Category Archives: The Captain’s Blog

Limits of Everthing

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: July 8, 2011

Tony, Ryan, and Marty of the Otto party with their king and silver limit catch

July got off to a rough start weatherwise and a hot start fishingwise. Despite dealing with a bit of wind, rain and waves, the Otto party -

Tony, Ryan, and Marty – celebrated July 4 with “limits of everything” – silvers, kings, halibut and rockfish. The silvers appear to be getting pretty well established in our better ocean locations and the king fishing continued strong with Russell Shepherd and Jeannine Lofton getting a limit of kings, silvers, and halibut on July 5. King fishing has been exceptional for early July.

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July Starts Hot

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: July 2, 2011

Deckhand Bo Bruener looks on from aboard the Kestrel

The weather wasn’t hot for the first day of July – a bit of cool rain came with an east wind that smoothed out the ocean. We found kings again on the inside waters with limits for the Dan Brock party by 6:10 AM and the Jim Waldo party by 7 AM. The ocean also came alive with kings as the morning progressed with the Glen Foster party and the Willard party limiting on kings by mid-morning. Halibut limits followed for all and the Waldo party enjoyed fishing with circle hooks for salmon in late morning managing some fun catch and release of kings along with 8 nice silvers. The amount of baitfish in most of our favored spots is enormous and the salmon numbers appeared to be building yesterday. The kings also appear to be getting a bit larger with a couple fish over 30 pounds brought to the boat yesterday. We should be seeing silver numbers build on a daily basis as we progress deeper into July.

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Inside/Outside

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: July 1, 2011

The calmest June we’ve ever seen ended on a rough note. A nasty south wind kicked up on Thursday making the ocean a confused washboard. The rough conditions brought out the best in Sitka options when a number of our boats limited out at an undisclosed location that was as calm as the proverbial mill pond. Following that, Captain David took for members of the Glen Foster party to an inside halibut spot, also the old mill pond, for a limit of halibut. Yours truly, Captain Tom, took the Jim Waldo party out on the calming but by no means calm ocean for a limit of halibut then back inside where we caught and release some more kings on calm water. The Willard family, fishing with Captains Phil and Greg, toughed out the ocean for limits of kings and halibut. So, a day that could have been considered a blow out, delivered the goods. Protected inside water options is part of what makes Sitka special and the capability of our boats to handle rough ocean is another thing that makes AU special. We’re hoping for a return to calm for the July 1, but if we don’t get it, we’ll still make it all happen.

The Willard party and their halibut catch

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Can I Get A Bait?

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: June 28, 2011

Deckhands and captains are running around the boat trying to keep up with fish coming to the side and empty hooks. The continued early run of silvers, chums, and pinks mixed in with a strong run of kings seems to bring a bite on every drop. Normal bait consumption in late June is 4 or 5 herring dozen per boat per day. Right now, it’s between 14 and 20 dozen. The culptrit? Pinks, pinks, and more pinks. Thankfully, mixed in with the pinks are some very nice kings, silvers and chums. Jim Messenger, long time AU friend, landed a 14 pound silver on Sunday along with his party getting a limit of kings, 4 chums, 15 silvers, and 3 halibut. This is a very large silver for late June. Fishing on Monday was good for our entire fleet which was spread out over a wide area of ocean. Limits of kings and halibut were the rule. Silver catches fell off some from the day before, largely because of the pink infestation. No matter how you slice it, the action is seemingly endless and the results have been great. The weather continues a calm stretch that has run nearly continuously since May with a few short and relatively mild exceptions. Right now it’s all good with fishing in Sitka.

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Grandparents/Grandkids Special

By Captain Chuck McNamee | Published: June 27, 2011

GrandparentSpecial1 Grandparents/Grandkids Special

Take you grandchildren fishing on Angling Unlimited’s grandparents special. The time
is August 24-28 – prime for peak silver action – and action is what gets kids going. Spice
that fun that with some late season kings, halibut, rockfish, and lingcod and you’ve got
the perfect time of year to keep those with shorter attention spans excited.

You’ll enjoy three full days of fishing with the focus going beyond just catching fish
(don’t worry – there will be plenty of that.). Angling Unlimited’s experts will teach the
kids important foundational skills for fishing:

1. Leader and knot tying
2. Proper netting of a fish
3. Proper care of the fish including bleeding, gutting, icing, and filleting.
4. Use and maintenance of the gear.
5. How to spot fish on the electronics and how to use GPS to find them again.
6. How to make a delicious sandwich for their grandparent.

There will be three full days on the water and a one hour evening reception in our tent
each night to go over the day’s action and lessons, answer questions, and help the kids
refine their new found skills.
Arrival Date: August 24
Fishing and learning: August 25, 26, 27
Departure Date: August 28

Price: $1750 per person

Click here or call (800) 297-3380 to make your reservation today!

