I'm slowly getting the schedule set for Alaskan salmon fishing north of Ketchikan.

Trolling mostly from a skiff.....I have a couple poles but need reels.....what's the advice and maybe some advice about terminal tackle as well.

BTW one pole is for a spinning reel and the other for a bait casting style of reel

This topic can cover pages and pages and not repeat a word. First, I'd like to direct you to a few websites. Put "Salmon University" in Google and you'll see a wealth of information. In depth information on reels is on Alan Tani's reel repair forum. Finally, look up ifish, piscatorial pursuits and gamefishin.com.

I prefer reels smaller than many salmon fisherman but you can make up your own mind. As long as I get between 150 and 200 yards of 20 - 25 lb test line for a trolling reel, I'm happy. The classic Penn 209 is fine for moderate cost. I'd step up a few dollars and go for the Penn 310 which you can find online for about 75-80. The Daiwa Sealine 17 is a favorite of mine. The Shimano Tekota is a fine reel running something under $200 as is the Penn Fathom (I like the 15 size in these).

Spinning reels should be matched to the rod. Many of us use the 2500 size on 8 1/2 to 10 1/2' rods rated 6-10 lb test line for the rivers.

Good luck on your trip!

We don't fish in salt water...but I've used Penn 320's on our Great Lakes boat since 1985. The original 8 are still in service and we fish alot.

My AK salmon reels were the Garcia 6500/7000 reels. If I need to go higher, I have the top of the line Shimano Trinidad. I have a 16, 20, and 30. The 20 is the ideal reel for trolling or casting. I use 50# Power Pro Spectra braid under 20/30/40# Mono.

I purchased the Trinadad reels from Australia about ten years ago, when the exchange was about 50%. The Trinadad 20 was a fish killer for Yellow Tail on a long range trip out of San Diego.

I like the Shimano Tekota 600. I have 2 with the line counter and use them for trolling and mooching. Smooth drags and plenty of line capacity. I also use Tekota 500's for pulling plugs in the river. I've got 50+ reels and the Tekota is one of my favorites.

Good luck.

Based on your recomendation I bought two of them.....got fairly decent deals too on Ebay

I also bought 600 yards of firewire 30 pound.....now to discover if leadcore line will work and how to use it.

Are you using downriggers?

I'll probably be fishing with heavy sinkers and possibly leadcore line.....I've also added some dipsy divers to my tackle....I was told that much of the fishing will be at 125 feet!

Seems downriggers are not available to me on this trip!

You'll have to mooch to make it down 125ft. That'd be a lot of lead core. Even with downriggers, 125 is getting deep.

What operation are you going with?

None....just a personal friend on Northern POW island

I seriously doubt you'll be needing to drag 125, other than for bottom fish. What month are you going? I've guided a ton of saltwater trips on the W side of POW, and things are similar on the northern end. What town?

Going in August and the town is Kake just north of POW Island....I believe it's Kupreanof Island

That's coho time up there. Coho typically can be found shallow. Trolling 30' will get it done. Think banana weight and cut plug. (herring) Mooching is another really good way to do it. You should find some nice bottom fish too. (yellow eye, ling, and halibut) A mooching rig will get it done for those too.

Get yourself a 9' quality mooching rod. A Shimano Tekoda 600LC. 30lb Maxima. Then you're done.

I agree, 30' or even less depending on the method, where the baitfish are, etc ...

My experience with silvers/cohos in SC AK is more often than not people would troll too deep. Usually, I'd troll at 20' knowing that fish will come up to a bait vs not going down to chase bait. Flashers help in that regard and are extremely effective but not mandatory. When you're drifting, mooching or power mooching with a only plug cut herring it helps to have the bait at the same depth level as the majority of fish. Depths can vary more using these methods.

There's always exceptions and a fish finder is your best friend when it comes to figuring out where the fish are. Overall, the vast majority of silvers I've caught are with baits/lures set at 20' to 35'.

I ran into one exception out of Seward with silvers where they were actively feeding on the bottom in 125' of water. The tail half a herring on a single 4/0 hook (30" leader) dropped to the bottom with a 2 1/2 oz wt resulted in instant hook ups for hours. I had some inexperienced friends that couldn't feel the bites and more often than not the rod would simply go slack. One nibbly, the rod goes slack and ten seconds later a silver would explode on the surface thrashing and trying throw the hook. It was fun to watch.

The one and only time I fished in SE we caught the majority of our fish (silvers) in close where it was only 35' to 50' deep. We were fishing near kelp beds and the silvers were thick as could be. We got tired of trolling (it was too easy) and switched to a plug cut herring just dangling 15' below the boat. It was kick in the azz to watch the fish swim by and nail the bait.

Good thing about silvers is they are extremely aggressive and not too finicky about baits, lures, rigs or methods.


