Question (often asked): “What do you do in the offseason?” Answer: We prepare for the next season. Over the course of the winter our boats make trips to the mechanic to fix anything that concerns us and to replace parts we know, based on experience and keeping a good hour log, have the potential…
Alaska Department of Fish and Game released King Salmon Regulations for 2018. King Salmon Sport Fishing Regulations For Southeast Alaska including Sitka include; Daily Bag Limit: One king salmon greater than 28 inches Annual harvest limits: April 5 through June 30, the annual limit is three king salmon 28 inches or greater in length; From July 1…
Does low king abundance equate to bad fishing for kings? In a word – no. We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, the predictions of abundance are the best thing we have for properly regulating the catch, but they don’t always predict the quality of the fishing. We’ve seen great action in years…
High Altitude View Bad News: A two to three-year episode of warm water and low ocean productivity has resulted in lower numbers of chinook (king) salmon coastwide. Southeast Alaska’s king salmon annual limit is derived in most years by the Abundance Index (AI). The AI is a complex calculation that uses all kinds of…
Observations on Clothes and Climate on the North Pacific: Packing for your fishing trip to Sitka and wondering what to bring? Here are a few observations and suggestions based on 30 years of guiding on the North Pacific. The temperature tells only part of the story. Yes, 58 or 60 degrees doesn’t sound that cold,…
For all of us at Angling Unlimited, May can’t come soon enough. Long bright spring days replace long dark winter nights. The fishing shifts into gear with an exciting combination of king salmon, halibut, lingcod, and rockfish. The captains and crew are fresh and eager to do what we love doing – taking our guests…
Greek word baros which means pressure. Trauma is the Greek word for “wound”. In our fishing in Alaska, the principle group of fish that barotrauma applies to are rockfish which have a gas filled swim bladder. This gases in the swim bladder are slowly extracted from the blood stream. The purpose of the swim bladder is…
In 2013 we enjoyed an unprecedented stretch of warm sunny days during mid-summer in Southeast Alaska. Fishing in t-shirts at 8 AM is not common on the North Pacific, but it was in 2013. We also had a spectacular summer of fishing. The initial meteorological description was the “ridiculously resilient ridge” (RRR), a large…
The Halibut regulations for 2018 are set: Daily Limit: One per angler Size: Under 38 inches or over 80 inches No annual limit Halibut fishing has been on a steady upswing for nearly a decade off Sitka. That’s why the recommendation to significantly decrease the harvest for 2018 from the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC)…
Can a fish make a person laugh? Yes. I’ve seen it countless times, whether it’s casting streamer flies or dropping jigs next to a kelp bed. The laughter breaks out as dozens of black rockfish blast out from their cover, sometimes all the way to the surface, to attack lures or flies. As more and…