We both signed up on the spot for a
five-day all-inclusive fishing trip (except airfare,
which we got for free through Ty's frequent flyer miles).
As it turned out, we made a great choice, as both the
charter company and Sitka were everything that we could
have hoped for. The people at Big Blue were fantastic and
the scenery and fishing outstanding. We stayed at the Sitka Hotel, which is
an older but nicely kept place with a great little
restaurant named Victoria's.
On Wednesday, 6/13/01, the first day
out, we motored through rough seas, occasional rain, and
wind for about two hours to get to the salmon fishing
spot. They had two downriggers, with two poles trolling
at a time. They only have four people to a boat, so we
just took turns, with the next guy in line taking the
next fish. As it turned out we didn't need the second
pole, because everytime we put the first one in the
water, we had a 30+ pound King Salmon taking our line.
We all caught our limit (one per
day) in no time, and then had fun catching and releasing
35 pound salmon until we were getting tired. I kept the
first fish, not knowing if there would ever be a second
one, and it turned out to be the smallest of the day -
about 25 pounds. Ty got a 34 pounder. We even landed a
few coho (silver salmon), that must have come early just
for us.
After that we headed three miles out
to sea to the halibut fishing grounds. We anchored there
and then bounced and rolled in the wind and breaking seas
for a couple of hours, with no luck. Ty was catching
Yellow Eye, but no halibut. We ended up pounding our way
back to Sitka through the breaking seas for two and a
half-hours with nothing but our salmon and a few rock
fish. We were beginning to wonder if we would have much
of anything to bring back. As it turned out, we need not
have worried.
Wednesday
morning dawned overcast, but with calm seas and no wind.
We arrived at the boat to find that they were in between
charter groups, and so we had the entire boat to
ourselves! We headed out to a closer location at the head
of the bay to try the salmon fishing there, and had the
same experience as the day before.
We had one or two Kings on the line
for the entire time that we were out there. This time the
fish were smaller - in the 25 pound range. We caught and
released 12 salmon, and eventually kept two that weighed
in at about 25 pounds each.
With
smoother water it only took about an hour to motor out to
the halibut fishing grounds. A great improvement over the
day before when the same trip took two tiring hours of
bashing into the rolling seas. We dropped our lines, and
waited....and waited....and waited. Nothing. An hour went
by and we were beginning to wonder if there was anything
down there besides rockfish and sand sharks.
Then my pole jumped, and the tip
bent down as something pulled hard on the other end. I
held it for a few seconds until I felt another solid
pull, and then set the hook. That time the pole doubled
over as something really heavy tried to rip it out of my
hands. Mike, our skipper, said it looked like I had a big
one on.
I worked
for about 10 minutes pulling and reeling a large halibut
off the bottom, 350 feet below us. After a while I got
him up and knew it wouldn't be too much longer when the
fish made a run and peeled off about 50 yards of line.
The skipper said, "That's a big fish!"
After about
another 5 minutes I had him up thrashing and pounding on
the surface next to the boat. The skipper took a harpoon
that had a rope tied to the boat and speared him through
the head. After the fish calmed down we pulled him up and
beat his brains out until he was finished off. We pulled
him on board and he measured out to just over 62"
long, and 125 pounds!
We continued fishing,
hoping for something even better. It started to rain, so
we put on rain gear while we waited for the next fish to
arrive. Ty was in the middle of putting his on when he
got a bite. He grabbed his pole and could tell right away
that it was another big one. Unfortunately, he hadn't
finished with his slickers, and his pants dropped around
his ankles. He was stumbling around as we were laughing
at him trying to reel in the fish, but just then the hook
came out, and the fish got away. Ty says, "That's
what's called getting caught with your pants down!"
I guess all the activity must have
attracted the fish, as from that time on we had a fish on
just about full time. I ended up with the 125 pounder,
and three more that weighed in at 40, 40, and 20 pounds.
Ty caught a nice 94 pound halibut and one that weighed 70
pounds.
As we caught the last fish, and had
the limit for the boat I happened to check my watch:
11:59:55. Not a bad day. Between the salmon caught and
released and the halibut, we had taken over 600 pounds of
fish before noon! The skipper said that was the best
salmon or halibut fishing they had seen so far this year.
The next day we had another couple
on board with us - Brian and Gina from Utah. They were a
lot of fun, and we had a good day fishing together.
Another great day, with the weather even better than the
day before. By the afternoon we were all taking off
jackets and rain gear as the sun came out and really
warmed things up.
Ty and I limited out on salmon
without too much trouble with a couple of nice fish in
the 25 pound range. Then we headed off to the usual spot
for halibut. It was a very slow afternoon, with only one
halibut that day, even though we were within a few feet
of our position from the previous day. Luckily, it was a
big fish caught by Ty. It measured out at about 61
inches, and 115 pounds, leaving me still the reigning
champion halibut fisherman of the family, as it should
be.
All-in-all, we had a fantastic trip.
We got to see the truly unspoiled Alaskan wilderness,
with countless sea birds, eagles, and humpback whales. We
met a lot of really nice people and had the time of our
lives. We caught so many huge salmon and halibut that we
would have thought it was another fish story, except that
we were there, and it turned out to be true. Oh yeah, and
as if that wasn't good enough, we brought back all the
fish that the airline would let us take home - 280 pounds
of halibut and salmon fillets between the two of us!
If you get a chance to go deep sea
fishing in Alaska some day, make sure you try out Sitka,
and make sure you do it with Mike and Karen at Big Blue
Charters. They took great care of us, have
excellent equipment and boats, and they were a pleasure
to deal with.
