Fishing Update / Doc Warners - Alaska Fishing Adventures

Fishing Updates

2005 Fishing Season

The season has ended, the lodge is closed, and only the wildlife and a few neighbors who choose to spend the winter in Excursion Inlet, remain. Collectively, the summer was a great success. Catches, in terms of fish taken home, were similar to the numbers of the past several seasons. The staff at the lodge was outstanding. We have never had nicer, more cooperative, and caring people to work with. I'm sure part of that was because of how pleasant the guests were also.

Prior to our arrival Fish and Game expanded the king bag limits to 1-per-day and 5-per-season. That allowed an additional two fish two each persons bag limit for kings. The expansion was done in anticipation of larger than normal king runs. Alas, no one remembered to tell the kings. We caught kings most of the month of June, but only the week beginning on June 12 th produced catches in the numbers we anticipated. The poor king fishery was evident throughout all of northern southeast Alaska . Not only was the escapement weak, the fish were smaller than normal. Instead of catching fish averaging 25 to 30 pounds, most kings weighted between 18 and 22 pounds.

I don't usually comment on the non-sport fish species, but I believe it is worth noting that the schools of herring were much smaller than in past years. Usually we could go to Point Adolphus to watch whales and see large schools of herring. That was not the case this year. Herring schools were small and spread out much more than normal. As a result the whales did not concentrate around Point Adolphus, but were spread throughout Icy Strait. Since Herring are the primary food source of most salmon species their being less abundant would account for the smaller size of the kings this year.

Chum salmon fishing has been a stable part of the fishery, beginning in mid-June, for the past several years. Great eating, low fat, and a fight similar to kings, these fish keep life interesting for the anglers. For some reason chums were no-shows this year. We had entire weeks, during what is usually the peak of the chum run, where we did not see a single chum brought to the dock.

Halibut fishing was great all summer. The most consistent comment from guests had to do with the overabundance of small halibut-fish in the 5- to10-pound range. For some reason we received a tremendous year-class of these smaller fish. The small fish would take the bait almost as soon as it hit the bottom and would not give the larger fish time to get to the bait. It kept the action fast, but required releasing lots of smaller fish while waiting for the big ones to come along. Given a choice most of us still provide lots of action, even if it requires releasing smaller fish, than sitting for long periods of time waiting for a bite. Our biggest halibut was 236 pounds though we did see one a neighbor caught that weighed 387 pounds. Even with all the smaller fish it was a great year for catching halibut.

Pink salmon were a bumper crop. They came early and stayed late. It was one of those years where 1000's of them were stacked up along the shore at the lodge. Limits were easy to take, even after Fish and Game upper the daily bag limit to 12 fish, and many hours where spent doing catch-and-release with these fish. Our guests' favorite after-dinner activity was standing on the shore casting for the pinks. You could catch them as fast as you could cast, retrieve, and release the previous fish.

The silver run was mixed and was one of the poorer runs of the past few years. They came early and it looked like a good run, but never built into the numbers of fish we are used to seeing. In early August we often worried if there was going to be a decent run, then fishing would be great for a few days, and then another drop off. Like the kings, the average size of silvers was smaller than in recent years. I believe this is a correlation with the small amount of herring that we were seeing. Some weeks in July and August the numbers were normal in terms of the number of fish caught. One week, which had three days of stormy weather, we couldn't entice one to bite. The next week was wonderful.

Looking at the summer as a whole, the average weight of filleted fish that guests took home, was consistent all summer. Weather was more of a factor in catch than fish abundance. That means that for those who prefer longer days and milder weather, you can come in late June and early July and you don't have to give up catching lots of fish. Your choice is really on which salmon species you want to catch in addition to catching halibut. It really doesn't matter which week you come during the summer you will have fun and catch lots of fish in the meantime.

Thanks to all who made this such a great summer season! We look forward to seeing you soon in Alaska and at the various fishing shows around the west.

— Doc

Previous Reports: