Time to spice things up a bit. Who is going fishing this year? New boats, gear? I've been dinking around a bit. Had a decent winter fishing for kings, and new gearing up for the herring spawn and the slaughter that will happen after the kings move back in. Feel free to post pics!

I reckon I might need a new king net. Belugas punched several holes in it last year, and now, I'm told, one of the local boys whacked a reindeer which was wearing remnants of king net inshore from our fish camp, so I'm betting the nets hanging under the fish rack might have taken a hit.

I think you need to try pulling some 6" and 7" tomic 156/158/602/603 to see if big kings like big plugs around big herring like they do elsewhere...

80 and 700 and similar can work around big herring, too...

I've got a ticket to fly up to Sitka and friday and bring the Glory home. (powertroller I'm buying) It's got no less than 200 plugs on it, many of them well chewed on. I've had some long conversations about plugs with the owner of the boat, and look forward to trying some. He has an old list on the boat of the different plug colors, and what conditions to use them in.

Just started going through the trailer hubs. I'd like to drag the boat up to north Van island this year.

Did I hear correctly that they shut you guys down for kings this year? Or just out in the ocean?

They're talking about it. The closure is based upon wild coho numbers and would affect the ocean. We're told that we should have a king season but I'm about done with this clusterpuck down here. I'll maximize my fishing opportunity elsewhere and shopping for boats down here next year. Owning a nice salt boat just ain't worth it for this state anymore The Tomic 602&632 are a couple of my favorites.

Last I saw they were looking at three options, including the "nuclear" option of shutting down the whole show.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/mar1416a/

Yeah those are the three options floating around. I hope they close it totally INCLUDING the flat nose fish eaters. Any natives found fishing other than for ceremonial should be sunk on sight. Maybe we'll get a white martyr...a modern day Billy Frank and a modern and more favorable Boldt ruling in light of casinos and the money the tribes have.

I definitely will be fishing soon, and often

I have pretty much switched from bait to Brads Superbaits for Salt water salmon fishing. Tuna fish or sardine meat
with a little herring oil. Perfect roll every time.
http://www.bsfishtales.com/sbaitc.php

If they shut down ocean salmon, tuna will be about the only fishery worth a chit down here.

I'll likely buy a toque and head north before I buy a WA license this year, ehh.

Fuggin' tribes are a sick joke. Our government completely chit the bed when it came to treaties.

Just remember, if ya don't have pics, it didn't happen.

Here is me on the Glory this winter up out of Sitka. The Glory is a 1970 wooden Power Troller. 1st boat I've ever trolled off of, so I decided to buy it to fish kings out of. Very good shape, and I'm looking forward to maintaining it. She's a fishy boat and an excellent sea boat.



I'll be bringing her down the coast from Sitka to Craig next week. Hope for a weather window as Cape Ommaney won't be much fun if it isn't. I'll try to remember to snap some pics, as it's a pretty cool trip.

That's a sweat looking old boat, Calvin!

What does she have for power?

4-71 Detroit. Same engine as most of my pards, so between us all, we should have the right spare part. (grin) It's been very well cared for and maintained. Radar is the only thing on it that's old and outdated, but it works fine. It will be on the list to replace though. It's got a new Furuno 295 w/chirp transducer I'm liking. Nobletech Catch too, with the charts that update themselves when fishing.

The fishery I'm interested in is the winter king fishery from Jan-April, or whenever it gets shut down. You need to be able to roll around in some pretty big water, so it was either wood, or get 200k in debt for steel or glass. I'm sure if things go well and the family can handle me being gone, I'll be in a big glass boat before long. You'd just hate to get into a boat tho that you can't turn off due to a crazy payments and insurance.

Love brads, lot less screwing around, more fishin.

Good looking boat Calvin. Nothing funner than catching kings on the ocean.

Here is my 27 Farallon project. New house and new(used) diesel power. Pulled a 250hp Detroit 8.2, installing a 370 hp D6. Should add 8-10 knots to the cruise speed. Windows are in, settee is built, glassing in a new galley. Moved the helm forward 18" and a lot more.

That's an awesome boat. Those farralons are great sea boats. I like the cabin design. That'll kill some fish.

I've caught some kings on Brads, but they are far from my first choice. I've spent a good chunk of change on them too. I should probably run them more.

These are working rather well, with red labels and a 7/0. http://okitackle.com/bait-heads/juan-de-fuca/jelly-fish-silver-flake/ Takes a second to pin a herring in. They are a bit on the brittle side and you'll crack a few, but they catch. If you can drill a new hole down the center of the nose, and let the flasher work the herring with no spin, it'll fish better.

