Kodiak fish trip

chromer · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:59 pm Post subject: Kodiak fish trip

Anyone know anything about Kodiak fishing they want to share? Starcraft? Laughing

T.R. Bauer · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:34 pm Post subject:

It is great and you don't have to go very far in a boat to do very well. But, that is the same with Seward, Homer, and a number of places in SC Alaska. In a car, well it is pretty good too if you are chasing salmon but just like anywhere else you must have good run timing. Could you be a little more specific about what you are looking for?

chromer · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:31 pm Post subject:

I am trying to get Starcraft Tom to tell us something (not all) about his recent trip. I started the thread to make it easier for him.

Wandering Sagebrush

416rigby · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:45 am Post subject:

I lived in Kodiak for 7 years and can give you the skinny on whatever you want. Shoot me a PM. The fishing will spoil you for life.

Rick

starcrafttom · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:01 pm Post subject:

Dam right it will. I spent 5 days fishing aboard the Ten Bears Charter with 5 friends from Washington and California. This is a trip that the group has been doing for 13 years on the same week. There was an opening this year and I got invited along by my buddy Cliff. It was a great trip of fishing and wildlife that was different than any other I had been on. Most of the fishing was jigging on bottom, which I almost never do, for halibut and ling cod. I always worry when going on a trip like this if it will be good or a “you should have been here last week" kind of deal. It was great.

We flew out of Seattle and to anchorage then on to Kodiak. I would like to state my complete hate and anger for the air line industry as a whole right now. For $900 in air fare I do expect my suit case to go on the plane at no extra charge along with my second case as well. If the air line did not sell me a ticket for a price that covered the bag then they should pull their heads out of the dark and rethink their price's. I mean really $15 for the bag and $25 for the second one, which was 1 lb over weight and cost another $50. and no I don't want to remove anything from my bag that’s why I put it in the bag in the first place lady!!!!!! And for those of you that may wrongly think that this conversation did not take place, well you have not met me yet. It did me no good in the short run to bitch but in the long run, if enough people bitch, it will make a difference and yes it makes me feel better.

So on to the fishing. We were meet at the air port by our host Eric and Sandy and then taken to their house for dinner and a good night’s sleep in their guest rooms. Dinner by the way was hand cut ling cod pan fried in panko batter with potato's on the side. I have never had fish and chip that good. Hell all the food was great and fresh caught. I gained 6 lbs in a week on Sandy’s food. The airport by the way is small. I mean really small. My father’s hanger is bigger than the main terminal in Kodiak, by a lot.

In the morning we loaded up the boat and headed out for our first day of fishing. Within a hour we were dropping lines on the first spot of the day. Now my biggest halibut to this point in life was a small 20 lbs fish that hit my trolled salmon spoon. Well down goes my jig, tick, tick on bottom and fish on within a second. I set the hook and reel up as fast as I can and really enjoying the fight. It brakes surface near the boat and looks to be about a 35 lbs beauty and a new personal best, that is until all my new friends tell me to throw Jr. back and get back down for a keeper!!!! What do you mean throw back my best halibut??? Well after seeing what everyone else was getting on their first drop I set jr free and dropped back down for a 60 lbs on my second drop. In the first spot we had 9 keepers between 60 and 80 lbs. Now that’s fishing. But on to bigger and better fish.

Our next target was for ling cod. Now i have never gotten a ling during the season and only very small ones on salmon gear when trolling bottom for black mouth and Chinook. First fish was 40 inch’s!!! With many more to follow. You are allowed a two day limit for halibut and ling which is 24 fish for 6 guys for two days. We end up with 24 halibut between 50 and 150 lbs along with 24 ling between 35 and 60 inch’s, not sure of their weight but I had trouble lifting two of them. We missed a ling that followed up a 30 lbs halibut that was twice as big as the halibut. Eric said it was over a hundred lbs. We released I don't know how many halibut and ling in the 20 to 50 lbs range. Several hundred??. We also got into four yellow eyes that were over 20 lbs. Now these are slow growing fish and as soon as we got into them, drop tap tap fish on, we stopped fishing that spot and moved on to another. We kept the four we had, air bladder swollen up, but Eric stopped us from fishing and we moved. He does not like to target them but loves to ea them and we keep the four. Also any time we got into small fish we moved as to not target under sized fish. If we got one round of keepers off a point or self we moved on to another as to not target any one spot to hard. Eric does this year round and seldom fishes a spot more than twice in the year.

