Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Spring/Winter Season Done

Been a pretty good last month on the outer coast of the west side of Prince of Wales. Our winter season ends at the end of April and with Little League today and church tomorrow, I'm done. I still have 70 guide days and another 40ish troll days this year, but it always feels good to finish a season. Here are some pictures I snapped in my I-Phone while out and about. Pretty cool lifestyle to get out there solo and hunt down those king salmon on the ocean while dodging weather and the fleet.

We chase king salmon in this season. They were feeding heavily on krill, needlefish, herring, and squid. Price was up there, over $9 a pound this season. Fish averaged about 10.5lbs each.

Shared the drag with some pretty big boat. Mine is on the smaller side for fishing the open ocean in the winter at 40ft. It can be a real battle depending on what boats are out there as everybody is trying to get as many fish as possible in the most civil way possible. Even the most subtle changes in gear, speed, location or direction can mean more fish in the boat. It's a business where details matter if you want to be successful and you really have to pay attention to what's going on around you.

Congrats on the season and thanks for the pics! Very cool...

Can't wait to go out next week and catch one to eat... All I do is kill fish but you'd be surprised how little of it ends up in my freezer.

I miss my days in Kodiak sportfishing. I know if I was blindfolded and you handed me a fish to fillet, I could tell it was a blackmouth just by that greasy feel. We also ran 50 fathoms of subsistence net for reds, that was a hoot.

Remember well that beautiful bronzy color when you got that first look at a king on the line. Most of ours ran 12 to 16 lbs, my brother caught a beauty 42 lbs on a trip we took with a charter guy.

Nice pics, Calvin; nothing beats time on the water, and bringing in some reward just sweetens it.

Cool pix

Tks for sharing

Funny how the camera comes out more on bluebird days

Haha, no joke. Camera never comes out when I'm getting thrashed out there. That's the less glamorous part of the job. Rolling around for 15 hours a day, and then laying in the anchorage all night hoping you don't drag anchor is just part of it though. My boat is a very good sea boat though, but when those gusts hit you hard and you lean over pretty good it makes you think about life a little.

Spent more than a few nights on anchor watch with the rigging singing.

Very cool. Some great pics. Thanks for taking the time!
Do you keep track of your wild vs hatchery ratio? Looks like at least a couple missing adipose in that box pic. We were running about 5:1 (wild to hatchery) out of Homer this winter.

You should try a spread of Tofino Turds, with that sort of squid in the water...

It changes quickly. One bite I was on had a high hatchery/white component. They were paying a bit more for whites, so that was nice. Another bite had just 1 clip fin out of 34 I brought in.

I have... They were eating a real mix. Herring, krill, squid, and candlefish. I caught pretty well on all my standard hoochies I use. As usual, being over the fish was the key and when the bite was over, it was like there wasn't a king in the ocean.

Not every hatchery king gets clipped up here, only the ones with coded wire tags. I think about 10% get the CWT if I remember correctly.

They don't estimate a big AK hatchery component for the winter fishery. The gal comes down and scans all the clips I bring in. (usually) I swore I had local fish last year, and they all were from WA.

Why are they still clipping adipose fins when there is a ton of evidence it compromises the fish?

I don't know the answer to that one. It probably compromises the fish less than clipping other fins and they need to be identified somehow.

We drug anchor once in a big storm around Thanksgiving... out of a cove on Montague... We never thought... all were asleep, and it started to get really rougher than it should... talk about the Lord protecting his one... wind and current were correct and we shot right out of the protected cove, middle of the bay out into the "ocean". Lets just say land was no where near when we woke up and turned on the lights.... and then on the way back in, fuel ran out, lucky it was friend of a friend... he knew what happened and crawled down to switch tanks...

It didn't dawn on my until later how damn lucky we really were... and then to miss an almost sub surface 40ish foot power pole floating... or just a log I dunno... it was not small... on the way in

Worked at the local salmon bake for a few summers in high school starting the alder cooking fire, fish prep and fish cooking.

Just try offering DSMFers a piece of white king. 90-95% refused and insisted we were trying to trick with some other type of fish. And the dumb-ass questions you'd over-and-over again every night . . .