Fishing Update / Doc Warners - Alaska Fishing Adventures

Fishing Updates

August 6, 2007

The weather and the fishing were nice enough to convince people they should move to Southeast Alaska. Cloudy with a few showers early in the week and severe clear from Thursday on. Temperatures reached into the 70’s over this past week end and that bright light up in the skies is still hurting our eyes and turning our skin red today as I write this report. Lovely weather and small tides did exactly what you would expect—the catches increased.

We have a fair population of small kings in the area so guests need to make sure what species of fish they have in the net before putting them in the fish well. It’s too late to throw an undersized king back, and expect it to live and grow, after you have conked it on the head. We caught 5 kings last week, two were legal size and the others released.

Early in the week the silver fishing was outstanding. Later, when the sun was shining brightly, the catch dropped off. Fish size is average and they seem to be spread throughout the water column. Some guest reported catching them deep but when I was out on Friday we caught all three of our silvers at a depth of about 35 feet. Two weeks ago guests caught 190 silvers and this past week they caught 492 silvers. Even those who hate numbers can see the upward trend in the harvest. With sunshine forecast for most of the coming week this count will probably decrease slightly. Thus far all indications point to a good silver fishing season.

Chum fishing is staying steady. We took 75 chums this week. The biggest surprise to me was that they are still bright fish and the meat is still excellent. They are still slightly larger than the silvers but that should change in the next few days as the larger silvers begin coming.

The pink salmon run is still strong although we are seeing many more fish that are beginning to turn. Still, they are so numerous that the fishing along Home Shore is fast and fun. Now with the arrival of more silvers you never are quite sure what the next hook-up will bring. We landed 1350 pinks this past week. Our average pink catch for the past four weeks has been about 1350 fish.

We caught 453 halibut. We took one 205 pound halibut that made all of us jealous. Early in the season we seemed to have a missing gap of fish weighing between 40 and 80 pounds. That gap seems to have disappeared now as more fish in this range are showing in the catch. The catch average for the past four weeks has been about 450 halibut. Remember, we report total catch, including those that are released, because of Fish and Game requirements.

For those of you suffering in the hot summer down in the lower 48, Come see us sometime in beautiful, cool, pleasant, Excursion Inlet, Alaska.

— Doc

Previous Reports: