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

[David Hall]

Awesome you should be able to sleep well on the flight home.
Great pile of fish.

[Dominick]

Wow, with all those fish you will be in salmon collar heaven.  I am enjoying your trip though I'm out of the weather.  I am glad you are having a good time.  Dominick

[Shark Hunter]

Thanks for taking us along Steve-O.
I wish I can get my hands on some of those Dungeness.
I think they are the best eating of all Crabs.
Glad you slayed them. Someone has to do it.

[ChileRelleno]

Fantastic trip and pics, thanks a lot for sharing it with us.

[Bill B]

Thanks for sharing brother, have a safe trip home....Bill

[Steve-O]

So Day 5 started just like the others...Up and At'em at zero dark thirty. Only this time I slept in a half hour and moved a little more leisurely. I only need 3 fish to finish out the third fish box and 3 is too easy.

But I still felt the need to make a good showing for my Idaho friends who were arriving at the river early each day to occupy a prime fishing spot. They would have shamed me with good natured ribbing if I walked in without my headlamp on. So 545am it was.

15 minutes later the bite was on. Less than an hour later, i was done. However, I did release a few small or dark fish and kept 4 total. If O went overweight, I planned on donating a few fillets to the lodge family ...which ending up the case.

Got the fish on ice and processed with plans to meet the guys at Papa's Pizza for dinner at 6. Which left me a good portion of the day open for anything.

Packing and prepping for departure was the word. So everything wet went to the dryer room and all my gear was properly stowed for next year or packed into the duffel.

Well almost. There was daylight and time to fish off the dock!  I had crab and chunky clam chowder with sautéed salmon crumbled in and went out in the lodge's rain gear to jig a while.

Immediately, got into fish. Cod, sculpin, sole plus a couple Copper Rockfish were obliging to my self made slow fall jigs. One after another. Rarely if ever was there a fail to hook up.

Got my jig fix in and cleaned up for dinner. After stuffing ourselves with pies we all indulged in ice cream and said our goodbyes til next year.

Finished packing and to make it short...flew home to family safely the next day.

Now back at the office I'm buried with work and playing catch up. Yuck.

[Steve-O]

Some thoughts about this trip.

I nearly met my goal of 500 photos. Somewhere in near 400 pics plus videos.

Didn't do any fish printing after the one Dungeness crab attempt. I knew from experience that it takes a dedicated, focused, fresh mind and body to achieve any decent results. So I packed that project up and stuck with the fishing and crabbing.

So of the 16 item Alaska Trip Wish List I checked off 13. Did not get around the bay to the kelp beds to fish, nor harvest a shark- but caught and released 8 so that was good enough. And didn't pull any fish prints.

All in all a smashing variety filled successful trip and already calendared for next year.

We had fresh Coho and Dungies for dinner last night ..woooohoooo! Big hit with the family.

One special portion for me was prepared with a tiny pinch of nutmeg under a bed of pickled ginger covered with a 1/8" thin sliceof fresh cut pineapple and smothered with General Tsao sauce, then grilled to perfection.  So good I had to share it. Yummy!  The rest was teriyaki marinated and butter with the crab.

[Steve-O]

Pics...


How a trophy halibut is taxidermied.....just the tail.

Fish fins.

Cod with size 11 boot.

[Steve-O]

Mo pics....

[Steve-O]

3 fish boxes and me ... safe in SLC.


I can hardly wait until next year!

[sdlehr]

Well done Steve! I really enjoyed - and highly recommend - clicking on each photo one at a time and visiting close-up with a few species I've not seen first hand. Thanks!

Sid

[David Hall]

thats what I call getting the most out of your vacation Steve.  Awesome photos especially like those cloeups.
thanks for the ride along.
Dave

[Steve-O]

Well done Steve! I really enjoyed - and highly recommend - clicking on each photo one at a time and visiting close-up with a few species I've not seen first hand. Thanks!

Sid

hey Sid,

thanks for that plug... one of the reasons I make a goal for 500 pics is to get those close ups.. The color patterns of the Pacific Northwest species are fascinating to me.

Lots more where they came from.  The Eye of the Blackbelly EelPout is iridescent and the Irish Lord eye has some neat neon green activity.

China Rockfish is just odd. Black with a yellow slash.

here's a blurb on them.

Pigment (color) Cells

The many pretty colors and patterns seen in fish are produced by cells in the Dermis. The cells are named for the pigment they contain.

Melanophores - Brownish-Black pigment called Melanin.

Erythrophores- Red pigment.

Xanthophores -Yellow pigment.

Iridophores Contain crystals which refract and reflect light, given many fish their metallic look.

Fish can change color from one moment to the next. This is caused by the movement of Melanin grains within each cell. When dispersed, they Absorb more light and the area of the fish darkens. when tightened the fish goes pale.

[steelfish]

great pictures and walk-through of that part of alaska

I saw you were using a low profile reel on your shore fishing session, which reel was it?
also another reel I could recognize on your list jigging day.

saludos

[Dominick]

Steve glad you are home safe and elated by a wonderful adventure. Dominick