Jim Carlisle and I departed John Wayne Airport August 13th on our way to Sitka for our
annual fishing excursion with Outbound Alaska Charters. We arrived in Sitka on Alaska Flight 63 at
1:00 pm. Ferdinand, our driver, was
waiting for us as we departed the plane.
He was new to the operation and a valuable addition we would soon learn.
Light rain was falling while we loaded our bags in the
van. Ferdinand offered to take us to the
market and liquor store before checking into the lodge. With rain predicted for the rest of the day,
we gratefully accepted his offer. After
purchasing fruit, chips, beer and wine for our room, Ferdinand delivered us to
our hotel, the Longliner.
We checked in and Jim got room 1 and I got my favorite
room - No. 3. Patrick Gallagher
(actually John Patrick Gallagher) and his girlfriend Tracey St. Johns arrived
the day before. Patrick and Tracey
were on the second floor. I unpacked
then Jim and I had a beer in my room while watching the boats arrive from the
day's fishing. My room had the best view
of the harbor and departing and arriving boats.
It had been a rough day of fishing for the Outbound Alaska Charter boats.
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| Door to My Room |
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| My Room |
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| My Room |
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| View from my Room |
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| The Lodge |
We walked to the marine store next door for a little
shopping then we all met up for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We shared appetizers of black cod tips and
artichoke dip. I had the steamed clams as
my main course - which were good even though a bit spicy for my digestive system. I was back in my room by 7 pm for a good
night's sleep.
Tuesday morning dawned cloudy with light rain. Typical for Sitka. The restaurant opened at 6 am for Fisherman's
breakfast - a buffet of bacon, sausage, potatoes and eggs. There were sweet rolls, muffins, and toast too. The bar area was set up with sliced meats,
bread and all the necessary ingredients to make yourself a sack lunch to take for
your day of fishing. I grabbed a couple
pieces of bacon for breakfast, then made my half sandwich lunch for the day.
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| Tony on the left; Richard on the right. |
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| Lunch Set-Up |
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| Breakfast Set-Up |
At 6 am, we met up with Herb Tennell (owner/operator) to
fill out forms for our fishing licenses. Herb said we were fishing with Riley
on the Yaeger. We climbed on board our
boat and departed around 6:30 am heading towards Salisbury sound. Patrick informed us that this was the first
time Tracey had ever been fishing. First
timers are always a thrill to have on board.
Rough waters held us back a couple hours before we could continue to our fishing destination. We fished while waiting for the weather to come down. It was a waste of time. Once we got to the fishing area, the targeted species of fish were less than cooperative. However, Tracey caught her first fish (a rockcod) and lots of black bass! It was wonderful to see her catching fish for the first time. We ended the day with only 12 silver salmon and limits of black bass.
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| Bait |
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| Tracey and her first fish! |
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| Our Captain, Riley Dowd. |
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| Cleaning the salmon before it goes in the hold. |
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| Netting Tracey's first Salmon. |
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| Tracey with her first salmon. |
We returned to dock around 4:30 pm. I took a quick shower then Jim and I grabbed
a beer and walked down on the dock to watch crew process our fish. Tables were set up outside for the captains
and crew to fillet fish. Riley was busy
filleting what few fish we had on the boat.
Inside the building, Ferdinand was working putting fillets in bags, then Hunter
(Herb's 10 year old son) was vacuum sealing and labeling the bags. Hunter
actually stopped working long enough to give me a big hug. What a great kid. I've seen him every year
since he was 2 years old. Alisa was supervising the entire operation assisting
where necessary. This was the first year
Herb was processing our fish instead of hiring a processor to do the work.
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| Holly & Herb Tennill |
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| Ferdinand Bagging Fillets. |
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| Alisa. |
We went to the neighboring hotel for dinner. Unfortunately, the good food we had experienced the previous
year didn't exist this year. We called
it a night around 8 pm.
Wednesday dawned with calmer seas. After breakfast and lunch making, we boarded
Yaeger and Riley pointed the bow south.
We were heading to the promise land - a two hour ride south. The promise land is where we would usually catch easy limits on previous trips. All three boats headed south. Herb and John arrived with their groups
before we got there. We fished hard all
day but really struggled. We managed our
4 small halibuts but only caught 5 salmon for the day. We sucked! The other two boats did much better - Herb's
group had full limits! Fishing wasn't
looking too good for us at this point.
After showers, Jim and I grabbed our beers and watched
the fish fillet operation again. Just before leaving for dinner, we all gathered
in my room to Facetime Al Scow. It was great
talking to him as this was the first year he hasn't joined us. We dined at Ludvig's Bistro. we shared an
order of calamari to start then I had the white salmon fillet for dinner. It was great!