Your package includes…

Full days of fishing with experienced, licensed captain and crew
Lodging at our Sitka Rock Waterfront or Waterview Suites
A rental car per party of four for those staying at the Sitka Rock Suites
Breakfast in your room each fishing day.
Hearty lunches and snacks on the boat each fishing day.
Transportation to and from Sitka’s airport.
Transportation between the hotel and boat.
Top quality boat, baits, and tackle.
Rain gear.
Highest quality fish processing: vacuum-sealed, flash frozen, and boxed to airline specifications.
Gift CD with all the photos of your groups trip.

Your package doesn’t include…

Airfare (Alaska Airlines)
Evening meals
Sitka sales tax and Sitka fish box tax
Alaska fishing license and King Salmon stamp
Gratuities

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Silver Solstice

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: June 22, 2011

The first day of summer brought the fish of summer with a terrific silver bite that came on the heels of a wide open king bite. Long time AU friend Greg Pepin, plus Val Jensen, Rusty Lyon, and Rusty’s daughter Kelly Lyon, fished with Captain Greg and started the day with by hooking and releasing about a dozen kings while landing the limit of four. Then they headed offshore and caught a limit of halibut. That was followed by the first limit of silvers of the season – 24 of them in a couple hours. Limits of kings, halibut, and sivlers were also brought to the dock by Alan Brobeck party fishing with Captain Phil and the Glen Burns party fishing with Captain David. The silvers have been around for weeks, but nothing like the numbers seen on the first day of summer. Are the silvers here to stay? It is early for these kinds of numbers, but we’re hoping. Once again, the ocean was flat calm and the sun shone brightly. It really doesn’t get any better on the north Pacific.

First limit of silvers this year caught by Val Jensen, Rusty Lyons, Kelly Lyons and Greg Pepin with Captain Greg.

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Bigger and Better

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: June 20, 2011

The king run this year has been good for numbers and now the size seems to be building, too. On Sunday the Kent Thomazin brought in a 36 pound king and the rest of his party – Don Gillis, Rick Rekdal, and Randy Rundhaug – landed fish up to to 30 pounds. Monday delivered a catch of fish of nearly equal size for this group. The other boats in our fleet have consistently limited on kings and halibut. Captain David Gross brought in 10 silvers with the Glen Burns party on Monday. The silvers have yet to become fully established but catches of a half dozen to nearly a dozen make for a great bonus at a time of year when silvers aren’t expected. The weather blew up a little from the south on Monday, but nothing serious and the forecast call for things to lay down again by Tuesday morning. In short, fishing is good, the weather is good, and we can’t think of much that’s better than that.

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Calm Seas Continue

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: June 17, 2011

Among other things, the first month of our 2011 season be remembered unbelievably calm seas. Day in and day out the ocean is nearly flat. Today we saw a very widely spaced ground swell, but otherwise it was glass. The AU fleet worked a little harder than usual to locate kings, but the efforts paid with limits all around. The trip to the offshore grounds was easy and limits of halibut were also the rule. Pinks, silvers and chums added to mix, although all three seemed less abundant today than yesterday when the two boats in the Tim Thompson parts brought in 19 silvers total – very unusual and welcome in mid-June. The salmon continue to be a bit more mobile this year than in recent memory. Today’s hotspot has no guarantee of being tomorrow’s. Still, with a bit of effort and communication, we solve the puzzle each day.

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Calm and Shallow

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: June 15, 2011

Fishing lit up in for all the AU boats on Monday with limits of kings quickly followed by limits of halibut. One of the king locations was protected, calm, shallow and particularly beautiful. The Wong party – Ed, Gary, and Brad Wong plus Jim Kraft had a spectucular day of catching and releasing kings using circle hooks and Berkley Gulp sandeels much of the time instead of herring. This set up minimizes the chances of gut or gill hooking a king. Over the course of the day and many hookups, we take the mainly the fish that are deeply hooked. Once that adds up to one king per angler, we’re done. The action continued early on Tuesday morning, but something pulled the plug and the kings did a disappearing act by 9 AM. The job today is to find out where they went. The ocean remains remarklably calm, as it has been through much of this season.

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June Grandslam

By Captain Tom Ohaus | Published: June 13, 2011

An explosive krill bloom in the waters off Sitka has brought an unusual mix of salmon for the second week of June. On June 11, Captain David Gross fishing with Doyne Bohannon, John Austin, Jeff Fossum, and Walt Seymour brought in a catch more common in mid-July: a limit of kings, halibut, and rockfish along with 17 silvers, plus chum and pink salmon. If they could have added a sockeye, they’d have had a salmon grandslam. The 17 silvers was more than our other boats found, but everyone has been bringing in king and halibut limits and finding at least a few silvers. Does this herald an early beginning to the silver run? Are they here to stay? The next week should tell the story. We had fits and starts to the silver run last year, but nothing like 17 in one day in the second week of June. Stay tuned.

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