Back to Alaska! Updated as the week progresses with pics!

Started by Steve-O, September 12, 2014, 05:01:09 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Steve-O

It's that time again!  ;D

Headed back up to my home away from home this weekend - destination Prince of Wales Island, Craig, Alaska.

I will be targeting the late summer/early fall return of Coho in freshwater and salt. Most of the week I go for getting a limit of 6 silvers each day and then spend the balance of the day jigging rockfish and cod off the dock and roadside cliffs in the salt water.

This year I hope to catch all my salmon from the ocean from shore. It depends if they've all moved to the rivers yet or not.

Will try to get online during the week with a report. If not, then after I return.

Aloha!

Steve-o the Salmon Slayer







Shark Hunter

Life is Good!

Dominick

Wishing you nothing but the best of what Alaska has to offer.  Dominick
Leave the gun.  Take the cannolis.

There are two things I don't like about fishing.  Getting up early in the morning and boats.  The rest of it is fun.

Alto Mare

Quote from: Dominick on September 12, 2014, 06:12:21 PM
Wishing you nothing but the best of what Alaska has to offer.  Dominick
Same here Steve.
Always looking forward to your annual report...be safe. ;)               
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

Steve-O

Thanks Guys!  This is the fishing I really look forward to each year. My partners cancelled again, but I had already pre-booked months ago knowing this would happen like last year.

Hoping to turn a bunch of these....




Into a bunch of these...




But of course all the thrill of fishing, catching and just being there to go with it. ;D

the rockfish ninja

That last pic makes me hungry, I'm gonna go thaw out my last rockfish. ;D
Deadly Sebastes assassin.

wallacewt

cold water fish makes the mouth water
good stuff

gstours

Hey Steevo: you are so lucky to fish in alaska, Ive heard they have some good fishing up there!!!!!! Those coho are great fighters too from what I remember.  Send more photos when your done and rested up.     gst.

handi2

That's one place I will go to before I die..!!
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

Steve-O

Day 1 - Almost full report. No pics.....WHAT.!?!?  They're coming tomorrw.

Sunny and warm- should be cooler and rainy. Sunny equals tough fishing.

The fishing -  uhhh.....I'm in Alaska.....fishing.... Sorry.... Got to it bright..ummm... Make that dark and early.
Tried the ocean first D-e-d , dead. Not rollers, jumpers, nothing. Gave it 30 minutes. Nada.

Went to a nearby bay...2 jacks, 4 small sculpin, 1 missed coho. Headed to the river. No parking. Low water. One buzzillion Humpies.  You can guess how this is going....but wait! There is a pot of silver at the end of this rainbow. Plenty of silvers in the river, lots of anglers. Lots more empty stringers. I get one after releasing several foul hooked beauties and half a buzillion foul hooked humpies. Not even a single hook could evade them. The guy next to me gets his limit in 3 hours. I ask how he did it. He shows me Mikes Herring oil. I mention the regs of unbaited unscented artificial only.

My left shoulder and arm are turning to Jello from the endless sideways dredging of 6 pound Humpies. I call it good and decide to catch the low tide at noon in the bay.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Four big Chromers under an hour. yeeeeeHaaaaaaa! All on a Mepps pink bodied Rainbow trout bladed spinner. Bonked , bled and iced those pretties and call it good until later.

Got them cleaned bagged and frozen. Then hit  the dock for some jigging.

Oh my Cod! One big Pacific Cod after another. At 20 something I lost count. Somewhere in there I put on one of Saltydog's jigs that Dominick and I did a trade on. Nailed them. All this with a little salmon belly tip on the hooks. Later no bait and still killed them. All the while trying to get my taste test great sculpin or some rockfish. Nothing doing the Cod dominated everything down there.

At some point a big spinning Cod unwinds my split ring and dumps the lead jig off right at the surface. arrrghhh! Did not risk the other one.

So for my revenge I hook up a 2 oz lead jig with nothing on it. Just a bare hook. Take that, Cod. This biggiest one I've ever caught hammers it while jigging. Couldn't believe it. So I caught 10 more on the bare lead head. Last one and I go for a hail Mary hookset. SNAP!  Oh snap. My wally world jigging pole snaps clean in two. Eeek! The Pelagic Extreme reel I jig with has a big carbon disk. It's pretty much an Avet clone. Pulled out the snapped off section and rolled tape on the remainder and am good till the next snafu.

I have pics which emailed from my phone but have no cell service until I get out of the mtn shadow.

Stay tuned until tomorrow!

Dominick

Good report Steve.  I can't wait for the photos.  Dominick
Leave the gun.  Take the cannolis.

There are two things I don't like about fishing.  Getting up early in the morning and boats.  The rest of it is fun.

Steve-O

Pics coming now. I have to drive to get cell service to send the pics to my email to get them on my iPad.

First 4 Silvers. Caught on Mepps in salt bay.



P-Cod.  One of waaay too many. Nice size and pull like an AJ only smaller.



Used the Saltydog jig....



Until this one spun it off the split ring. Still don't know how. But I watched it bloop into the deep right when the Cod spun to the surface.



Mo to come!

Got another limit of silvers today. Big fish was a tubby 10 #er. More Cod while hunting rockfish. And a Sole.

The rain is coming so the fishing should get easier. The warm 67 is murder in waders and the no see-ums are collecting DNA like it's Trick or Treat. Met up with the CA buds from last year. Going to be another gourmet dinner later in the week. They went out on the salt and killed the rockfish and lings. 20# was the biggest lingcod. I will stick one of their fish pics up later. Amazing colors for fish that live in the dark.

Gotta go prep the gear for tomorrow then crash.


I just previewed the post...sorry the pics are HUGE....



MFB

No man can lose what he never had.
                                                   Isaac Walton

Shark Hunter

Thanks for Sharing Steve-O. I ordered some of those jigs from Salty. I haven't seen him around in months.
Life is Good!

Steve-O

SH - I noticed he was absent as well. I was hoping to thank him for producing these top shelf jigs. Still grumbling about losing the one.

Not much room to speak since I seem to go on walkabout from here annually. Then find my way back.

Well three more days have passed and the beat goes on. Up early, fishing hard.

Tuesday brings another limit of Coho.

Wednesday only a trio. Tuff crowd, tuff crowd.

Thursday another 6.

Got meself some serious fish bite infection in my right index finger tip. Yeow! Looks like an olive and throbs. Manning up, fishing through two days now.

Hit the dock for jigging and cranked up another dozen Cod, the odd sculpin and an Irish Lord.

My Palo Alta, CA buds went out on the salt on a boat and killed rockfish, lings and sea bass ( the black AK version). I received 12.5 # of halibut from their trip which offsets nicely the trio coho day.

Rain finally got here and the fish are pouring in, too. Wish I could stay 2 more weeks when the humpies was out and it becomes Silver heaven.

Have seen a few black bears, one a huge sow with triplets. Heard a bear fight in the nearby woods. Sounded like BIG mad cats snarling and growling.

I get so focused on the fishing i forget to pull out the camera sometimes. Tomorrow I need some shots of these Monster Humpies from Hades.

Some pics.

limit for Tuesday



Cannot get any fresher than this!




Off to good start best fish of Weds.



Tiger rockfish..about a pound.


Thursday six silvers.



Gotta go make some fish boxes so Friday evening isn't a big rush to prep for departure. Man! The week flies by compared to work. And I put in twice the hours doing this. Go figure. Time's fun when you're having flies.