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| Ludvig's Bistro |
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| Ludvig's Bistro |
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| Ludvig's Menu! |
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| Ludvig's Calamari! |
Thursday morning we departed around 6 am heading north
passing by the volcano on our way out.
Weather was getting better. We
fished salmon first for a total of 9 silvers then headed further out to fish
for black cod. I was hoping we would get
it done early but that wasn't the case.
Fishing started slow and with small fish. Fishing depth was 1,400 feet to start.
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| Mount Edgecumbe Volcano! |
The first fish was a shortraker that had to be released. For some reason Alaska Fish and Game required
all rockfish to be released during August.
Riley decided to move out to 1,700 feet to fish. The fish were larger in the deeper water. We managed to get 14 black cod by day's end -
only 2 shy of limits which is 4 per person. This was a good
catch of black cod especially with the larger quality fish we caught, but our salmon count was pitiful. I was beginning to think I would need to buy
some salmon fillets to take home. We only
had 26 salmon for the four of us.
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| Shortraker |
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| Black Cod |
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| Idiot Fish |
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| Black Cod |
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| Jim with a couple of the larger black cod. |
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| Me with one of our black cod. |
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| Our Day's Catch. |
Thankfully we scheduled 5 days of fishing. With three days gone and only a handful of
salmon caught, we needed the extra two days.
At least the silver salmon were much bigger than last year. John said the saying is "The smaller the
run, the bigger the fish." Seems
true this year as there are not that many fish around.
When we got in, we showered then went to the Sitka Hotel
for dinner and called it an early night.
Friday as I walked to the boat, Herb asked me if we would
take Tony and his son with our group. We
would fish on the Micah, Herb's boat, which is larger. It seems the rest of Tony's group flew home
already and they didn't have a group/boat to fish with. I said "Yes". It was more crowded but Tony and his son are
nice guys and pleasant to fish with.
They fished hard and we had a better day of catching fish, thank heaven.
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| Herb's Boat, Micah |
We started off in Shelikoff Bay drifting for fish.
We were doing OK on the salmon but not the
halibut.
We moved further north then anchored
up and caught our 6 halibut and more salmon and ended the day with 31 silver
salmon too.
Large silvers!
We were back at 4:30 pm.
I took a quick shower, grabbed my beer and
went down to watch the fish processing.
I talked with Alisa and had her order me some black cod tips and smoked
salmon strips. I let her know that I didn't want any black bass to take home and
that we all wanted to share the salmon bellies.
We had dinner again at our hotel. The weather was warm and sunny. We started on the deck with drinks then moved
inside - I had the seafood pasta - delicious!
Late night. I didn't crash until
9:30 pm.
Saturday dawned sunny and with calm seas. Last day of fishing. We were back fishing with Riley. He headed straight for Sheilikof Bay. We started by drifting. Jim picked up one salmon on the first drift so
Riley said "one more drift".
He picked up another silver so Riley repeated what became the mantra of
the day "just one more drift."
By 2 pm, we were just 4 fish shy of silver salmon limits so Riley
anchored up so we could catch our halibut.
Riley put a couple rods out on the bow with salmon guts and salmon belly
for bait. The first fish was a huge
lingcod that had to be released. We kept
fishing for salmon and actually got limits and 4 nice halibut before we had to
call it a trip.
We were back at the lodge by 4 pm. I showered, packed then went down to
photograph our catch. Alisa said we would have 3 boxes of fish each - 50 pound
boxes to take home. We finished on a
strong note with our total catch at:
12 halibut
72 silver salmon
14 black cod
16 black bass
1 lingcod
I paid Herb for my trip and thanked him for another great
trip before we left for dinner. We dined
at Ludvid's Bistro again then called it a night.
I was up early Sunday morning to watch the final
processing of fish. I was very
impressed. They used heavy plastic bags
and placed filets of 1 to 1.5 lbs. in each bag then froze them in a blast
freezer. When they packed the boxes the
morning before we departed, they used silver padding and taped the padding
tightly. The boxes were strapped closed
with 4 straps.
We all met out front at 7:30 am to load our fish and bags
for the trip to the airport. When we
arrived at the airport, we checked in and got our bag tags which Alisa put on
our bags. She made sure all our boxes
were labeled properly with our names then checked them in for us. What a great service!
When Jim and I arrived in Orange County, all our boxes
arrived although they were missing some straps from the rough handling by the
airline. It was great to get home but perhaps
the best part of getting home was the great fish we brought home to eat.
In the first couple days, we had cooked salmon, salmon
sashimi, black cod tips, and smoked salmon bellies. YUM!
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| Salmon on a bed of sauteed onions. |
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| Salmon Bellies. |
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| Salmon Belly and Black Cod Tips. |
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| Grilled Black Cod with Cucumber Relish |
