Fishing Update / Doc Warners - Alaska Fishing Adventures

Fishing Updates

September 4 - 10, 2005

Life isn't always fair, even for fishermen. The two weeks prior to the one I'm reporting on here were filled with lots of rain and wind. We saw the average take home weight of fillets drop to 77 pounds, then our lowest catch in years at 42.5 pounds per guest. The whole system rebounded this past week. The winds died down after Monday and the salmon were cooperative every day. In fact the salmon fishing was good enough that guests were reluctant to quit fishing for salmon and go fish for halibut. For those who did go after halibut it was excellent fishing. We had two fish over 100 pounds, several cases of big fish getting away at the boat or the line breaking after a long fight. Any doubts that the fish were gone was completely erased.

Silver fishing was steady most of the week. Every day boats were coming in with limits of fish and stories that were hard to believe. One boat claimed that they were fighting a big silver and when the person who was going to net the fish reached out from the boat he lost his grip on the net and dropped it into the water. As the net was drifting away from the boat it went next to the fish that was still on the line and scared the fish. The fish jumped and landed in the net. The fishermen then pulled in the fish far enough to grab the net handle and finish netting the fish. Everyone in the boat, all 4 sober men, claimed the story was true.

Weather aside, September silver fishing is still one of the prime fishing experiences at Doc Warner's. The size of the fish continues the trend of smaller fish in all species, except pinks, this summer. We did give one trophy pin for an 18-pounder, and had several in the 15-16 pound range. Most of the silvers were in the 8-12 pound range which is smaller than normal.

We had no king salmon caught and just small numbers of chums and pinks. We did land two steelhead in the saltwater and that was interesting because we are not aware of any streams in our area that receive steelhead.

Next week is the final week of the summer for us. Since our numbers will be small, and we have a lot of construction going on, I don't anticipate writing a report for next week. After I get home and get my thoughts sorted out I will write a season summary.

If you are still procrastinating reserving your spaces for either 2006 or 2007 quit it! Get on the phone and get your spaces reserved before someone else comes up and catches your fish, takes your place out laughing with friends, and has their fish jump into the net.

Doc

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