Winter Activities

Upcoming posts:

This winter I have been invited to be a featured contributor on Dinner's With Dan where Brian and I will be taking our knowledge of seafood and giving everyone a taste of Alaskan cooking.  We will be regularly featured on every first and third Thursday of each month.  I look forward to showing everyone how Alaskans eat and prepare their seafood.  

Our recipe from last week was a panko breaded black cod recipe with baked potato pieces and sauteed asparagus.  If you would like the recipe you can visit Dan's website which is located at the top of my blog under Dinner's With Dan.  Cooking is my second passion next to fishing and sharing some of my delicious recipes is a privilege.  This winter will be much more enjoyable as I will be able to continue blogging and I am very excited for fishing next year. I am going to try and update this blog on a regular basis and include more detailed descriptions of the adventures had in the Alaskan wilderness.  If anyone has any recipes they recommend feel free to send me an email with it and I will try to work it into our planned courses we will be making throughout the winter.

Thank you for following my blog this summer.    If you have any questions from now until next spring feel free to send me an email @ fskane67@gmail.com.  And as always, thank you for reading and if you like this blog please subscribe.

End of the Season

This is the end...

Well, fishing season has come and gone and it was a good year not only for me but for the entire state of Alaska.  This year we had a record catch of 268 million salmon.  That is a lot of fish and that is just counting the commercial fisheries.  We also have to take into consideration all of those sport fisherman out there so it is probably more around 300 million considering we have a population of just over 700 thousand and a strong tourism season from May-September.  So a little recap of this year.  We caught...

Dolly Varden

Chum Salmon

Pink Salmon

Coho Salmon

Dog Salmon[left], Coho Salmon[right]

Halibut

It was a good year of fishing.

Thank you for following my blog this summer.  I look forward to doing it again next year.  If you have any questions from now until next spring feel free to send me an email @ fskane67@gmail.com.  And as always, thank you for reading and if you like this blog please subscribe.

The Coho Run!

Cowee Creek and The Coho Salmon Run

There have been a few reports of a large run of coho salmon in a remote part of Juneau.  I will be making a trip out and documenting the entire experience.  My goal is to catch at least a dozen of these delicious species by the end of the month.  I will not be revealing an exact location but this creek has about 2 miles of fish able shoreline.  There is only about a month of fishing left in the 2013 fishing season but we are going to make the most of it.  I have been keeping a running total and here are the numbers to date:

Chum Salmon:

 

: 40 salmon for a total of 250 pounds.

King Salmon:

: 4 salmon for a total of 90 pounds.

Pink Salmon:

: 20 salmon for a total of 120 pounds.

Coho Salmon:

: 4 salmon for a total of 67 pounds.






-As always, thank you for reading 
and if you enjoy this blog please subscribe.

Cowee Creek

Kowee Creek

First Coho of the year!

Location

My first coho of the year came from not open water fishing but stream fishing all the way out the road at a little place called Cowee Creek.  It's about 40 miles away from town but has the most amazing fishing from July to September.  This creek has a great pink salmon run from mid July through the next week or two(mid/late August.)  The only thing to watch out for are the Grizzly Bears.  You may find yourself fishing in the most pristine creek bed and suddenly be sharing your personal space with a large mother and maybe one or two cubs.  The width of this creek at its widest location is approximately 15-25 feet and runs at about 2-3 feet with some really good pockets for fish that run at about 5 feet.

 Setup

Krocadile Luhr Jensen

All of my fish were caught on a 1/2 oz krocadile DIE #3 Luhr Jensen which has that orange bobble that resembles an egg only its a flat piece of plastic so it's legal for pre-bait fishing. The reel I was using was the Shakespeare Crusader from 2012 which has done very well for the past year and is very low maintenance.  The rod I chose for this trip was the Daiwa D-Shock and the reason why I chose such a small lightweight pole was for its feeling.  Due to the fact that coho salmon bite very gingerly in streams you need something with a lot of feel and reaction.  You definitely need to be able to tell when to set the hook.  This entire setup probably ran me around 50 dollars and can be found at your local sporting goods store or at Western Auto here in Juneau.

Daiwa D-Shock

Shakespeare Crusader

Identification and catch method 

 This is the only fish I ended up keeping for the day as all of the other pink salmon were no longer edible.  This small male coho provided 2 14 oz steaks and was promptly put on ice.  As you can see from the lower picture the belly and sides were still very bright.  The back and top fins of the coho were a dark green color and the only real way to tell them apart from a female pink salmon is the coloration and spots on the caudal fin.  The mouth may be deceptive and be misshapen like that of a pink salmon but as long as there are spots on the rear fin and is bright on the belly and sides you should be able to tell the difference.  I would recommend a larger setup for fishing out in the open water or bank fishing on the beach as you can often times pick up silvers and kings that weigh a lot more than what my 12 pound test can handle.  Stream fishing is more of an art and takes more finesse.  You must be careful about setting the hook and not jerking the line back while you are fighting the fish due to the fact that the stream is also fighting against your line.  Often times the fish will run up stream so as long as you let the fish run towards the bank you are standing on you should be in a good position to reel in the fish quickly.

