and the 911 button had been pressed.  Jon told the Coast Guard that I was on board and not in danger.

Best we can guess is that it was pressed when we hit one of the potholes on the way out.  Definitely embarrassing but good to know it works if I get in trouble.  Apparently this has happened to others as Spot as been redesigned so the 911 button is covered and cannot be turned on accidentally.  My newly designed Spot arrives Wednesday.

Lingcod that had to be released.

Fishing was still slow.  We caught 2 kings, 15 silvers, 4 halibut (all the halibut are small this year - 5 to 10 pounds), 1 yelloweye and 5 black bass.  We went back to dinner at Little Tokyo for sushi.  They have the best Ikura (fresh salmon roe).

Saturday Riley was our Captain and he owns the boat.  Jordan (Herb's stepson) decked for Riley.  Back out to the Cape in beautiful, sunny, flat calm weather.  As Riley told Al, "I had them fill the potholes last night just for you, Al!"  We all fished hard and were rewarded with our first day of limits of silver salmon, 1 king, 4 halibut and 1 black bass and back to dock an hour early.  The silvers were really toads this day.  They were larger than the kings we'd caught. 

We finished our trip with dinner at The Sitka Hotel restaurant.  It was good but not great.  Sunday morning we had breakfast in the hotel then took Hank's Taxi to the airport at 7:15 a.m. for our 10 a.m. flight.  We wanted to beat the crowd.  Thirty minutes later, the airport was crowded and we were all checked in.  Quality Fish Processing had met us at the airport with our boxes of fish (three 50 lb. boxes each plus two 35 lb. boxes to split between us).  Al and Rob had 7 boxes between them and were trying to decide where to put it all.  It sounded like a new freezer was being ordered. 

So how many fish does it take to fill 14 boxes of fish filets?  Here's our fish count for 5 days fishing:

77 Silver Salmon

7 King Salmon

17 Halibut

16 Black Cod

1 Lingcod

4 Shortraikers

1 Yelloweye

9 Black Bass

I made it home around 8:30 p.m. after a 3 hour layover in Seattle and a late flight.  At least all my fish boxes arrived with me.  Last year I had a problem with some fish packages breaking open so I sealed each filet in another vacuum bag.  I found the fish kept much fresher that way so I did the same thing this year.  Needless to say, the freezer is full.

The best part of fishing in Alaska is the wonderful seafood we get to enjoy for the next year.  My first choice is always salmon sashimi and seared salmon followed by black cod.

Black Cod

http://pecheusecalifornienne.blogspot.ca/2014/04/grilled-black-cod-with-cucumbers-and.html