Alaskan Perfection!

My annual fishing trip to Sitka Alaska began August 11th when I flew from John Wayne Airport thru Seattle to Sitka.  In Seattle I met up with the rest of the team - Cathy Needleman, Patrick Gallagher and Tracey St. Johns. Kevin picked us up at the airport and drove us to the market for water, beer, wine, fruit and snacks then delivered us to the Longliner Hotel where we would be fishing with Outbound Alaskan Charters.  Outbound and the Longliner is a family operation owned by Herb Tennell.  It is a full service operation including fishing, fish processing, hotel and restaurant.  Outbound Alaskan Charters Website

We checked into our rooms - Room 3 for me, Room 2 for Cathy and Room 485A (a suite with a kitchen) for Patrick and Tracey.  After unpacking, Cathy and I walked the town and had a beer at the Westmark Hotel. 

Around 4 pm the boats came in with their catch.  We all went down on the docks to watch them filet the catch.  Herb Tennell was processing fish, while his wife and daughter (Holly and Brook) were labeling fish bags and his son, Hunter, was vacuum sealing fish bags.  Ferdinand was putting fish into bags, hunter was labeling and sealing the bags while Kevin put them on trays and into the blast freezer.  

We decided to have dinner at the Longliner restaurant which is across the hall from my room.  There was a singer/guitarist entertaining.  The restaurant is so small, the sound overwhelmed the room making it difficult to converse during dinner plus he was not a very good singer.  The food was good though.  I had a salad and clam chowder that was very good.  After dinner, Herb made out our fishing licenses.  We called it a night around 8 pm.

I got up around 4 am Monday morning to get ready.  I had some pieces of cut up fruit and a 5 hour energy drink.  At 5 am I walked across the hall to the restaurant and made my lunch for the day.  I also grabbed a couple pieces of bacon from the breakfast buffet and sat down to work my jigsaw puzzle.  Cathy, Patrick and Tracey came in to make their lunches and have breakfast.  Other groups were doing the same.

By 6 am we were all on Riley's boat, Yager, ready to go fishing.  The weather was very good so Riley said we would salmon fish for a while to get some bait then head out to deeper water for some black cod.

Captain Riley Dowd

Riley took us out to an area referred to as The Cape.  In an hour we were fishing and by 10 am we had full limits of silver salmon (24).  As last year, Tracey was always hooked up.  She is a fish magnet.  

We then headed out to deeper water for some black cod fishing.  Our first drop was in 1700 feet of water.  That didn't work too well so Riley took us out to 2100 feet of water and that worked like a charm. 

The Cape

Black Cod Spot

We started catching big black cod.  It was a slow process as it took 13 minutes to get to the bottom and about the same amount of time to bring them up.  Tracey and Cathy decided to make good use of the time between drops by taking a nap.  By 3 pm it was time to head back in.  We were just two shy of limits with 14 big black cod sharing the hold with our 24 salmon.  It was a spectacular day.

Black Cod

Electric Reel

Bait

Nap Time

We got back in around 4 pm and Riley spread all our fish out on the dock for photos.  What a beautiful catch.  I got beer for Cathy, Tracey and myself then we watched our catch being processed.

Around 6 pm we walked to the Sitka Hotel for dinner.  We called it a night around 8 pm.

Tuesday morning we repeated our morning routine of making lunches, having breakfast and boarding the boat at 6 am.  Fishing had been so good the day before, Riley headed right back out to the same spot.  Unfortunately, conditions had changed plus commercial fishing had reopened so there were many longliners trolling the area.  It was a little choppy and currents were different.  We had to work very hard to catch a fish.  We kept at it though and eked out limits - 24 silver salmon, 4 halibut and 1 lingcod. 

On the way in, we picked up 2 of Herb's passengers and took them back with us.  Herb's boat lost a prop and had to come back on one engine.  We were back by 4 pm, showered and went to Ludvigs for dinner.  Ludvigs is always a treat.

Wednesday we fished the same area as the previous two days for salmon.  It was slow but better than the previous day.  Around noon, we moved out to deeper water for halibut.  As it turned out, the fishing for salmon was much better there and the salmon were larger too.  We managed to boat 23 salmon but only 1 halibut.  Cathy joined Tracey in catching the majority of the fish.  I did catch and release 2 king salmon.  Cathy and Tracey also released kings.

We got in by 4 pm, showered, grabbed a beer and went back on the dock to watch the fish processing in nice weather. 

