“So what are you going to do over Christmas break?” our friend Missy asked my son Jack. “I don’t know”, Jack said. “We should build an igloo on the lake” Missy suggested. The rest is history. It didn’t take long before the ideas and plans were flying around here like snowflakes in a blizzard. Ice tonges…
DetailsIf you’re looking for a crystal ball into king salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska for the upcoming season, ocean productivity in the waters off the Northwest and British Columbia is a good place to start. Cool water regimes prove much better for survival of juvenile salmon and, thankfully, that’s where the north Pacific appears headed again. All indications are…
DetailsMost charter services are already done for the season. The fishing grounds are delightfully vacant of boats and wonderfully fishy. The Earl Parrish group fishing with Captain Chuck McNamee landed 22 silvers up to 16 pounds, two kings in over 20 pounds, and a limit of halibut including a 155 pounder on September 2. They…
DetailsFishing on Sunday produced limits and near limits of the biggest silvers of the year. Average size was well over 10 pounds and a number of coho between 15 and 17 pounds hit the dock. These a big, full bodied coho that run line, jump wildly and really put on a show. Added to the…
DetailsNot much about the second half of season 2010 has been “normal”. The silvers have come and gone more than a few times. The needlefish seem to have disappeared from many of their usual haunts and a lot of our salmon fishing has taken place offshore in deeper water where a krill bloom of enormous…
DetailsThe morning of August 27 dawned sunny and flat calm morning on Cape Edgecumbe. There was a decent bite going on for big silvers with the odd king mixed in. Captain Ryan Refshaw’s boat “Skute” was participating in the action and went over a school of salmon. They got four bites and two stayed on. Captain Ryan thought both fish were kings until Jenny Olson’s came to…
DetailsLong time AU angler Roy Tuschhoff, fishing with Captain Chuck McNamee, hooked a big one on this Tuesday and after a long battle a 255 pound halibut hit the deck. His party also landed 15 silvers and a nice late season king. Jack Martin, fishing with Captain Ryan Refshaw, added a 32 pound king to…
DetailsDoug Charles, son-in-law of long time AU angler Roy Reed, got a big surprise on Sunday. After his party landed three kings and a bunch of silvers, they decided to anchor up for rockfish. Doug’s bait hit the bottom, he got a hit and the next thing he knew the fish ripped 325 feet of…
DetailsFriday saw salmon fishing begin a return to near normal for late August. Amanda Vey and her sister Kelli Conley, fishing with Captain Chuck McNamee, brought in a limit of silvers up to 17 pounds and kings in the mid-20’s. While limits weren’t quite the rule aboard all the boats, everyone landed a good number of…
DetailsWhere did the silvers go? That’s the current mystery. After excellent fishing last week, the run seems to have nearly disappeared. Recent silver scores have been very low with the only saving grace that kings still show up enough to make for good action if you’re in the right place at the right time. Also,…
DetailsSilvers made themselves somewhat scarce yesterday with most boats catching between 6 and 10. This isn’t normal for mid-August when silvers are typically very abundant. The abnormal quality of the season is added to by the number of kings around. All of the AU fleet caught king limits and released others. There is no explaining…
DetailsFishing lit up well for the AU fleet in the past three days with kings (yes, still kings in mid-August), lots of silvers and some great halibut catches. Limits and near limits of silvers were landed by Congressman Norm Dicks’ group on Thursday and Friday. Jim Nall boated a 44 pound king on Friday. Norm…
DetailsQuick limits of silvers were the rule on Sunday with the entire AU fleet getting limits by mid-morning. Brian Lemmon, fishing with Captain David Gross also landed a 140 pound halibut as their group went for a tri-fecta of limits of silvers, kings, and halibut. Monday produced a different story with silvers. While most of…
DetailsMike Vincent from Salt Lake City landed a 250 pound halibut on Saturday fishing with Captain Greg Mohs. Mike has fished all over Alaska and this fish fulfilled a decades long quest for a barn door. Fishing otherwise for the past three days has been sort of up and down. Thursday saw limits of limits…
DetailsA strong northwest wind kicked in on Monday making the seas bouncy. We’re not talking dangerous, just a short, tight, whitecaps and a bit of rolling around. On the plus side, the silvers and kings seemed to like the weather with limits of both species the rule for the AU fleet. The kings ranged from…
DetailsThe month of July ended with a strong king showing. Colin Radford, who has fished with AU for 15 years landed a 34 pound king yesterday. The Kayser family – Don, Mary, Kevin, and Lori – hooked up simultaneously over a school of kings. Captain Ryan Refshaw had his hands full conducting traffic. Silvers were a little…
DetailsLate July took prime form on Thursday with most AU boats getting limits of kings and halibut, plus plenty of big silvers. The ocean was flat, the mountains were showing below a high layer of cloud and, basically, it just doesn’t get much better. As an added treat, whales were tail slapping and feeding on…
DetailsSilver 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…
DetailsExcellent 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…
DetailsA 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…
DetailsMid-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…
DetailsAfter 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…
DetailsJames “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…
DetailsCaptain 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…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsTom 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…
DetailsAfter 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…
DetailsWith limit of kings aboard, we slipped into a lee shore behind a rocky island in search a slow drift for some black rockfish jigging. We were one black rocker shy of the limit when Trig Winquist’s rod doubled over under the weight of something clearly bigger. As first I thought he’d snagged bottom, but Trig knew…
DetailsFishing for kings, while not quite the wide open bite of last week, remains excellent with all AU boats getting limits again yesterday along with good catch and release opportunity. The fish are averaging around 20 pounds but a 31 pounder was landed yesterday. We have yet to see any really big kings, but the…
DetailsThe king run 2010 continues to provide nearly monotonous consistency – the kind we all love. Large volumes of baitfish in many of our better known locations are drawing big schools of kings for both the experienced and inexperienced angler. Most kings are running from 18 to 25 pounds. Yesterday (June 21) large schools of…
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