Sound about right Calvin?

Is this similar to you've found out about fishing for silvers in SE? You're the resident expert.

Good information guys....I appreciate it....

A friend sent me a few 1/2 pound lead head jigs with huge twister tails of about 6" long.....are these good trolling baits for coho? Anything?...

Not for coho.

Those are halibut, lingcod or rockfish jigs and yes, they work.

Pretty much. Cohos are some of the stupidest fish alive, and it doesn't take much to catch them. They exist for one reason in Aug, and that is to eat and gain weight for the trip up river. I personally detest cohos, except when I'm selling them.

Nothing is worse than slow coho fishing. "good" coho fishing is a limit in about an hour, but that'd be pretty tough for a greenhorn. (6 is your limit) Some days are a scratch, and those are good days to pound rockpiles with those jigs.

If salmon is your aim, get out at first light. I like to leave in the dark and make my first pass before it's too light for the fish to bite.. see where they are on the sounder. Then on the second pass when you have enough light, you pound em. You'll catch most of your fish in those first 5 passes. I can't tell you how many kelp lines I've cleaned off before the next boat showed up. The best way to stack them is to mooch, unless you are really handy with downriggers. Cohos are fun though, especially when they get over 9lbs. Early cohos average 6lbs and are a pain in the ass, as they are bait stealers and leave scales all over the boat.

here is a blog. I hear those two guides in the blog are pretty fishy dudes. should give you a good idea of what to expect.

http://blog.alaskakingfisherlodge.com/?m=201108

I read most of their log.....nice fishing!!!

It seems the red fish is a rock fish and they seem to have no trouble catching limits of Halibut and Coho......but they don't mention Lingcod very much.

Thanks for the link....it's great fun just to read other's fishing reports when they are doing so well.

Non residents have a 1 annual limit on lings, so we can't pound em every day. yellow eye (reds) have a 2 annual limit, 1 per day limit. Hali are easy, especially when you have a 1 fish per day limit, under 37". Next year the regs will ease up to 1 fish per day, with a reverse slot. I think we'll be allowed either a halibut over 165lbs or 1 under 44lbs.

As an unguided angler, you'll have a 2 halibut a day limit, any size. If meat is your goal, pound the halibut..

When I fished Valdez for silvers, we would troll using a Pink Lady due to not having downriggers. It would take the lure down to whatever depth we wanted, depending on how much line was let out. It always worked quite well and we always caught our limit. Even had one guy on our boat use a bass setup and he caught one that weighed close to 18lbs, I thought for sure he was going to lose it.

Actually it's a nice side benefit.....I've fished many times as a catch and release type and have released some nice fish over the years....one day I released six walleyes all between 8 and 12 pounds and have released well over a hundred Northern Pike over 20 pounds....that said, coming home with a pile of Salmon and Halibut steaks don't hurt my feelings a bit.

My freezer now has moose, elk, deer, pheasant, ptarmigan, and a few quail.....Beef?....what's that?.....LOL

Here's a couple fish I released....

I must have the fever....I'm sitting here tieing mooching rigs....

I plan to have ten in hand tonight....hope that's all I'll need.....LOL

You can catch a pile of fish while mooching in SE AK. I like an 8ft leader, 4/0 gamakatsu hooks, and 30lb maxima. I've put 200lb+ hali in the boat with them over the years. 50lb + kings. Just change them out when you feel the leader getting nicked up.

Mooching rules..

The local store just happened to have that exact hook....so I made five more!
Heck man...It's still January and the Packers are still trying to figure out what happened and I'm already starting to enjoy this fishing trip!

LOL

I'm starting to get cabin fever too. A local troller picked up a 40lb king last week. Once it stops blowing I'll hit the water and do some winter king fishing.

Will I have any need for a gaff hook?

Someone already mentioned the Garcia 6500. They're common as hell around here, and for good reason. Very reliable and easy to use. If you quit trolling and get into casting, the anti-backlash adjustment works as well as any.

I had a Salmon fishing Charter boat on Lake Michigan a long time ago. I started out using Penn reels, but large salmon were tearing up the drags. Penn Internationals were much better but too expensive when you are running six lines. The best bang for your buck would be a Garcia 7000. They have a greater line capacity than a 6500, and a greater star drag rotation control. They were going for about $85 then, but I guess they might be over $100 now. A second choice would be a Diawa Sealine. Not for casting, but a very good trolling reel. I use my 7000's for casting for Musky's in my lake and it cast's nice and handles large Musky's well.

Or for the money get a Shimano Charter Special.

thanks for the comments folks but I've already bought the reels .....and this may be a one time trip.....at my age one never knows...LOL...

Can anyone comment on the need for a gaff hook in the Pacific waters.....?

gaff hook is a must, IMO. I like at least a 30" gaff for my fish beating duties..

