Speaking of Cod....

[Steve-O]

here's a couple short clips from my Alaska trip last fall. We targeted Coho (silvers) and scored.  One day after processing the fish on the dock I wondered what besides the GIANT Sunstar starfish were down there eating the scraps and fish carcasses. Found out in short order. Pacific Cod. A whole school of them. In about an hour or less I had 17 on the cleaning table and darkness was falling so I quit fishing and started cleaning.  Going back up there in about 30 days....oh YEAH!


   

[alantani]

looks like fun!

[Steve-O]

Oh it was!  they were right under my feet in 30 feet of water. Drop a jig tipped with a tiny piece of salmon fin and hold on. The rod would dip to the water and go under the dock.

We had wanted to charter a boat for halibut ~$250 each....but after these "freebies"?  we don't need no stinkin' charter boat!  Most captains had already pulled their boats anyway.

The next day I got my partners down to join the massacre...I mean fishing.....they only got 6 between them. I took home a box of salmon and my second box was all white meat.


Even managed a couple of rock fish---both Coppers but only kept one - the limit - for non-res anglers.

When we got to Ketchikan and spoke with Ray Troll, a friend and noted fish artist, who asked for pics of my fishing escapades. He nearly flipped at the Cabezon we were throwing back...thinking we had common big head sculpins.  Going to catch those this time and eat 'em.

[Joel.B]

Mother of cod

that looks like a blast on that light gear

fish-n-chips, dark beer, tartar sauce.......

[akfish]

I know they are good to eat, but they are also the best halibut bait you can get. If you are halibut fishing and get into cod, you know the halibut are around. Just take a cod, filet it and use the whole side for bait. Then your really need to hold on. BTW: The limit on Copper Rockfish is a bit more liberal. In most areas non residents can catch either two or three non pelagic rockfish per day; this includes Copper Rockfish. The limit on yelloweye is one per season for non residents and one per day for residents.

[Steve-O]

Thanks, akfish.  The first copper was smallish, the second a little bigger. it surprised me to even catch one off the dock.  But then I also pulled up several kinds of sculpins, including this orange one, a bunch of flat fish, - soles, flounder and one baby hali. All in 30 to 125 feet when I cast out far. Plus a kelp greenling.

[akfish]

The common name for the orange sculpin is a Tammy Faye -- because she wore so much makeup and wasn't especially attractive.

[ChileRelleno]

That looks like a lot of fun and some good eats!
Homemade fish-n-chips!  Yummy 

Is that the Kingfisher Lodge in Sitka?
Thats a great place, my Grandfather & I had our last fishing trip together there back in '94.
Got my Barndoor that trip, 6'6" 220#, we also hit a Royal Flush on the Salmon, catching a King, Sockeye, Silver, Pink & Chum one day.

[Bryan Young]

I love that kind of fishing...well minus the cold rain that is.

[Ron Jones]

Hay!

Cold rain never turned you into a painful lobster or gave you skin cancer. The cold rain also means there's a good chance you'll be eating those fish next to a roaring fire, nothin' wrong with the cold.

Ron

[Steve-O]

The common name for the orange sculpin is a Tammy Faye -- because she wore so much makeup and wasn't especially attractive.

That's hilarious! I am from the South and I do know who TFB is....scary very scary. Put her and Imelda Marcos with her shoe collection together and you've got some serious spine  chill.

First Tammy Faye i ever caught .

The lodge is the Kingfisher Charter and lodge  on Prince of Wales Island due south of the Sitka one. Been going to this one 14 years in a row. Last year was the first time I found out the cod were under the dock freeloading on scraps.  The lodge owner says the bay bottom in front of his lodge is a sculpin nest. 

Pulled up a nice Irish Lord,too.

Yep, the rain and cool grows big trees and big fish! The temp there are very moderate....the rain?.....not so much.....avg 12 feet a year sometimes...9-10 feet is normal.

Chille R.....awesome! On the flush.  Best I've done is 4 out 5 on the same day in the same river.  The sockeye, chum and humpies were deep into the spawn mode that late in the year and not edible at that point but it was neat to get the four. Kings are on the comeback in the freshwater...a very slow comeback. The natives on the island decimated all the king runs by catching and eating them ALL.  Great king fishery in the salt, though.