Fishing Updates

July 24, 2006

The month of July closed out on a uniform basis.  Take-home weights of fillets stayed between the high 60's and 80 pounds per guest.  The pattern for the summer now appears to be strong runs of salmon, running a week to 10-days late, and a moderate halibut run with lots of smaller fish.  We also think this will end up being a cooler and wetter summer than the past few years.

The halibut catch was down slightly this past week but that would be expected because early in the week the winds limited fishing on the halibut grounds.  Add to that the factor that all the big halibut reported by guests were involuntarily release before they could be boated.  Several were lost along side the boat.  Big and painful memories, but not much to eat.  Lastly, when salmon fishing is really good it's hard to pull of salmon fishing and go for halibut.

The chum salmon catch continued to decline.  Only 42 chums were brought into the dock this past week.

As predicted the pink harvest stayed about the same as the previous week.  Just over 1000 fish were processed.  Early in the week the number of pink caught was 2 to 3 times the number of silvers.  As the week progressed the number of silvers in the catch increased while the pink harvest stayed quite constant.  I expect the number of pinks to begin declining this coming week.  On Thursday the schools of pinks started arriving in front of the lodge which means evening fly fishing and spinner fishing will be exciting for the next few weeks. 

The silver harvest jumped from the 239 a week ago to 467 this past week.  The biggest silver was over 16 pounds, and several weighted in at about 15.5 pounds.  We were catching silvers up to 11 pounds while standing on the dock.

Friday was just one of those almost perfect fishing days in Southeast Alaska.  Clear skies, bright sunshine, temperatures in the high 60's, calm winds, and outstanding salmon fishing.  It was a glorious time to be at Doc Warner's.

— Doc

Previous Reports:

• July 16, 2006
• July 9, 2006
• July 2, 2006
• June 25, 2006
• June 19, 2006
• June 11, 2006
• June 4, 2006
• May 28, 2006
• May 8, 2006
• May 4, 2006
• 2005 Fishing Season