Prince of Wales Alaska Trip - Day 1,2,3,4,5 & home

[David Hall]

Looking good Steve, get some sleep you got a few more days to go.

[Alto Mare]

Great report...as expected. Go get some rest, we need to see more from your adventure.
Thanks for sharing Steve.

Sal

[coastal_dan]

Awesome read!  I'm assuming all of this is land based fishing?  Good luck these next few days.

[Steve-O]

Sleep?   I don't need no stinking sleep....

I can sleep when I get on the plane.

My circadian rhythm is so sensitive that I wake right up two hours earlier than Alaska time no matter how late I stay up. Oh well.

Heading out the door in 10.

Dan.. Yes, land based. Have not fallen off the dock yet .

There's an ocean kayak for me to use at the lodge and i've taken it out in the past.

Today weather? A solid 60... That's MPH though for the wind preceding the rain. So ya...more land based today.

I have gotten to know the terrain & waters locally and what's to fish for where.

The hot yerba mate' chai latte is done brewing ...so packing some snax and rolling.

Thanks for the well wishes. I just may take it little more relaxed today if the Coho cooperate and the weather is to nasty to be out in the open for long. 60mph tends to blow loose stuff away.

[Shark Hunter]

Good Stuff Steve-O!
Keep'em coming Brother!

[Steve-O]

Day three was a bit different and more of the same.

Fishing wise - great.  Fish 1-5 were easy and I thought I would limit in an hour. Then the bite slowed way down. Took another couple hours to get #6.

I did wade through a few jacks to keep it interesting.

The wind blew all night and the rain came in a Biblical-esque....or normal SE AK big blow style.

The ocean sported white caps on the inside waters which are usually flat. I saw a number of baby water spouts whoosh by on the ocean surface as I drove home from the river. The Jeep was buffeted as well at times.

Cleaning the fish on the dock was a rodeo. Ups and downs 3' with ocean spray and driving rain.

Got 'er done in reckless time. Seagulls were flying backwards past me.

Only took 2 pics...wahhh....never gonna reach the 500 goal although the first day I did get 90.

If the weather and sideways rain lays down, I will hit "Dogfish Dock" and have a go at them one more time .

Plan on harvesting one if they cooperate. On another AK forum, a member said they taste good if you process them them right and quickly. Bonk, bleed, slice the tail, behead it, skin it, cut off the dark meat and chill the meat quickly. I can do that.

The Idaho boys held a spot for me to join them so I will make the effort to leave by 345 ish..4 am latest and try to return the favor. Hopefully the bears are snoozing. Yes, we see them everyday within 50 yards.

Got to crash and snooze.

[Steve-O]

Couple more pics. If anyone is offended by my images showing fish blood or otherwise please let me know and I will clean it up.

[David Hall]

What a great adventure I'm getting to watch.  Almost like being there.  Please keep right on posting your pics as your able to.  I'm loving every minute of it.

[steelfish]

thanks Steve for the pics, Im enjoying everything from your pictures, I said it before but Alaska fishing trip is in my bucket list and hopefully I can make it someday

keep the pics coming even of the landscapes, lagoons, beaches, boats, people, etc

[Steve-O]

Day 4!

And I was on the road at 4. Got to the river roadside pullout and as I turn in to park I see a great big black ball of fur and light brown foot pads bolt from my very parking spot. He or she boogied right across the road in to the woods.
My estimate was around 350# of black bruin.

My plan was to arrive ahead of the Idaho boys and let them know they overslept.

Well in about 20 mins two Ram pickups pull to a stop so I felt safe enough to leave the vehicle.

I'm not worried about out running an bear we may encounter on the trail to the river...I only need to worry about out running one of the guys.

We all trouped in together with me in the lead. I made a headlamp trail slogging video so my family can see what it's like to hike in during darkness.

Made another video exiting with a limit of Silvers later in the daylight.

Only took an hour to limit and everyone on the river was into good fish.

Went back over to the Dogfish Dock to try for a harvest of one.  One and a half hours later I left to go clean and freeze my fish. They have been on top of ice since then.

No Shark...bummer.

Got the fish in the deep freeze took a short break to allow high tide to push back in thinking the dogfish cruise in on the incoming flow.

Went back for 2 more hours. Got 3 Dungeness crabs and again no sharkies showed.

I'll try one more time after getting a limit of Silvers.

For dinner tonight I had Coho backbone shavings sautéed in Soy, malt vinegar and Italian dressing after marinating them in the same concoction for 2 hours.

Added a set of crab legs and a side of Nongshim udon style noodles...my new fav ramen.

And a Diet Coke on ice. Deeeee- licioso!

Only thing missing were my rosewood chopstix.

Gotta go assemble some fish boxes and sort the booty for evenly weighing boxes.


Picture time!

Saw a triple rainbow while sharking...first time seeing three at once. Doubles aren't that rare but this was a first for me.

What 58 # of Silver looks like.

Red Rock says, " watch it sucka! I know how to use these mits!"

Dinner time! Salmon, Dungeness and Udon noodles...I'm living large!

The food and lack of sleep is causing a crash to all systems...duuuuhhh...got the yawns and nods.

PS..and boy what a mess of zoned out typos I've made...went back and fixed some.

[Steve-O]

Here's an attempt to show the triple rainbow through my polarized shades.

And some more fish fun and crab fanatics.

[Steve-O]

HOLY CRAB!!!  He's bigger than my plate! The plate is 10.5 " diameter.

This is the big boy for the trip at least 7" across the shell. Min legal for non res. in SE AK is 6.5" males only, 3 each day. Got three more today and will do some gyotaku prints of this one . Haven't made any time for pulling fish prints, yet and had plans in the agenda sheet to do a few.  Hard to get pictures in the heat of the action as well. These borrowed images are what I'm aiming for. Just need to do it.

In the pot...."hey, yo!, excuse me, close the lid, dude, I'm cooking something up in here!"

Little does he know what's cooking.

[Steve-O]

Some fish from today.

The self carved NW coast Haida style Seal Club fish bonker is 18" long, solid oak and like the real life harbor seal does....this one, too, kills salmon.

Plus you can see my Iki Jime tool for brain spiking the fish after bonking it and cutting the gills.

My 6 were 30", 28, 27, 26, and two @ 25".

Weights were 11.5, down to 8#.

A pic of what a Salmon massacre looks like. The Idaho boys are fish killers.

[Steve-O]

Just finished making up and packing two fish boxes and a partial third box.

2 @ 49#, the partial which contains some collars, and all the Dungeness I did not eat..maybe 8#.. Has room for 3 fish tomorrow.  Or maybe a spiny dogfish. Each set of fillets avg 5# per fish.

[Steve-O]

The plant is Devil's Club...known to cure cancer here on Prince of Wales.

I have some DC hand balm and it sure heals up line cuts and "fish fingers" quickly.

You don' want to run into it with bare skin though.  Very prickly and leaves are like nettle on steroids.

Day 5 begins. Only need 3 today to max out fish box 3 of 3.  We'll how many cast and minutes that takes.

I may not always limit out on Salmon, but when I do, I do it with Dew, Diet Mt. Dew.

Stay fishy my friends!