Category Archives: The Captain’s Blog

John Vinson and Gary Hayden with Capt. Chuck and their late July Kings

Silver limits were the rule yesterday for the AU fleet and big kings returned to the picture, too. Gary Hayden, fishing with Captain Chuck McNamee, hooked a 42 pounder the biggest in a limit of kings that included a 27 and a 29 pounder. A 38 pound king was landed by Tim Armstrong on Captain Ryan Refshaw’s boat. More kings came in on all our boats on Tuesday. Late July is one of the best times of the year for big kings and this new shot of fish is welcome, but not unexpected.

Magdalena Lee with some silver action

Excellent action with big silvers dominated the show today. Most of the boats reached near limits with silvers including the big silver of the day – a 16 pounder – caught by Magdalena Lee. A few kings were sprinkled in with the action, but not nearly as many as is typical of this time of the year. We expect another shot of kings any day as there is lots of bait fish in all the usual locations and we are not close to the normal ending time of the run. Halibut action was good for the boats that tried on the offshore grounds. The seas settled down from the Friday storm and the coming week looks calm with light winds.

Sam Heller, Gail Petersen, Johannas Heller, Ernie Petersen, and Trevor Petersen

A storm blew threw on Friday making fishing difficult, wet, and rough. Despite the bad weather, some good fish were landed including a 35 pound king by Ernie Peterson’s grandson Trevor. Ernie has fished with AU for more than a decade. Was the fishing great? No, but the day proved that even under the toughest conditions, the possibility of a good fish awaits in Sitka. The silver lining in the dark clouds came on Saturday. Despite a rough ocean, limits of silvers with a few kings sprinkled in were taken by a number of AU’s boats including the Gary Smith group, KLB Construction and Ernie Peterson’s family. The silvers were big – up to 15 pounds with lots of them over 10 pounds. Ernie’s family then headed out on the rough ocean and caught a limit of halibut including a 105 pounder with Captain David Gross. Forecast for the next five days is much improved and we’re hoping the silvers are here to stay.

Drew Johnston with a nice July King salmon

Mid-week saw limits or near limits of silvers aboard many of the boats in the AU fleet. The only inhibiting factor was some rougher weather on Wednesday, which gave way to much less wind and progressively better seas on Thursday and Friday. The kings were hit or miss on Wednesday and Thursday, some boats got plenty, others got few. The Johnston party, fishing with yours truly brought in 20 silvers, one chum, four pinks, and a king on Thursday. We went out Friday expecting easy silvers and a search for kings. We got the oppositie with 7 kings to the boat by 8:30 AM, including a wild triple header with the Johnston sons, Matt (13), Drew (17) and Alex (20). We only found three silvers. After the king action, we headed offshore and boated a limit of halibut up to 45 pounds. Such is the nature of mid-July – a wonderful mix of king, silver, chum, and pink salmon along with good halibut fishing. Which fish will be most abundant on any given day can only be found out one way. Go fishing.

Jim Cain, Deckhand Matt and Chuck Foster with their halibut catch, fishing with Capt. Chuck

After a rough weather and slow fishing day yesterday, it was great to see the skies turn blue and the sun return.  There is still a fairly large swell on the ocean, but it is widely spaced.  Despite slower fishing these past few days, there have been a few “lucky dogs” in the group.  Chuck Foster had a great day today landing a personal best 110 pound halibut, and later concluded his day by catching a 30 pound King salmon.  Jim Cain also had great success on the hally grounds and landed a 120 pounder, despite attempting to bring a banana onboard this morning.  Thankfully Capt. Ryan spotted the nana and put the stop to that idea.  Captain Phil brought in a beautiful King salmon that tipped the scales at 42 pounds.  Matt Cain battled a salmon shark for about 15 minutes before it broke free.  There were some silvers today, but overall the fishing is slower than normal for this time of year.  Chris Weathers out-fished the rest of his group in the dog fish catagory.  Great job Chris!  Tomorrow is a new day, and I can hardly wait to get back out there to see the excitement!

Captain Chuck

Capt. Chuck, Ed Loranger, and Tim Timidaiski - what a day for halibut!

James “Tim” Timidaiski, fishing with Captain Chuck McNamee landed a halibut the weighed exactly twice Tim’s age today. Tim, a very fit 84 and a former fighter pilot in the navy, landed a whopper 168 pounder. A half hour earlier, Tim’s fishing partner, Ed Loranger, who has fished with Angling Unlimited for 21 years, caught an octopus and one of the tentacles went down for bait. The halibut, the biggest of captain Chuck’s season, couldn’t resist. Ed Loranger also landed a 60 pound halibut.

Good news also came in the form of 15 silvers landed today on Captain Ryan Refshaw’s boat by the Paul Okerlund party. This is the best silver catch so far and hopefully means the run is coming on shore.

Jeff Sparks, Dan Pickett, and Scott Harr with their halibut

 Captain Chris Weiland led Dan Pickett, Scott Harr, and Jeff Sparks to a halibut trifecta today. After an unproductive hour soaking for halibut, Chris made a minor adjustment in anchor position. It paid off with three halibut in less than a half hour. The fish weighed 60, 100, and 150 pounds. The group also located a few silvers, which we hope are the vanguard of the run. Near shore the ocean was foggy much of the day, but on the hallibut grounds the sun shone brightly and the Fairweather Range – more than 100 miles away – were in sight. It looks like the recent rainy stretch has come to an end.

The view toward the lower 48 from Alaska occassionally takes on a surreal quality. On TV people are sweltering in the bleachers, crowding the beaches, caught in traffic, enduring heat warnings. In Sitka this Independence Day, we saw 55 degree rain, which is arguably better than 100 degrees and 95% humidity. As for fishing, the great king season of 2010 continued with the AU fleet finding limits of bright kings in the 20 to 30 pound range. So, while the rest of the country baked, we donned the raingear, the layers of fleece and successfully pursued one of the great sportfish on the planet.

Tom Tate and his 40 lb King

Tom Tate has witnessed many great days and great catches over the many years that he has fished with his family in Sitka with Angling Unlimited.  Tom’s father-in-law Roy Tuschhoff landed a 50# king about 10 years ago.  Tom’s son Hunter Tate landed a 40# King near Sinitsin about 6 years ago.  Brother-in-law Mark Tuschhoff landed a halibut weighing in at 205# 4 years ago, and a 20 pound Silver just last August!  This year it was Tom’s turn to bring home the bragging rights.  After a busy morning landing several King salmon, the bite was shut off rather suddenly as a pod of five or six Orcas cruised near the boat.  I was confident that if we hung in there long enough, the bite would turn back on.  After nearly 80 minutes of absolutely nothing happening, I was begining to wonder why I hadn’t pulled achor and moved on 80 minutes earlier!  Then Tom quietly gets a bite while reeling up, hooks the fish, and the fight is on.  It became obvious from the start that we were in for a heavy weight battle.  Tom fought the King perfectly, deckhand Matt did a great job with the net, and when the fish hit the deck, all doubts about leaving earlier went out the window.  It was a beautiful 40# King Salmon.  Great job  Tom!  As always, another great trip.   

Captain Chuck

The sun shines again

After a couple weeks of cool drizzle, brilliant sunshine returned to Southeast Alaska and fishing was fabulous for kings and halibut. Sunday began with the AU fleet finding abundant kings amidst a steady east wind that blew the ocean flat. By mid-morning the boats were offshore working on halibut limits on a calm ocean with light winds and bright sun. We were down to t-shirts by 11 AM and the Fairweather Range, mountains over 100 miles north were visible for first time in weeks. All in all, a near perfect day for weather and fishing.