The second half of 2016 began with a different tone than the first half. The weather has been beautiful – a very consistent, flat ocean. It’s allowed us to fish wherever we please. This has been important to us, since the Cape hasn’t been as reliable as it was in May and June.

Silvers are growing into the double digit pound range, but the numbers have decreased from the flurry of limits we saw at the beginning of July. We’re also seeing a slight drop in kings, but the opportunities are still there to get limits. It’s helped to be able to drift and/or anchor at the Cape depending on how the fish are behaving each day.

Halibut continues to be on fire both at the salmon grounds and offshore. Captain Bo’s groups have had a lot of fun jigging for the flatfish in shallow water. Captain DJ’s group released the largest halibut of the season – a 76-incher, which probably weighed around 235 pounds.

Captain Cobra has been taking his groups south and fishing the Cape structures. They bounced around on the gravel flats, trying drifts and anchoring, where they’ve found kings, silvers, and a lot of pinks. All their halibut success has been offshore in deeper water. The strangest story of the year so far came from the Jensen party when Deckhand Dave found a potato in the belly of a halibut!

Captain Tom and Viking ventured north for their halibut, which was very successful and while they were there, tested the waters for salmon. It wasn’t as productive as the Cape, but they managed to pick up a few kings. During their travels north, some groups mentioned they saw a bear, deer, and a lot of humpbacks.

Check out the photos from a beautiful week in Sitka: