2019: The Year in Review
With the king fishing picking up the last few days, Tom and Colleen Blissenbach of Woodbury, MN experienced better fishing with each day of their trip. They started every day of their trip anchored at The Cape in search of kings. Most of the Sitka charter fleet had the same idea. The gravel area was crowded with anchored mooching boats and trollers maneuvering their down-rigging gear through and around the crowd to find the fish.
Captain Ryan said that it wasn’t a fast bite – every boat waited their turn for a school to swim under their boat. Once you got your turn, you usually got a few opportunities. It was unusual to catch a salmon without seeing the school on the screen. The group got their limit each day with an average size approaching 20 pounds. Colleen caught the largest king of the trip on day two – a 25-pounder.
After each angler filled their limit, they switched from a cut plug herring to something more appetizing to halibut. The bite wasn’t as fast as usual, but the halibut came in and the group got their limit each day.
After the group filled their limit, it was an easy decision to leave for calmer water where they caught limits of black rockfish, enjoyed the scenery, or had lunch. The weather was cloudy and cool past Sitka Point, but once they passed the eastern side of St. Lazaria, it was sunny clear skies and calm water.
Tom and Colleen fished for three days, but their stay in Sitka isn’t over! They plan to extend their stay through the weekend. They’ve never been to Sitka, so they wanted to not only experience the amazing fishing, but also spend some time hiking, sight-seeing, and shopping before they left. If you’ve never extended your stay to see more of Sitka, you should learn about what you can do in Sitka when you’re not fishing.
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Tom is my manager and said he had a great time. Being from Mahnomen, I need to get up there sometime. Tom had great things to say about all of you. Even found out that Ken was my hight school football coach…………wait, who wasn’t he football coach for.
That’s right, Brad! I told Tom about Sitka and AU at the MPLS Sportshow and it was great to him and Colleen take advantage of everything Sitka has to offer – great trip for them. You do need to get up here. There are a lot of Minnesota connections. I’ll pass along the message to Ken!