Fishing Updates

June 5-11, 2005

The catch numbers for halibut were up strongly from the previous week. The size of the fish remains typical for early Juneâ lots of little 10 to 20 pound fish with larger ones interspersed throughout the catch. The guests would feel like all the halibut in the area where they were fishing were hatched out just a couple of years ago. Then bam, the next hook-up would weigh 60 to 80 pounds. Catching was steady which always keeps interest high. The largest halibut of the week weighed 100 pounds.

The high pressure systems continue to dominate our weather. Sunny skies, warm temperature, and strong NW afternoon winds were the rule most of the week. Early mornings the seas were calmer, but by afternoon most of the open water areas had rough water and were very difficult to troll in and bouncy when you were anchored up for halibut.

King fishing was still slow, probably caused by bright days and difficult fishing conditions. The outside waters king harvest is at near record levels, and bag limits have been raised to 5 fish per season (still 1-per-day) for non-resident anglers. Both indicate large numbers of kings will be in our areas. (Note: I wrote this report on Monday evening, June 13 th . Our guests today landed 12 kings and missed many more. The kings seem to have arrived in large numbers over the weekend.) The average size of kings is still small. Fish weight mostly in the 18 to 22 pound range. Our largest king taken this summer so far is 28.5 pounds.

The average weight for fish fillets each guest took home this past week was 49 pounds. We saw a few chums jumping and one ended up in our catch.

Doc

Previous Reports:

• May 29 - June 3