Back to Alaska...again.

[Steve-O]

Heading up to Prince of Wales island in the morning for the fall Coho run.

I will be about 225 miles south of Gary aka gstours and will report in as much as I can during the week and a full report after.

These are what I'll be after. Will also be crabbing for Dungeness this trip and maybe a small shark or two if i'm lucky.

The preliminary report is they are running BIGGIE sized this year. We'll see Tuesday.

Arrrh ye ready for some fishing?

Aye, aye Cap'n!  I be ready to do some hauling!

[Bill B]

Go get'em brother.....Bill

[Dominick]

Can't wait for the report.  Go get em.  Dominick

[Alto Mare]

Go get em Stefano, lets hope your report is as good as your previous ones.
Good luck up there.


By the way, if I was that close, I would have payed Gary a visit

Sal

[David Hall]

Good weather and happy fishing for the trip.  Should be a great time, lots of pics and details.

[Steve-O]

Thanks guys.

The June trip was great however, 3 small Halibut and 6 small Kings is not a freezer filler.

Now that I know how good collars are...well, with a 30 Coho harvest limit you can imagine more than 4 collars will be going into my fish boxes.

Last fall I fished for small sharks and caught none but reeled in half a dozen Dungeness crabs on my bait.

So I will be doing some crabbing. 3 males 6.5" or bigger per day is the goal. For that I bought a Danielson crab net.

The one pictured.

Now how exactly does a 32" diameter net fit into a 15" wide duffel you might ask?

My name ain't Macgyer, but i have stayed in a Holiday Inn once.

My first thought was to squish it into an oval then un-squish upon use. Nope, not gonna work.

So now what?

Using that Geometry that I never thought I ever needed. Diameterm radius, circumference and Pi R Square...I Cut that sucker in half....hmmmm....still won't fit without becoming a hazardous weapon. So I divided the halves by half again and find that pie are still round and not square. Then added short sections of carbon fiber tubing as joiners to reassemble the net in Alaska.

It will stay at the lodge with my other gear for future trips.

For the rest of the week and my gear list.

Alaska Trip Sept 2016

9.19  - 9.25

Prince of Wales Island, AK

Fishing locations: Craig, Klawock, Point Miraballes, St. Nick Bay

Target species: coho salmon 6 per day, pacific cod, red rcok crabs, dungeness crabs, spiny dogfish sharks, rockfish

Gear: one 32" Danielson crab net ( custom Macgyver job ) hand line crab snare and hand line crab trap for crabbing.

Salmon gear: GLoomis rods, laminglass rod, HD e-glass blank self made Steveo Heaveho rod, two  Japanese jigging rods, one 11', 4 piece, travel surf rod for shore casting.

Reels : Okuma Raw 2- 40 series spinner, Okuma, Komodo LP baitcaster, Abu G inshore LPB, Omito Talos jigging reel,  Ajiking 1966 jigging reel

Waders: Repaired Patagonias, Cabela's dry fit as back ups. If you ever get a leak in your waders you can do this in lieu of finding and repairing the leak in a pinch.

Most leaks occur from the knee down so just put in your thermals or wader liners and socks, then step into a HD trash bag and tape it around the top. Then step into the waders. Voila! You're dry even with a leak. Been there done that when the booties on my Patagonias failed at the tape seams on both feet one year. Shipped them to Patagonia Reno, NV and two weeks later re-bootied, free of charge!

Simms Freestone boots with Vibram soles and carbide cleats as per no felt sole regs in Alaska because of whirling disease precautions.

Lots of self made jigs for ocean fishing. Egg loop Gamakatsus under a bobber for egg or yarn on the river. Also Some Mepps spinners, Aerojigs and pixee spoons.

The plan: hit the river at zero dark thirty each morning and harvest 6 Coho.
Bonk, bleed, iki jime and ice down asap.

Then head over to a nearby  bay to crab and shark fish until the 3 male crab limit is met and off to the lodge to process the catch. After a short break then off to the dock, or kelp beds nearby for jigging up Pacific Cod and rockfish.

Kayak fishing if the weather is nice with flat seas.

In the evenings, call home and then spend time pulling fish prints or even jigging at night.

Gyotaku printing : dungeness crabs, red rock crabs, an Irish Lord, a big male humpy, rockfish or other interesting capture. Dock or pile perch.

Photograph : the goal is 500 pics and videos. Keep both cameras going. Use the headstrap on the river and on the dock for crabbing, too. Maybe film doing a crab gyotaku.

Hike and rockhound as fishing permits.

And that my friends is the long winded version!!

David - you got some details!

Lots of pics...promise.

I only found out where Gary is last week and had already booked everything. Plus I have some halibut but am low on Coho fillets.

[akfish]

Yes, the cohos have been huge this year. But the numbers are way down. If you hit a nice school, all is good. It's just that those schools are few and far between in most of SE Alaska. You may be fishing a different stock, however: Up here we are allowed only 2 cohos per day when fishing in freshwater; it's 6 per day in salt water. I don't fish cohos myself because I much prefer kings and always catch enough kings for my salmon needs. I typically catch and release quite a few cohos while fishing feeder kings but this year I caught more kings than cohos...

[Alto Mare]

Steve, I was going to recommend slowly bending that net on a 4" pipe keeping it rounded, but it won't work, your duffel bag is 1" too short .

[David Hall]

Now I'm getting excited about this trip.  I'd leave the net home, buy one up there!

[Steve-O]

Steve, I was going to recommend slowly bending that net on a 4" pipe keeping it rounded, but it won't work, your duffel bag is 1" too short .

That was the math I kept running into. Net too big; duffel too small.

Buying one up there is risky. It's end of season and chances are slim on any stock on the island.

Lots of 2 to 6 # test line and plenty of 100#. Empty space in between.

My bro in law once holed his waders beyond repair and had to buy new. Only pair left besides neoprene (yuck) were 4XL stout short. Basically a parachute with legs. He bought 'em and wrapped the front, sides and back all around him and cinched them up. Looked like a character out of Alice in Wonderland. TweedleDee or the other one.

The net, in quarters, fits fine. I'll do a photo with crabs in it hopefully by Tuesday pm.

The coho return is a hatchery stocked river mixed with native stock. I have almost done the 5 species slam in this river twice. Only missing the King Salmon. No freshwater King runs left after they were decimated by the natives and islanders years back. Same for Sockeye. Any caught must be released.
But i have caught 4 species in one day by sheer luck and number of casts. Chum, Coho, Pink, and Sockeye.

All but the Coho were spawning or spawned out.