Our 2026 Bean Bag Champions – Captain Jack McNamee and deckhand Jason Shindelar
Happy 250th to the USA
AU and the town of Sitka celebrated the 250th Anniversary of the USA in fine style. Downtown Sitka featured food trucks and booths with fun games for kids and all kinds of eats. The parade, including a Coast Guard fly over, might be the greatest small town Independence Day parade in America. Not because it’s so fancy – it’s delightfully down to earth with homemade floats, people driving their favorite vintage cars, a raucous walking dance from the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, Fire trucks, Coast Guard people marching, candy pitched to the kids lining the streets, and banana tossing from the local supermarket. This year the fireworks went off at 11:30 PM (we have to wait for it to get dark) on July 5 – a day late due to a shortage of fireworks experts in SE Alaska.
If you’d enjoy a small town celebration of America, consider fishing with us over July 4 next year. Fish three days, then stay for the parade and booths. It’s a great time to fish and a heartwarming honoring of the nation’s birthday.
AU had our own celebration with a potluck at our Pavilion featuring burgers, brats, smoked salmon, sushi, brownies and much more. A highly competitive bean bag tournament broke out with Jack McNamee and Jason Shindelar claiming the title. Next came a pie eating contest won by Adam Richards. At one point our office manager Bella dropped to the ground eating a section of pie that fell off the table. She’s very competitive yet didn’t win despite her extreme effort.
Adam Richards – Pie Eating Champion
As for the fishing – things haven’t changed much. The kings continue to do the peekaboo show. If you’re in the right place at the right time, you’ll catch them fast, but the biting periods are short. If you miss the magic, you might scratch out anything from one or two to a limit over with a long effort. We haven’t seen the consistent king action we’re accustomed to this year. Coho (silvers) have remained elusive, but the timing is right for the numbers to build.
Halibut fishing remains solid and limits come quite fast. Our staff and visiting families got out on the water and landed a few beautiful GAF size halibut – a 130 pounder caught by Captain Tom’s daughter Hanne and a 65 pounder caught by AU hostess Breanna Kurowski.
Hanne and her 130 lb halibut
Breanna and her 65 lb halibut
Lingcod closed on June 30 while yelloweye rockfish opened for the first time in years on July 1. The black rockfish (sea bass) continue to provide a hot time. Well offshore, in depths from 1100 to 1300 feet, we’ve seen decent catches of blackcod when the weather permits and our guests choose to put in the time.
As for the weather – the pattern hasn’t changed from cool, grey, with drizzle the dominant feature. It’s a great escape from the sweltering heat in much of the lower 48. The seas haven’t been flat calm but we’ve been able to fish the ocean without a problem.