They really coon the coho too, stuff em with anchovie, herring fillet, or tuna belly behind a short bus flasher.

Cool boat btw.

Anything coons the Coho when they're thick. We had a quad one day and i netted 2 fish at once. I put the 2 rods in the rod holders and had the coyote spoons dangling out of the water I went to the other side of the boat to net the other 2 fish when I heard the reels screaming that weren't fishing. As the boat rolled the spoons barely touched the waters surface but that was enough for 2 silvers to jump out and grab the spoons that were clear out of the water. I never go to the trouble and mess of using bait for silvers. Any spoons work but I usually use a coyote, kingfisher or coho killer with no flasher. The flasher goes on the ball for coho so the fight is more fun.

That's a beautiful old troller Calvin! The kind of boat that'll pay for itself quickly and not have you feeling guilty taking a day or 2 off from fishing. Having to fish hard to make the payments takes some of the fun out of it. Fishing hard to bank or invest for a rainy day is more fun.

Calvin---How heavy are your deeps? I fish with my bud that is using 50lbers for his deeps at roughly 60 fathoms.

Hope to get the boat out of storage this week,weather just doesn't want to quite break hopefully splashdown next week.
Bought a new wash down pump today.
Browns will be hungry and Kings not to far behind

When do Kings run for youse guys George? May? Nice boat, what kinda power does she have?

ya, specially brads, never used spoons in the salt, few spinners with hoochies...

60's and 70lb for deeps. 50s on the floats.

Yeah, no payments is the way to go. Paying off the house is what I'll do first with it. I'm rather handy at fishing, so hopefully it'll happen sooner than later.

Penn Yanns are like bobbers in any kind of weather. Definitely one of the most popular trolling/charter rigs on Ontario. I always wanted a Grady White

Dvdgeorge, these guys have no clue about planer boards

We always used planers when I power trolled SE in the late '70s, '80s... got pretty good at running them...

They are just a tool. My buddy gave me flack until I pulled the earliest and biggest king to ever get caught off the dock. He gained a little respect for spoons. Planer boards seem to be a dying thing though.

I remember running 14 sport fish rods off the back of a 19' boat with 3 downriggers and planer boards. You just don't see that up here

I've done the whole great lakes thing with 9 rods sticking out of a 16' boat. Easily the most inefficient way to fish on the planet. Not to mention our 1 rod rule kinda prevents that.

2 rods will outfish 4 rods with downriggers just about every single time. Trolling is about efficiency. Too much gear keeps gear out of the water.

Having a double hookup on a shallow rigger and a deep six, and having the rigger rod saw off the deep six rod before you can even think, cures a guy of running more than two rods when things aren't scratchy...

Will be needing a new trailer this year as my EZ loader is 25 yrs olds. Boat is a 22 ft glass cabin cruiser. Local dealer is trying to say a bunk trailer will work fine (on rollers now). I'm very skeptical. He carries King trailers which I think are pretty junky. Anyone run a bunk trailer for this size/wt of boat?

Bunk is the only way I roll. Just ordered a bunk trailer from Ohio. I have a 22' dual King Trailer under my 23' Pacific. King has done me well with both my Pacifics.

BTW, trailers are expensive. Seattle Craigslist had some EZ Loaders for 5k that will fit your boat. 2014s I think.

270 crusader inboard tunnel drive. The Kings run in Sept but I'll start catching them April and chase them in the thermocline throughout the summer and then in front of tributaries as they stage in Sept.

depends on conditions and water temps,clarity and depths fished. In summer I'll fish 4 riggers at staggered depths,2 wire dipsy rods and 2 copper rods. Spring I'll run 2 riggers and 4 rods off the planner boards 2 per side run back 100-150 ft

Otter boats with twin keels are the way to roll for planner boards,they pull like a mule and track well even with heavy copper off of them

This trip is a bit high end but if you want to try catching Dollies....Big Dollies check out the Wulik and the Kelly Rivers. Mid Aug spawn and fish in the 15-18 pound range all day long with a few in the 22+ range.

Shoot me a pm and I will fill you in as needed.


Link: http://www.flyfisherman.com/canada/northwest-territories/lonesome-lands-arctic-char/

I agree Calvin. I only stack my riggers when I'm prospecting. Once I find the fish I pull the top 2 and adjust my depth with 2 rods. I'll run a third shallow line off the center. I got one of my bigger fish last year off that and it always got bit when the others died.

