Alaska Trip #17 recap.

[Steve-O]

16 out of 17 trips have been to the same place each year since year 2000.

Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. The third largest US island behind Hawaii and Kodiak.

My home away from home.

Anyhoo.. A recap and pics of the trip not covered in my other post.


Well, I have been home a week and gotten back into the work thing, recovered nicely from sleep deprivation and reflected back on my AK trip - #17.

The main regret I nearly always have is not enough pictures taken and added this trip -a shortage of kayak fishing weather windows.  I could have agoal of 10,000 photos and shoot 9K of them and still feel shorted.

Fishing just gets in the way of photography .....wait a minute!  That's a good thing!

I made a schedule for the week and was prepared to stick with it.

Pretty much: get up early, fish hard, get the six coho, do iki jime on all fish kept (which I did, thanks! LL) kayak fish as weather permitted or shore fish and retain only the species allowed by law for non residents. And enjoy myself and company of fellow anglers while doing so.

And that is what I did. I even managed to hike up a stream and collect 20 pounds of various suiseki stones. Mostly green banded rhyolite and a few others for my rock collection. It was a peaceful and enjoyable hike of solitude ending with a walk in a muskeg with my camera clicking away.

Bears were viewed each day and the scenery is always lush and wild. Anywhere you go on the island is only minutes or feet away from raw wilderness.


Wolves prowl on the 3000' mountain, Sunna Hae, or sunny hay in english right behind the lodge, blacktail deer are as thick as pigeons in a city park. A multitude of bird species are ever present with the Raven and Eagle competing for top honors as the King of the sky. I myself enjoy the Raven and his magical voice.

While fishing off the dock one evening to try my hand at night fishing, I experienced the amazing bioluminescence of the Pacific when my line moved in the deep. It was truly mesmerizing to see the glow in the dark squid hoochie on my jig leaving a contrail like a jet underwater 30 feet down which could not be scene in daylight hours. The line itself appeared to me as a laser beam does when passing through smoke. The bioluminescent light show easily surpassed the catch rate. A sculpin when hooked came up in the most amazing spiral of dull blue green contrails. It was like some kind of psychedelic acid trip to watch as the cold fire of light bloomed and  trailed behind the fish like a mystical, magical smoke being exuded from the fish itself. 

Only a few sculpins were about and only when bait was added to my jigs. Otherwise the fish were snoozing. A sea lion was working a school of salmon, I suppose, between my dock and the neighbor's and after watching it come up with a fish every few minutes I thought maybe if I cast nearby I might get lucky, too? Or shoo the irritating varmint off. They are pesky buggers IMO, even though they have their place in the PNW waters. It did not seem worried about me nor my angling efforts. The humpbacks were spouting out in the darkness of the bay adding to the atmosphere of my evening. Only took 3-4 sculpins to convince to quit for the night and to retire for the next day's clarion call of "Up and At'em!" Which Would be upon me soon enough.

Next year, I will consider an August trip for a much better chance at fair weather and focus on ocean fishing from the kayak , skiff and shore. I feel the 159 total pounds of salmon and rockfish will feed the family well all winter, spring and into summer with plenty to smoke and canned or roll up into sushi!

I did get lucky on printing a nice Silver Salmon gyotaku print and made 4 of them before filleting the fish. Also got to bring home 4 soles from small to large size, intact,  for printing at my leisure. Plus, 2 whole rockfish.

All in all another fabulous Alaskan adventure into the history books with only the lack of more photos and calm winds being the two things I could have wished for more of.

Time to start planning 2016!

Here's a few more pics.

[Steve-O]

Above were a Greenling, baby cousin to the mighty Lingcod, a tan Irish Lord, and some copper rockfish.

Below...what bioluminescence looks like on beaches. I've seen it on dark nights in NC by strolling along the sand and scrub kicking it. Glowing sparks happen.

And a couple of rocks...green banded rhyolite and red pipestone...much harder than catlinite pipestone from the midwest.

[Steve-O]

Standing greenstone. Northern rock sole gyotaku print and an unfinished coho print.

[Steve-O]

The sole is 10" long and the coho is three times that.

Another Sole print, the red stone crab caught on rod and reel, and a cod on a jig.

[Steve-O]

Don't know if I showed what fish murder looked like each morning but had we been on a boat it would have been BLOODY!

These are wild Alaskan strain hatchery raised and released Coho...so it's not like we're decimating a native run.

The sockeye are protected as are the kings. They are on the recovery road as all freshwater king runs were decimated to extincttion by the island dwellers of native and non native descent in the past.

[Tightlines667]

Cool pics.  

Interesting about the pipestone.  My family's roots, and farm are in Pipestone, MN where the soft red pipestone, and the much harder Jasper are common.  I actually messed around with shaping afew pieces when I was younger, and own a couple of peace pipes made locally.  That stuff you have there is pretty cool looking.  

Thanks for the great report with lots of pictures!

[Steve-O]

Above were: a Great Sculpin on deck. (Which taste way better than they look!) Nice rockfish and cod on deck. Those were aportion of the Idaho boys' limits.

My thumb and pinkie measure the width of a sheet of paper-8.5" so I can accurately gauge a fish measurement on the water.

[Steve-O]

Cool pics.  

Interesting about the pipestone.  My family's roots, and farm are in Pipestone, MN where the soft red pipestone, and the much harder Jasper are common.  I actually messed around with shaping afew pieces when I was younger, and iwn a couple of peace pipes made locally.  That stuff you have there is pretty cool looking.  

Thanks for the great report with lots of pictures!

I have a bunch of the pipestone cut into slabs.  Way harder to carve on a scale of 3 or 4 times harder. I carve soapstone a lot and this is more like brick.

[Steve-O]

Couple of short YT videos.

One of reeling in a silver which gets gill wrapped and gives up until beached and one of the Steve-o heave ho rod in action. I cast a two pound lead weight with cut bait out maybe 30 or so yards and probably 100+ feet deep. Two nice Cod got on board. The boot is a size 12 next to the one.

[Tightlines667]

That fish didn't seem to appreciate you escorting him to his new home, despite having friends there already..lol
Looks like a few whacks with your 'persuader' settled him down though.

Cool vids.

[Dominick]

Too cool Steve-O.  Dominick

[David Hall]

You really got an eye for that photography, those night pics are no easy thing to do.
i Appreciate your efforts.