Fishing Update / Doc Warners - Alaska Fishing Adventures

Fishing Updates

July 9, 2007

For the ‘sun worshipers’ is was less than a stellar week, but for those who could care less about the sun as long as the fishing was good, it was a stellar week. It rained every day except Friday, and Friday had some fog. However, only early in the week was the wind a factor and made it a little rough out in the Green Buoy area.

King salmon fishing yielded two fish, both in the 25-30 pound range. They were caught incidental to the fishing for the other salmon species.

Silver fishing improved from 58 fish the previous week to 97 this past week. The silvers were in schools and the lucky boats that happened onto them had some spectacular fishing. The silvers are running in the 8-10 pound range which is typical for this time of the season. We anticipate the catch to at least double this coming week as the run builds.

Chums have reached their peak and are declining in the catch now. We will continue to catch some all summer but they will be less frequent in the bag than the pinks and silvers. They are still bright fish, not showing water marks, and excellent fare.

It’s a big pink year. The catch jumped from 385 two weeks ago to 783 this past week. Lots of boats were taking their limits of 6 pinks per person in about an hour and a half. We have pinks beginning to school at the dock and they are jumping everywhere. For guests who just love to catch fish and don’t have a lot of patience to sit and wait for the bite, this is big-time fun. Pinks are hitting on pink hoochies and about any color of dodger or flasher you want to use. One change in the regulations this year allows guest to use any part of pinks or chums as halibut bait. In the past the use of salmon was restricted to non-edible parts such as bellies, tails, and heads. Fish used for bait do count as part of your daily bag limit.

As the tide levels decreased the halibut catch went up as we expected. The majority of the fish are in the 28 to 34 inch range. Interestingly, we are not catching many halibut in the 40 to 80 pound range. The larger fish, 80 pounds and up, seem to be present in better than average numbers. Our catch jumped from 385 the previous week to 454 this past week. Other than the missing weight range I believe halibut fishing is better this year than last.

The last three weeks the average number of fish caught per guest (some of which were released and not kept) has been 16.2 fish, then 14.7 fish, and this past week is was 21.5 fish per guest. These numbers are more relative than accurate because guests have trouble remembering how many fish they caught and released. However, they do give a good picture of the trend showing that the numbers of fish, and the fishing action, is increasing.

If you’re still planning of coming up next year I suggest you call the office and talk with Clif or Rob about making reservations. With the good fishing this year the number of requests for reservations in future years is also growing.

— Doc

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