The difference in trailer prices between the east coast and the PNW is stark. You can find better quality for cheaper in FL, but by the time you ship it up here and pay taxes/registration, it eats up most any savings.

I'm going to replace my old painted steel Calkins next year. Plan on building my own I beam trailer.

One things for sure, fishing the great lakes is a lot different than fishing SE AK for kings. I wouldn't expect to keep up should I head to the great lakes, and I wouldn't expect them to do well should they come here. So, maybe using a ton of rods is superior over there, I don't know.

Downriggers are a powerful tool, mainly because they allow you to fish an 11" flasher at a specific depth. Nothing outfishes an 11" flasher day in and day out. Other things work well, but when it comes to putting fish in the boat and making a living, it's done with flashers. I will say though that it is fun to play around with other things like spoons and naked herring.

The thing about a flasher is that it will draw salmon from a good distance. I've seen them come up 100+ feet on the sounder to strike a hoochie behind a flasher. So, when scratch fishing, I actually like less gear in the water. Less gear allows better maneuverability, and keeps you motivated to pull gear and bail to another spot should things not be working. It also keeps you motivated to cycle through gear to check for bombers, jellyfish, or kelp that might have fouled you up. Electronics are so good these days, it takes not much time at all to size up a bite and know when to get out of there. But, I look at things from a production point of view, and not really a recreational point of view.

Last year I did a few trailing lines for cohos. I'd run a full hearing behind a banana plug. It worked great. And, I cant' stand having trailing rods..(grin)

10/4 on the flashers as I catch many of my larger kings on Flasher/fly and Flasher/meat rig.

Some custom flashers I had made up



My go to Flasher and meat rig

Nice fish. Weird looking King...almost has the body shape of a triploid rainbow.

Just a staging and fatten up turning dark King

Steelhead on flasher



2 more kings on Flasher can you tell what was the hot paddle?

Nice fish George. Are those flashers made by Oki Tackle? I use hotspots or Gibbs but mostly Hotspots.

Spin Dr.'s made by Dreamweaver
Custom painted by Bobby Fuller Fingers Lakes Tackle,I pro staff for him

Interesting George. I'm not familiar with them and I always enjoy the regional variations in gear and technique

Used to see those flashers used in CO on small lakes, and to catch small rainbows... always amazed me that the trout could be 12-16 inches and the flasher about the same size and they'd still strike....

I know rost. Always hate releasing a shaker that is smaller than the spoon that hooked him

Can you tell the hot color and pattern on Lake O ?
This is just the green Mag size box

Are those all NK's George? I thought I had heard a rumor that they had gone out of business.

Nope most of those are Finger Lakes tackle spoons with a few Dreamweaver and Michigan Stingers thrown in, NK did go out of business,I still have a whole slew of their spoons

Ah ok, the shape looks similar. Real nice looking spoons. I have a few NK's also. Caught my biggest king up here in AK on one. Does Finger Lakes tackle have a website?

Sure do

http://www.fingerlakestackle.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FingerLakesTackleCo/photos

Good posts guys. I'll post some pictures of my gear once I get a little more time. Had tickets to go up and grab my troller for right now, but forgot it was Easter weekend. Snuck up on me. Changed my tickets to Monday. I'll snap a few pics of the trip down. About 100 miles of outside running. Weather looks to be spectacular.

You guys and your big metal hardware have no ideal how gut-reaching and fun a 30 pounder can be in a river.....when you've caught it on a 1/8 oz Roostertail and 6 pound line. (The five-piece pack rod might have added to the 'fun'. )

Yeah, lousy production rig I know.

Klik, I used to fish the salmon river in Pulaski NY with a spinning reel loaded with 8lb maxima on a 9ft 9wt fly rod. Hooked lots of fish but didn't land very many! Was definitely fun though.

Plenty of river fishing to be had here also

My wife have been able to fish a few times this winter on the Copper. I usually have my JD 450 in this area instead of a jetboat. We will fish steady now until 4-10 when it closes for the spawn. I'm not that fat,lots of gloves in my pockets!

Gloves? Sure Jim! Seriously looking good Jim. I need to come out and visit ya'll soon.

Nice fish! Flashers are interesting, never seen anybody run anything like em round here... we run these, www.shortbusflashers.com

I'm planning to order up some of the Swarm Flashers for this season. I've been hearing all sort of rave reviews from the Homer guys.

http://www.wigglefin.com/Swarm_Salmon_flashers.html

I'm a big fan of the swarm...