At the end of the first day we anchored up in a bay and unloaded four skiffs for Coho fishing. This was a lot of fun but not as good as past years I was told. I landed 8 fish in two days just casting spinners in shallow water to schools of fish. All the silvers were between 10 and 16 lbs. These guys are like missiles in the water. Lots of smoking runs and big air on every fished hooked. As worked our way back into this bay and the small tidal river at the top of it, it was looking more like bear country. I am sure that there were bears with in ear shot but we never say one here. As the creek narrowed down to 20 yards’ wide and 5 ft deep I told my good friend Cliff that if a bear did show himself I would start the engine and move away so he should be sitting down. I mean you can be one of the survivors or you can be a distraction to my get away, the choice may or not be his so he better sit if I start the motor.

One the third day we ran back to port to drop off the halibut to the fish packer. Now this was my first trip but one other new guy and I were tasked with this chore because the guys from last year are not allowed back in the store.. Ever.. And no one will fess up as to why. We were not even allowed to mention their names. But did we weight 496lbs of fillets on just the halibut and had no problem with the people at the smoke house.

We spent the next two days fishing for kings off shore with some results. End count was 17 silvers and 12 kings all around 20 lbs. Not great on the kings and we worked very hard for them, lots of moving and searching but well worth it.

Now as for the wildlife, I was really hoping to see a Puffin. I have never seen one in the wild and was hoping to see a few. Well I did not count but I think I saw ALL of them. May have missed a few that where on the other side of the boat while I was looking left but I think I saw several thousand during the week. I did not get one good photo as I only brought a small point and click digital camera with a worth less zoom. I also wanted to see sea otters. We have lots of river otters around the sound and the San Juan’s but I have not seen a sea otter in the wild. Well again I was told that several were on vacation but all the rest were there. I mean you would see rafts of hundreds of them. I also saw, in one bay that we anchored in, no less than 15 grizzly bears in an hour. We say three females with three clubs each on beaches that we could see from the boat at the same time. Then we saw a few males too. Just cannot describe how exciting it is to see these big animals. One day two we got a show of humpbacks leaping out of the water time and time again. Two of them just keep jumping one after the other, really nice show. And in a few orcas and a large group of porpoise and you have a idea of the amount of wild life in the area.

Well that was the trip. Fish, whales, bear, seals, fox , deer, otter and puffin plus a dozen birds I can’t even remember the name of. I will post pic or links to pic as soon as I figure out how to post a link to my face book photo album.
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416rigby · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:06 pm Post subject:

Reading you post brought a huge smile to my face, Tom. I love it when folks have a great experience like that. We sure miss the outdoor adventures we had there. We never tired of taking visitors out on the boat and getting them into halibut and salmon. It was just a blast.

Now you have to go back again... Laughing

Rick

breausaw · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:15 pm Post subject:

Tom, that’s one incredible trip…you let the cat out of the bag now.

I engineered on a commercial fishing boat around Kodiak for a couple of years in the late 80s, glad to hear its still producing monsters. Hunting there is also incredible, and if you like steamer clams we use to fill a 5 gallon bucket in minutes; always had a bucked of clams washing out on deck.

What you did in a few days takes me a summer to accomplish in Prince William Sound, its biomass can’t compare to Kodiaks. One of these days I’d love to take the Triple J across on the ferry for a couple weeks of exploration and fishing.

You’re spoiled now....

Jay

starcrafttom · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject:

I dont know the area and was wandering if its possable to run a c-dory from pws to kodiak? is there fuel on the way or is kodiak the first stop??

starcrafttom · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject:

oH and I saw two c-dorys there. One 22 angler and a 16. never saw the owners.

Wandering Sagebrush · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:19 pm Post subject:

breausaw · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:53 pm Post subject:

Wandering Sagebrush · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:56 pm Post subject:

breausaw · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:10 pm Post subject:

I wouldn’t hesitate to make the crossing with a good 36 to 48 hour weather window, its getting back across that would be the big unknown.

rogerbum · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject:

You can take a ferry from Homer to Kodiak. The rate is $12.60/foot so for a truck with a 22'CD (probably 45-48' overall), you're looking at about $600 one way. One way is about 9 hours.