Guess I'll break out the woodturning lathe and bend some #9 wire and make a gaff.....I'll probably have more fun preparing for this trip than actually going there....(not)

You don't want to be in AK fishing without a gaff.

It's now a done deal.....I purchased the airfare and marine highway tickets round trip yesterday.....Alaska, here I come!.....after fifty years of threatening to do it!

I just hope Sarah Palin is at the airport in Ketchikan to meet us when we get there.....I want her to show me where Russia is so I can get a photo.....LOL

More dumb questions....

What is the difference between chum, pink, coho, and king salmon?

Specifically, is one of them better table fare?

Besides size of the critter itself.....why is the chinook (king) salmon so much highly prized over the others?

Kings are king. Good fights and excellent eating. You might be a bit late for them, and the king fishing is Kake can be good, but not great. Not in the big migration route.

Cohos are fun, and are good table fare. Good for smoking too. They'll be 6-12lbs, with the occasional bigger one. They jump, run circles, and are as dumb as a rock in the saltwater.

Humpies suck and can choke certain areas. Make good halibut bait though. I wouldn't feed my dog one.

Chum can be ok if dime bright, but you don't catch too many in the salt.

Thanks.....sounds like coho and hali are the prime targets.

I'll attempt some ling cod too.....stream fishing is also starting to look like fun as well.....

Researching is half the trip....thanks again for the info...

I'm a semi lucky guy....Cabela's is 1/2 hour away......so I now have a pile of Mepps spinners #4 and #5....in psycadillic colors.....

Chinooks will pull 100 yards of line off your spool in the blink of an eye. Don't set your drag too tight or they will break off. Set it lightly and gradually put the pressure on. That's one of the reasons they are highly prized. They are also good baked or smoked. I prefer small spoons to spinners. If you are fishing deep (+20 ft.) try to stay with a silver plated lure. Chrome starts to turn black the deeper you go. Don't sell the Coho's short. They are good scrappers too.

Does the Johnson silver minnow qualify as a Salmon lure?

The advice on tackle is spot on for coho in my experience. Mooching is killer for coho, if you just have to troll I like a 3.5 coyote spoon in cop car, blue magoo and funky chicken colors for coho. Cop car, or uv green typically for kings. If hootchies are what you want to run its hard to beat the uv green, purple haze, triple glow white etc.

But that time of year mootching would likely get the nod. I also run 30# maxima mainline, 20-25# leaders at 6-8' with 4/0 Matzuo sickle hooks as I feel they hold better then standard salmon shanks.

I use the newer 9'6" Lamiglass E-glass Rods on my riggers or trolling with Shimano Tekota 500's, 9'6" x96j casting rods with a Quantum cabo for mooching if level wind trips my trigger but most of my mooching is done with a 10'6" loomis and an Islander MR2 ( antireverse direct drive single action reel, no knuckle busting and a [bleep] ton of fun with the soft rod and no gears, but its not cheap reel)

Vapodog, The Johnson Silver minnow is Silver plated and would work, but I would cut the weed guard off first. You won't need it where you are going and all it would do is ward off a strike. I don't know if it would be any good for mooching, because it's not very heavy. Better to wait until you get up there and check with the locals.

Hard to find much any lure from. 2.5-6" that a coho won't try to eat that time of year. More then once we have played the try anything in the box to see of there was something one of those dumb bastards wouldn't bite when the bite was on. If there is hungry coho around they don't seem to care what you use

This seems to be a good piece of advice....thanks...It's off to the tackle shop again.....LOL

You missed a species Here is a breakdown:

King/Chinook the largest salmon, it's flesh is red/orange with a high oil content and the distinct salmon flavor, great grilled or smoked, best in the saltwater but still fairly palatable in the rivers when it's begun it's spawning run. As to why it's prized, if you get the opportunity to eat a grilled or smoked king belly, you'll never ask that question again.

Red/Sockeye, it's flesh is red with a high oil content and the distinct salmon flavor, great grilled or smoked, best in the saltwater but still fairly palatable in the rivers when it's begun it's spawning run.

Many argue about which tastes better, reds or kings, both are excellent table fair in my opinion.

Silver/Coho it's flesh is orange with a lower oil content and milder salmon flavor, great grilled or smoked, best in the saltwater but still fairly palatable in the rivers when it's begun it's spawning run. I love catching coho in the salt, agressive biters and fighters. They'll hit just about anything, hootchies, jigs, spoons, buzzbombs, spinners...

Pink/Humpy it's flesh is a pail orange with a lower oil content and to me it tastes more like a trout than a salmon. They deteriorate rapidly when they enter the rivers so if you plan to eat them, they really should only be taken dime bright from the salt water. They smoke up fairly well, grilled is ok but they just don't taste much like salmon. They typically run the same time as coho's and many people mistake them and think they've landed a silver when in fact it's a humpy. Learn to distinguish them. They are also agressive feeders and will take anything you're using to catch coho.