Just ordered some, thanks for the link..

Got in last night at 11pm. 150 miles down the outside. 10-12ft seas, with 15ft in a few spots. Always amazed at the stuff I get to see. Glad to be home with the family again. Things looked very fishy coming down the coast. Got her tied up in her new home. Things are about to get VERY bloody.

Glad you got her home and hope you knock I'm dead

Lookin' good. You going to fish it until the tourists show up?

How's the Almar coming along?

Almar is doing good. Goes into the welder on April 20th. Trailer is here. Getting a custom stripe put on by coho designs. Then either 150 Yamis or mercs. Might wait until the end of the summer to put engines on, or next springs. Tax situation dictates when I buy engines.



I'll troll May, then Charter June/July/Aug. Troll kings July 1-4 too. Then Troll Sept. Busy summer coming up. By the time it's all said and done, their be alot more done than said, but might hang frequent pics here..(grin)

Painting weather coming up. I'll make he Glory shine.

Pic of the Glory when I got her to town a few days ago. She'll really shine after this stretch of nice weather. Need to get the window trim done, as well as the hull and other brightwork.

Way cool watching all the progress! Glad you got her home safe and sound.

I put the money away for the Glory a few years ago. Thought the owner was going to retire sooner. Waited and waited, and now finally the boat is down in the harbor. Glad I didn't spend the money! Lord knows I was tempted. Well worth the wait.

If you like/love trolling for salmon, commercial power trolling takes it to a completely different level. That boat has 8k worth of electronics and programs on it. Takes the stuff on sport boats to a whole new level.

Sometimes wish this place had "like" buttons; could easily use them on your posts. Fine looking 'workplace' you've got there.

Yeah the Glory is a a beauty. I look forward to your pictures Calvin the quality coming from POW far exceeds anything coming out of Montana. wink

Btw you have a fantastic looking first mate there!

I have a new unopened I Phone sitting on my desk. One of these days before I start I'll open it up and figure it out. I think it will be easier to take pics and upload them from that rather than using a separate camera. Who knows. Wife got me a go-pro too. Some good footage coming this summer.

Yes, my girls are awesome. They are growing up so fast. They like to fish too.

Iphone takes great pictures I don't even bother with a camera any more. GoPro is great for fishing footage.
Im waiting for spring to come back,boat is winterized again and covered in snow right now temps below freezing all week
Looks like next Sunday for the spring to rearrive here

I don't hardly post pics since I replaced my iPhone.
The iPhone made it so easy and I'm too lazy to figure out my cheap azz Samsung. Lol.

I'll have to figure it out. I bought a new I Phone 5s and the De Lorme In Reach Explorer Sat messenger. Apparently you can bluetooth through the I Phone to the Messenger, and get satellite texting capabilities on the Phone. My buddy has it and it works great. Should come in handy for longer range fishing/hunting not to mention all my partner boats have the inreaches. Amazing how you never hear guys on the VHF anymore. All info is passed via DeLorme Inreaches.

10/4 on the VHF not being used much any more

Weather sucks here!

Boat work!! Momma and he girls are getting some fishing in though.



Should have the Glory done today, except for a 24hour haul out on Fri to do bottom paint and zincs.


Putting new non-skid in the skiff today. Should be fun..(grin) It needs it.


Put a stripe on the Almar too.

looks great Calvin


happy for you and proud of you


rock on

Lots of work done lately, good job.

Skiff came out well with the non-skid.

Looks good.

What did you use?

I used the exact stuff the manufacturer used. It's from Farwest Paints.

And it begins.

Nice start.

Nice

Finished up a 3 day opener in front of town. First day was a nice gale to shake down the boat in..(grin) Nothing like getting slammed by 50mph gusts. Managed to catch enough fish for a good check. Last day was really nice, but we had most of the fish caught up. Fun times..

Photo cred to Bro Dave.

sounds like decent results! Nice picture.

Glad its working out.

I know ..... really novice question

Are the salmon around most all the time, and then seasons open? Or do they go so far "out to sea" that they are not around at times?

Obviously only age classes spawn so they have to live oceanside for some amount of years.

Commercial and sport would both have specific seasons?

down here, that I can recall, there is no "fishing" season so to speak freshwater. And very few seasons salt until you get offshore.

I did go out the South Cove to look at your "Glory", and then again when ya had it on the out haul tractor. That's sure is a nice lookin' vessel ya have Calvin.
I was having a problem putting a face to the name, until ya posted the pic.
Did I see a clip on one of those Chinook in that Tote?

