I had previously caught only one sheefish of about 5 pounds at the mouth of the Cosna River/Tanana River in Interior on rod and reel one summer years before while fishing for pike. That one fought well, and a tattered tail - from spawning, I guess. We ate it anyway.
Big fish picture was taken about 8 years ago on my first try at jigging for sheefish through the ice in Kotzebue, which would have been off the left side of the picture, and about 7 or 8 miles away across the Sound.
Staley Foster took me out to near the mouth of the Noatak, where they had been hitting well the day before. We ice-picked 3 inches or so of refrozen ice out of some day-before holes (the two bloodiest) , and our jigging lures never hit bottom. I had 7 fish in less than 20 minutes, but I was using the "wrong" lure, and the second bloodiest hole. Staley had 10 or 11. Maybe 13? I quit (more than enough to fillet, vacuum pack, and put in freezer). He had other intentions for his, and let them freeze up whole, for outside storage, and kept fishing. 30 minutes after we got there, I headed home. Staley was still pulling them out, with 20 or so on the ice. Crazy fast fishing!
The second picture was about a mile out from the Tech Center, and that is Lockhart Point. They had killed the chit out of them the day before (hence the birds), but this day us two lonely ice-holers could not get a hit.
We should have brought beer!
