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 . . .

That would make for a memorable trip.

Been sportfishing for fun the last week or so. Having a blast right in front of town picking up kings and the occasional halibut. I literally don't even get the boat up on step and troll from the harbor. My foster kid and I were out the other night for an hour. Doubled up on a king and a 55lb halibut. Her first king (and fish). She handled the king like a pro and then I handed her the other rod and she got the halibut up and I gave him a good beating. Trolling with downriggers. A few more weeks and then I knock out 65 or so guide days, with some trolling mixed in.

Momma has been getting in on the action too..

Great looking family and very cool pics.

Is that your Almar you just rehabbed? How's those Merc 150's working out?

What I have seen shows they are very compromised by losing the adipose... and just consider the rubric of the inferior hatchery fish... the only real difference is the highly enervated fatty tassel...

White king makes fantastic sushi but I've never had it cooked, how does it compare to regular king?

Yes it is. Mercs are working out well. Very efficient.

As to white king cooked; some will say it has a higher oil content and they can taste a difference. To my palate, if im being honest with myself, I couldn't tell a difference if blindfolded. And we eat a lot of king...

The light pink/orange with some white marbled in is the best for me. The darker red stuff is ok, but not as good, IMO. Straight white isn't as good.

When I pull fish out of the freezer, the lighter the color, the better it seems to be. Orange is definitely better than the more red kings. Probably what they are eating in the ocean.

White and red kings are the same species. The difference in flesh color comes from their genetically determined ability to metabolize pigments in their food. The pigments, called cartenoids, are found in their diet of shrimp, krill and crabs, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. White-fleshed kings don't have the genetic ability to break down their food and store the red-orange carotene in their muscles.

And the best thing about white kings is they are all Canadian, eh.

White kings are not strictly canadian. When I worked at whitman we had jacks that came back as white kings. They were tagged as whitman fish so unless there is a canadian hatchery using their same tags, its highly unlikely.

Straight off F&G

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=244

Agree on this big-time. Man, I miss fresh fish!!!

Kings more than most will visit different rivers before heading up to spawn in their natal river. It is my understanding that all known white king spawners are from Canada's Fraser River. Talk of Chilkat River whites has not been proven, but that may have changed since I last saw a study write-up.

Kinda hard to argue that when the tag data doesn't lie. :-) There are some kings coming out of Whitman that are white kings. Maybe not as many as out of the Frazier

Several years ago we boxed a white king on the Kenai during the July season - and it was not a tidewater fish, as it was up at Sunken.

We get white kings back to our hatchery here. I've caught them out of the creek. Lately most of the white kings are get are clipped fin. We do have a run of bigger white kings that show up here in late May that visit the same areas every year. Not sure where they are going, but they are some slugs.

So the hatcheries are the contamination source? They never used to get them. The early literature does not mention them.

I've caught quite a few white kings on the Fraser. Some good sized ones. If it is a 20+ pound fish, seems more often to be a white. Folks I know up there call them Harrison lake kings.

Personally, I haven't had them side by side so can't comment on red/white/pink. Fresh still rules the taste factor in my world!

What a great boat. Step down floor make standing room in the pilothouse? How much setback on the bracket?

I'd love to lose the I/O and doghouse taking up room on my deck and hang a set of twin 150-200hp OBs on a bracket. Even a single 250-300 would be sweet, and likely make more sense for me. But alas, my boat is just a toy. Hard to justify the outlay if it ain't making money. Outboards are fuggin pricey!