There is usually kings around, but most of them are around April-Aug. There is a winter fishery that runs Oct 14-April 30, or when we reach 45k treaty fish. This is confined to within the surf lines. This is more of a scratch fishery, but it can be very lucrative when you find some as they are worth a lot. Then, we have smaller spring hatchery openings in May/June, like the one I was fishing. They are smaller confined areas where you catch a high percentage of AK hatchery fish which don't count against the treaty. We are still getting winter prices of 9.75lb for larges, and 9.25lb for meds. Summer kings is July 1st, and usually lasts around a week. It's open everywhere, and it's a derby style opening. Coho fishing is open July 1st to the end of Sept. Usually we have a second summer king opening about the 2nd week of Aug for 2 or 3 days. You can also fish for chum and pink salmon.

So yeah, you can fish almost all year if inclined. I'll do my of my commercial salmon trolling Feb-April for kings, May for kings, July 1-5 for kings, and Sept for cohos. I guide June/July/Aug. I fish a lot.

Sport salmon fishing is open all year, but typically most of it occurs May-Aug.

That was sport fishing. Yes, I had a few clips.

Ssraa fish?

Dunno. My best guess would be a PSN fish, so yeah, I guess it would be a ssraa fish soon.

Some good kings starting to show up here
This was this morning

Nice fish George. What'd it weigh? I'll guess 22#

Touch under 20lbs

Damn nice fish!!

Nice!

Release, or kill and BBQ?

Nice fish!

Released and still swimming

I'll be off for a couple days


LOZ043-151515-
HAMLIN BEACH TO SODUS BAY ALONG LAKE ONTARIO
INCLUDING IRONDEQUOIT BAY-
645 AM EDT SUN MAY 15 2016

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY EVENING


TODAY
WEST WINDS TO 30 KNOTS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. WAVES 5 TO
9 FEET BUILDING TO 7 TO 10 FEET.

TONIGHT
WEST WINDS TO 30 KNOTS. A CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS IN
THE EVENING. WAVES 7 TO 10 FEET.

MONDAY
WEST WINDS TO 30 KNOTS. MOSTLY SUNNY. WAVES 6 TO
10 FEET SUBSIDING TO 5 TO 8 FEET.

Not seeing the issue...once fished halibut on a 39' boat in 24' seas...

I bet 7-10 on the great lakes is a whole different ball game than 7-10 on the ocean. 10 on the ocean as swell is often very fishable, but if it's a steep chop, it'll thrash you and make you not want to be there. 24' is about the biggest I've fished in too, out at the Fairweather Grounds in the Glory about 15 years ago. It was BIG.

I trolled the Fairweather Grounds in the late '70s and got to see some big water... well understand the difference in wave period and wave height...

Just had to run some crap headed into Kodiak that probably only made 8' (doubled) but it was very short and very uncomfy...

"Lumpy".

Short-handed and a downwind pick left me with lots of bruises after that trip, so lumpy likely applies!

Fishing in the Great Lakes is pretty much sport fishing. Have been out in ~8' seas many times, just not much fun, hard on equipment, and a challenge to keep the cannonballs behaving. Typical boat for most of us is less than 30', with maybe 20-24 being average.
Sadly, the kings & cohos here are not nearly as tasty as those actually coming out of Pacific water. However, the fight is just fine.

Back from my Florida trip. Weather is going to suck the next few days, but then it's time to get out and get a good look at things. Sounds like the kings are thick. 2 more weeks till I fish 80hrs a week till Oct. Gonna be a grind this year.

I finished a couple of new jigging rods this winter with the help and expertise of another 24hr member, 358Norma_fan. I built the rods off Seeker blanks and used titanium guides to better fend off saltwater. The only thing saltwater won't screw up is saltwater....and (hopefully) titanium.





For the logo, I used a vinyl cutter (Cricut Explore Air) to cut silver vinyl into stickers. Once the stickers were on the rod, I coated them with epoxy. Here is the bling:



We took the boat out for the first time this season. I had lots of new gear to break in, including the rod pictured above. I gave it to my brother to run it through it's paces, and he did an admirable job getting it sighted in for the season.






We boated seven halibut. The biggest was 60-inches, with the rest ranging from 37 - 45 inches. We added a few yellow eye to the fish box, as well, to bring it some color. Not a bad day on the water, not at all.

Dan, looks like you are off to a great start on the season, best of luck! Hope you and family are well, look forward to catching up with you this fall.