Chum/Dog, generally not eaten by Alaskans. The reason they are called dogs is that they are used for dog food.

As to gaffs, see if you can find a shark hook vs bending one out of wire. I got a shark hook for ~$16 from the K-bay gear shed, ground off the barb and attached it to a wooden rod with kevlar cord and fiberglass. Better than most commercial gaffs, and cheaper to boot. Honestly I rarely use a gaff for salmon, I prefer netting them. But when you have two or three people hooked up at once and somebody is busy with the net, a gaff is a good way to quickly land a salmon and get the rod back in action.

458...thanks for that post....I think it's dead on by my experience with buying Salmon at the grocery store....

Hopefully when I buy licenses in Ketchikan there will be photos of Salmon by which I might identify them when I catch them.

I've been told that one must keep everything he catches as returning them to the waters is not allowed....so If the catching isn't what I'd really want.....well try something else.

This will be a very grand learning experience for me!

Don't know who told you you are required to keep everything you catch... They're wrong.

The only requirement to retain fish is that (in Southeast Alaska) you must retain all non-pelagic rockfish caught until your limit is reached.

As to other species, if you catch an undersized fish, or catch fish in excess of your bag/possession limit, you must release them. Few folks here will keep limits of chums or humpies unless keeping them for halibut bait, so most humpies and chums will get released. I tend to keep dime-bright saltwater caught chums for the smoker, but generally send every humpy we catch back into the water. There is no problem releasing halibut, but you cannot gaff a fish and then release it, so if you intend to release a fish either net it or pull the hook at the side of the boat.

There are pictures of the different salmon and rockfish species at the back of the regulations booklet, so be sure to pick one up when you buy your licenses. That way you will have pictures and regulations all in one neat package.

Enjoy your trip!

Chris

double tap,
Thanks for the post.....always good to know what the game is all about and especially if one is playing it for the first time!

No worries! Alaska's hunting and fishing regs can be somewhat convoluted, so when you arrive (or just before you leave on your trip) also check the ADF&G website for any "Emergency Orders" in effect for Southeast Alaska. There will likely be Emergency Orders for salmon, rockfish, and ling cod. Regulations issued by Emergency Order can supersede those in the regulations booklet, and can relax or further restrict regulations in the booklet.

It's really not as bad as it sounds.

Holy stuff.....had Halibut for dinner tonight.....that stuff is costly but darn good table fare.....I loved it!

great thread and I can relate to every bit of it. Several inbound reels from the classifieds and I'm pumped.

Halibut is worth whatever they are charging. Especially, when right from cold waters.

does this include $25 a pound?

At that price one can almost afford lobster!....and as a matter of fact the next time I have Halibut it'll be with clarified butter just like lobster......it's some great stuff

Halibut will go up and up, as it gets scarcer. Commercial limits keep getting cut.

Calvin,
Is there any other fish in SE Alaska that compares even moderately with Halibut?....by that I mean as table fare....

Halibut is close to the bottom of the barrel as far as table fare goes for me. I like ocean caught salmon above all else, but I'd take lingcod above halibut for bottomfish, followed closely by yelloweye and other rockfish.

I started dumping a good amount of mayo,sour cream, and cheddar cheese on my Halibut steaks. Not good for the waste line, but damn good on the lips..(grin)

an afternoon of fishing, within sight of town. (me and boyz) We've done better. This should get you excited though.

That's personal preference. Fresh I prefer yelloweye rockfish and ling cod for white fish. But halibut wins out in it's ability to hold up in the freezer long term. Also I prefer the texture of halibut.

Yeah, Ling is good, so is yellow eye. But hali rules for how it keeps in the freezer. Plus, you can do just about anything with it and it tastes good.

I do love ling...



and pretty much all seafood.




Black rockfish fresh is very good. I microwave em. I get my sweetie over schools of them, and she loves it. Dumbest fish in the world.

old pics..

kings are my favorite by far. I've killed lots of them, summer and winter.

wow.....a bonanza in photos.....and a hearty thank you all for the replies!

I was introduced to mud snapper last summer in the South. Man is it ever good!

I leave for Denver in the morning.....plane leaves for Ketchikan Sunday about noon.....I'll be fishing my first day in Alaska the next day.....if I get even one of the fish like those pictured I'll be one happy guy!

I get the words envious and jealous mixed up. When I look at Calvin's pics, I am one of those words.

I wanna be Calvin when I grow up.

I can now attest to fine table fare in quillback and yellow eye. We also caught some bass looking fish...one was quite dark....like a black bass.....and the eating was again quite excellent.