So far the weather has been great - no rain yet even though it had been predicted.  We walked to Toyko for sushi and stopped at the Pioneer bar on the way back.  Cathy got us each a Pioneer Bar hat - and it is very good looking plus it fits.  Thanks Cathy.  We called it a night at 9 pm.

Thursday morning we made our lunches, had breakfast then had Riley take a photo of us arriving at the boat with our sack lunches.  For some reason, the lunch sacks are extra large. The weather forecast said rain beginning at noon.  We were dressed for it.

We headed to the same general area as Wednesday but a little deeper water.  Riley set up the two halibut rigs on the bow and we all fished the stern.  Did I mention that the boat has all the modern conveniences?

Tracey and Cathy continued hooking fish until I noticed it was the starboard side of the boat that made the difference.  I moved to the starboard bow and caught fish after fish.  I made Patrick try it and he caught fish too.  Apparently it had to do with the current and our drift. 

We continued to catch big silvers and I caught another king salmon.  We kept catching baby black cod when we brought our bait back in.  I put one on my hook and 4 fish bit before I could get one to stick and bring it to the boat.  The salmon loved them.  Riley took one and cut it like a cut plug herring.  I tried it and it worked better than the herring.  The baby black cod were a game changer.  Wow! 

We caught our 4 halibut, limits of silvers (including Riley's limit) plus one lingcod and 1 sockeye salmon.  We released two yelloweye and another king.  I also caught a mystery fish.  Apparently its the third one this year and the biologist said it's good eating and part of the mackerel family.  And the rain never came.  Fabulous fishing this year.

We had Riley send the fillets from one of our salmon to the chef at the lodge to use for our dinner.  It was a wonderful meal.  The salmon was medium rare with an Asian glaze accompanied by mixed sautéed vegetables and Basmati rice. We took the leftovers and made a rice bowl for our lunch the next day.

Friday morning when we boarded the boat there was a heavy fog covering the area.   We headed out to the same area.  It was difficult to see if there were any other boats in the area.  The fog lifted by noon.  

Blue sharks were a nuisance.  They were everywhere.  We all hooked at least one.  The baby black cod didn't show up until nearly noon.  I was happy to see them show up.  We fished hard and at 1:30 pm we boated our fourth halibut.  We also had another lingcod to go with them and our 23 silver salmon.  Riley said we are moving to try and catch a king salmon.  They reopened the season this morning.

The area we fished for kings was very close to dock.  We fished hard and picked up another 5 silvers before I boated a king salmon - a barely legal one (28 1/4 inches).  We were a little late getting in because Riley was determined to get us a king salmon.

After showers, Cathy and I grabbed our beer and went down on the dock to sit in the sun. Crew was busy processing our fish and boxing it for our travel home the next day.

It was beautiful - sunny and warm.  The weather had been nice everyday without a single drop of rain.  Amazing.

Our final fish count for the five days of fishing was:

128 Silver Salmon

1 King Salmon

1 Sockeye Salmon

13 Halibut

14 Black Cod

3 Lingcod
1 Mystery Fish

Dinner our last night at Ludvigs was a celebration for the phenomenal trip we had just shared.  I think we all knew that a trip like this is a once in a lifetime gift.

Saturday morning we met Kevin and Ferdinand in front of the lodge for our trip to the airport.  They had all our fish boxes loaded, labeled and ready to check in.  

When we got to the airport, Kevin and Ferdinand put bag tags on each box, loaded them on the conveyor belt so we just had to board the plane with our personal items.  Such a pleasure to have all the hard work done for us.  After checking in, it began to rain.

We boarded Alaska Airlines Flight 68 on time.  As it turns out this is a seasonal flight that only runs during fishing season.  The flight caught a tail wind and the total flight time was 1 hour 44 minutes to Seattle.  After a 2 hour layover, we said "Goodbye", boarded our respective planes to headed home.

I arrived in Orange County at 6:30 pm.  Mike and Tony (Mike's friend) were waiting to help me with my fish boxes. We each came home with two 50 pound boxes plus one 90 pound box of fish fillets.  Alaska now charges $100 per bag for the third and fourth bag.  Kevin saved us $100 by making the third box a big one instead of two 50 pound boxes.  Thanks Kevin for that. 

Herb is continually improving his operation.  The fish processing was improved by going to 5 mm thick fish bags, the hotel rooms each have a Keurig coffee maker and the restaurant has a new chef - a good one too.  The entire Outbound Alaskan Charters crew are great and our captain, Riley Dowd did a spectacular job.