Dan, what are the current fish size and take limits for sport fishing on the barn doors?

A family friend runs a charter out of Hoonah. I think that I need to get another trip planned to AK.

Awesome Dan!

Calvin would be better able to answer the charter regs for Southeast, area 2C.

I am in Southcentral, area 3A. Here, chartered clients can have one fish, any size, but your second fish of the day must be 28" or less. Chartered clients are also held to a 4 fish annual limit, recorded on the back of your license (and in the charter operator's logbook).


Non-guided sport fishermen don't have these restrictions. You can keep two fish of any size, per day, with no annual limit.

In SE, we run combo charters.

Limits for halibut are 1 halibut per day, either under 42", or over 80" on charters. (Reverse slot) No annual limit. 2 per day any size on non-charters.

Kings are 2 per day in June, 1 per day in July Aug for non-res. 3 per day for res.

Cohos are 6 per day, but we usually don't get limits until July.

Lingcod is 1 per year, with a slot from 30-45". Non-res.

Yelloweye is 1 per year. Non-res.

OUCH!!!



In our area, the minimum size on lings is 35" with a one-per-day or two-per-day limit, depending on the area. No annual limit.

Yellow eye have a one-per-day or two-per-day limit, depending on the area. No annual limit.

As far as I know (I haven't looked at the non-resident part of the regulations yet this year), there is not a distinction between residents and non-residents.

It's not really that big of a deal, to be honest with you. We have lots of salmon to catch on a daily basis, as well as halibut, so finding time to run offshore for ling/yelloweye can be tough to do.

Cool logo and nice rods Dan!

Brother came in town for a week of fishing. We ran out with one of my buddies in my skiff and did some king fishing this morning. Pretty good fishing. Had the 8 we needed by 7:30am. Nice weather and cooperative fish. Grabbed some black rockfish too for lunch. Those are so good fresh.

Great photos and nice fish!

Helped a guy put a trailer together today. Massive Ibeams. We bolted up 3 7k axels and it was about 32' OAL. Electric over hydraulic on all axels. Beast of a trailer.

The price of trailers is ridiculous when you see what the costs are to fab one up.

I know. I paid 5k for a trailer not long ago. Not much to a trailer.

Love all these pics! I need to GTFO of Afghanistan and up to AK!

Commercial troll opening today. Ended up with 5. Not great, but they are worth about a bill each. The bigger fish of the handful I got.



I really need to get some sleep. Taking tomorrow off.

A few more pics of some SE AK power trolling. My brother is in town fishing with me for the week, so I actually have some pictures. I'm terrible at taking pictures.

Things have been crazy here on the fishing front. Lots of kings and a blur of 3am alarm clock wake-ups and a ton of processing as my brother and family is in town. Need a break from it all before things get really busy. Start guiding on Tuesday and don't stop the madness until October as I finish out the season trolling. Got the wife out today and we had a great time. Kings were feeding on squid and trolling hoochies at 60ft was the ticket. Looks like all the boats around me were pulling them in.

Here are a few pictures from last weekend:
Me with a 59" halibut, the first fish of the day.


My co-captain for the season, Mike, with his Dad's 60-pounder.


Not a bad day on the water...

Nice job on the 'buts Dan. Those are nice size fish. I am definitely not a fan of eating big halibut but 60# and under is about perfect. Water looks great too.

Pardon the interruption:

For non-guided non-resident fishing out of POW, is the limit 2 halibut per day?

Guided is one per day? (less than 40"ish or greater than 80")

thanks

Sure looks like 2 per day (no size limit), 4 in possession limit for unguided NR.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/r...SE_general_bag_sizelimits_saltwaters.pdf

Man that looks awesome. Wish I was fishing

thanks muskegman

My original search got this but not the unguided info:

Area 2C (Southeast Alaska)
 One fish daily bag limit: Charter vessel anglers may catch and retain one halibut per day.
 Reverse slot limit: Retained halibut must be less than or equal to 43 inches or greater than or equal to 80
inches in length.

Good work Dan.

Finished Day 2 of a very long season. 6 clients, with a 2 king limit each. Kings are pretty thick right now. Finished up the dozen kings by 9am today, and could have done it quicker. Windy and 10ft seas made halibut tough, but we managed to limit and get plenty of rockfish.

Had to pull them out to count to make sure we had a dozen.. We had 3 kings on while I was snapping the pic, and it wasn't our first triple hook up of the day. Good times. Got most of the mooching, but did use the downriggers a bit first thing in the morning. Never fished near another boat all day.

Posting a pic for TrapperJ. A true May Monster. Never seen one bigger in May from around here. Congrats!

That is a crusher for sure. Did they hang him on a scale?

Put it on the derby scale. It went 55 pounds. Problem is I didn't have a derby ticket! Oh well.

Thanks Calvin for hanging the pic. And for all the info to keep this weekend warrior up to date on where the fish are

That's a great fish, ticket or not.

I weighed my first king on the derby scale at Ship creek in Anchorage about 2 weeks after I moved up. The guy at the derby shack went bananas when it rang in at 29.76lb, seems the magic weight in the derby that day was 29.80 and I had won a really nice Lamiglas rod with a shiny new Penn baitcaster on it. Oh except for the part where I hadn't bought a derby ticket.

Damn, beautiful fish!! Nice work.

A fish that dreams are made of!

Trapper - what a toad!!! Nice work!! Can you tell us more - troll or mooch, bait or artificial? That is a fantastic fish!!

Hey Joel- Congrats on the new boat and best of luck with her she looks real fishy! I haven't been on here much lately because of work sorry I missed it. Seems like yesterday you had the baby man has she gotten big and what a smile.

quote=AKwolverine]Trapper - what a toad!!! Nice work!! Can you tell us more - troll or mooch, bait or artificial? That is a fantastic fish!![/quote]

AKwolverine I got him trolling. Mooched as well and picked some fish up that way too

It was pretty fast fishing and for whatever reason we lost the first three of the day at the boat. My buddy said "It's ok we got that out of our system so when we hit a 50 we'll landed it! A few minutes later we hooked him and was the first fish in the boat that day!!

Nice fish.

What are the "big" ones gonna look like later in the season?

Kings galore.. Mooching is yielding some pretty good results.

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums...E-49D0-AC3B-5BDEB92DBB2E_zpsoj3kfndy.mp4

The proverbial "quintuple header".

I'm going out tomorrow to try and catch my FIRST king of the year. Only fished kings for about 2 hours so far this year.

The guy watching tossed his rig down after I shut the video off and hooked up too. What would 6 on at a time be? It's going to be ugly tomorrow. Gonna have to slow the fellas down or we'll be back to the dock before lunch.

Could I say "I have a sextuplet going right now!" ??

That's for sure!

Got the first king of the year. 20# white. Daymn tasty . . .

Good table fare huh? We gotta strain down here folks call tule, ain't very tasty. Nice fish Yahoo got there though...

Kings, kings, and more kings. 96 for 96 on the allowable kings for my clients in my first 3 groups. Some nice ones thrown in too! Halibut has been tougher, but we've had some good days on halibut if we grind it out. Good thing the kings are coming quick! Day off, and then back at it tomorrow!

Congrats on the classy old troller Calvin. I've always loved them and the halibut schooners. Can't beat a 471 for reliability either. Much less finicky than a new diesel with common rail fuel injection and a computer. Nothing a good cowl muffler and a little sound down won't help if the noise gets tiresome. You'll love the furuno 295 it'll pay for its self quick. If you're ever feeling flush check out the furuno WASSP it will open your eyes

Thanks. Picked up a Furuno Navnet VX2 for my new charter boat this morning. Found a good used one at a price that didn't kill me. I use a first generation navnet almost every day and it sure gets the job done. The wassp stuff looks crazy.

Vx2 is good stuff. I never got into having all my electronics integrated probably because I'm a bit old fashion and at the time I was shopping furuno's autopilot sucked in comparison in my opinion to simrad Robertson stuff. I would love to have a radar overlay my chart plotter though.

Had to get a GAF halibut today. Rolled around in the ocean for one about 215. Had another big one on, but a big bull sealion got it.

Gotta love them barn doors.

Nice fish man! I was up in Los Anchorage with the wife for the weekend so didn't fish at all. Wrong time of the year to leave the rock!

Fished a tournament yesterday with my friend/taxidermist
Caught the largest King 25lbs12oz . Caught on a 10" flasher and cut bait fished off a Chinook Diver

Fish, fish, and more fish. That's all I pretty much do!

It's been good.

A GAF day. Anglers can lease IFQ from commercial IFQ holders to be able to catch a "any size" halibut. We are rather good at finding big ones.


Bigger kings showing up right on schedule.


Should be full speed for cohos here in about a week. Fish cleaners will be getting busier.

good lookin bunch of fish Calvin


get er done

I know what GAF means in some contexts, as in "DILLIGAF". But what does it mean in your post, if you don't mind?

great azz fishing day?

GAF stands for "Guided Angler Fish". Our limit is 1 halibut, under 43" or over 80". With GAF, we lease IFQ from commercial fisherman to get a 1 any size halibut. It gives us and extra halibut of any size. I think it takes about 60ish lbs of leased IFQ to get a halibut.

Calvin: what does the typical 60ish lb lease cost?

I was in fishing POW this past week and saw some disappointed guided anglers who had to release the same size fish that I got to keep unguided in the 65" range.

Any certain color working better than others Cal? Thanks

Big GAF halibut day. 12 anglers, two boats. My boss and I hit them really good. 9 GAF halibut ranging from 255 to 70lbs. I also cut a 200, 120, and 90lb halibut loose. We fished for under 3 hours for this score of halibut.

Damn what a haul!! Nice work

125 purple haze is good.

The amount of big halibut out there is staggering right now. We have cut loose some absolute monsters, in the 300lb class lately. We have the Trevala rods with Avet 2 Speed reels. Can't say enough good things about that combo. A 200lb fish is only a 10-15 minute fight in 250ft of water.

Jesus Christ that's a big fish...

Nice rack!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like the good old days here.

Thanks Sitka. We could do that every day, if allowed to do so. I have areas that I don't go too because there are so many big halibut it tears my gear up having to release them all.

We are happy with chickens in Juneau anymore , those are some nice fish!

photos not working?

I hear ya. Little ones are much tastier tho . . .

My best so far ,Didnt weigh or measure it , just ate it Im 6'4" 235lb for reference. It was a easy ride up until it saw daylight.

Nice 'but!


I took the pic down. Didn't want any hard feelings as many well meaning people don't understand the politics of halibut, big halibut, and charters.

Don't blame you Calvin , butt-hurt is easy to come by in the outdoor business world Even happens between friends unfortunately.

That is what all you guys that can't catch a decent halibut always say!

Give me the great big soakers! Smoked, the texture is like ham.

The little halibut cannot compete with truly good fish and the big ones smoked are exceptional.

Oh we don't mind big ones , just hard to come by up here .

Not big by Alaska standards but this was a rodeo for a couple of DIY Okies fishing POW. We were just getting used to the 30-40 pounders.

Nice. Want to catch on pretty bad ourselves, just not quite enough spare time to make that work...

Been busy! Fishing is pretty dang good. Lots and lots of 10lb cohos showing up, if you know where to find them! Halibut is still really good. Lots of bigger lingcod around. Six more guide trips and then I take off for 3 weeks on the Glory to get as many cohos as I can. Then it's hunting season till it's fishing season!

Hope everybody is loading up!

Coffman? Too bad about that Neck Lake coho run. We had about a 4 day lull on this side (not to bad), but it picked right up. I think we are getting either Neets Bay or Stikine cohos right now on the outside. Still a lot of fish out there too that haven't showed yet for the local hatchery run.

What happened to the Neck lake run? Went up last year on a work trip to the property and finished up early so went out for a few hours and cooned'em. Fishing old school (no riggers) and it was on fire for bigger coho.

Edited to add....nice fish guys. Looks like someone might have been fishing with Gooch. Great guy, great cook!

They didn't show this year. I think 1k showed up or something like that. Warm water has stuff all goofed up.

SSRAA cost recovery info

The return to Neck Lake was pretty much a bust this year, lowest on record. Neets is doing ok but the average size is quite a bit lower which is effecting our cost recovery. I doubt there will be any openers inside this year. We have seen a few coho popping up inside the bay but the numbers are still pretty low. The halibut fishing was hot for about two weeks but it has slowed down lately. I am probably going to go out and chase some fish tomorrow, been trying for deer but they are still up really high. Higher than I want to go after them ;-)

Took the family out yesterday morning for a couple of hours. I didn't get to fish much as I was busy putting fresh eggs on and untangling lines. Didn't matter as it's more fun watching them. They lost a lot and laughed a lot. Doesn't get much better to me.

Precious photos those are!!

dandy silvers there!...great pics!

Thanks for the response. The "blob" had a profound affect on Silvers down here. Last year we caught a ton but not one was over 5#. They were skinny little snakes. That Neck lake fishery is a cool opportunity and it produces some nice fish.

What are the usual returns for that run?

Hard not to love kids tusslin' with hooknose silvers....

Check out the link I posted. Actual numbers.

Thanks Hank. I must have missed your post the first time. Duh.