Cleaning and food preparation

In the photo to the right I am preparing the fish first by bleeding it from the gills.  (If you are not new to fishing you can disregard this last section as you already know how to clean and prepare a fish for food.)  After the fish has been properly bled out you can start by cutting the belly from underneath the pectoral fins to the anus.  Don't be afraid to cut too deep as you will only puncture internal organs that can be cleaned after you have gutted the fish.  After you have made your first cut you can begin scooping out the innards.  If it is a female there will be two rows of roe towards the bottom of the belly forward of the anus.  You may choose to keep these as they are good for bait and/or pickling.  Once all the innards have been removed you will want to scrape the blood line below the spine.  This will keep the meat fresh and tender.    Always use as little water as possible as it tends to firm up the meat. When cutting a filet from a fish I find it easiest to start from the head and work towards the tail.  Make your first cut just below the gills and cut straight down until you are almost at the spine.  Once you have done this make a turn in your cut and run the blade, which should be a very sharp filet knife, and run it straight along the spine.  Get the blade as close to the rib cage, which you can see by looking under the filet on the inside, and continue all the way down to the tail.  It is best to keep the meat cool after you have prepared it so having some Ziploc bags and ice will keep your fish fresh and cool.

-As always, thank you for reading 
and if you enjoy this blog please subscribe.

Silver Salmon Fishing: August-September

     It has been a long wait, but the coho run has finally started.  If you go out into the open with a boat or a guide, there are many big fish to be had.  This picture shows from left to right: 3 halibut, a small halibut, and 4 salmon what appear to be a few kings and possibly a silver on the far right.  Joan and her husband Doug, who is taking this picture, are the family who I go fishing with the most.  

     Silver salmon can be fished out of most of the southeast streams and rivers however if you want the freshest fish that have the best meat going out on a boat is your only option.  The greater Juneau area also has a fall king run which starts anywhere from August 1-15th.  The local fishery already has a small run that began last week.  The workers told me that the fall king run started very early this year, so if you missed your kings earlier this year, it's time to get out there and put in the rod hours to earn your king.  Fish Creek on Douglas Island is a great spot to either fly fish or pond fish for kings and cohos.

This is a picture of Doug trying to find a good spot to drop the lures and begin the day.  We have had a great summer so far and it looks to be a great late summer/early fall. This boat is seriously awesome and I can't wait to get back out there and slay some more fish.  On a side note, this vessel was designed and built in Clarkston, WA and you can find their website below.  I have been fishing the chum run quite regularly to provide Doug and Joan crab bait.  The chum salmon are a very good source of free bait to get king crab and dungeness crab.  Unfortunately the local shrimp fishing season was not opened this year and reports from the DFG there will not be a commercial or sport fishing season for the shrimp stock for the next few years due to over fishing.  Just remember August and September are the best times to catch your halibut, coho salmon, and deer (yes I said deer!)  Buck season officially opened August 1st and I will be going hunting within the next few weeks.

As always, thank you for reading and if you enjoy this blog please subscribe.

Duckworth Boats

Summer fishing update:

Spring king season has come and gone and the doldrums of mid summer chum salmon has kicked in.  They are everywhere and are in all of the streams and shoreline.  There are only two weeks until buck season begins and with that comes the onset of fall.  During the month of August the Coho run will begin which lasts for about two months.  Coho salmon are a very fun catch due to the fact that they will try anything to get off the line. Once September arrives we will be getting our second run of king salmon.  Late summer has to be my favorite time of the year to fish due to the fact that you can get king and coho in the same stream at the same time.

The picture to the right is a nice king that I caught last week.  He was still really fresh and weighed about 25 pounds.  My friend Tyler was the one who netted it and he is a pro at fishing as well.

Next weekend I will be going out on my friends boat and we will be fishing for halibut, cod, and salmon.

As always, thank you for reading and if you enjoy this blog please subscribe!

First Catch of the Season!

Dolly Varden

First update on fishing to report!  I caught 6 Dolly Varden last week while on my lunch breaks.  They love to follow the salmon in from the open waters.  Dolly will often bite on spoons or anything shiny.  The largest Dolly I caught was 6 pounds with an average of 5 pounds.  I was using my small trout rod with a 5 pound test line and a Krokadile lure pictured on the right.  On average I would spend about 30-40 minutes per day before I would catch my limit of Dolly that I would want to keep.

King Salmon

This past weekend I spent a few hours fishing for king salmon.  My friend and I came away empty handed but a gentleman not more than 10 feet away from me caught a 35 pound king on a pink flying-C.  He claims to have spent around 150-170 hours of rod time before he finally caught his king.  I don't have enough time to spend 170 hours in the amount of time we have to catch the run.  I will however be going back to Sitka this summer to catch kings there.

As always, thank you for reading and please subscribe.

April 13th, 2013: First Day!

Today will mark the first official day of the 2013 fishing season.  A few of us will be heading out to Amalga Harbor to try our hand at Steelhead trout fishing.  There is a small creek that empties into a lake right before the ocean and word has it that there is some decent trout fishing there this time of year.  Amalga Harbor is located about 17 miles outside of town and is accessible from the main road.  There is a boat launch at the parking lot, however we will be fishing just north of the boat launch.  There should be trout running in the Juneau area from April to mid-June with the peak of the season in May.

Rod & Reel Setup:

•  6-6.5 foot length pole
•  4-6 pound test line
•  Spinner lure weighing 1/16 to 1/4 ounces

This basic setup will allow you to get into the tight spots where trout will likely be.  When you are fishing a creek or river cast anywhere from a 45 to 90 degree angle upstream from the bank and allow your line to float downstream.  This allows you to cover more ground and increase the chances of you finding a good spot where the fish are.  Keeping this in mind, if you are using to heavy of a lure it will sink and most likely get caught in branches, downed logs, or rocks.  

Trout Species in Southeast Alaska

There are three main trout species that live in fresh water in Southeast Alaska and are as follows:

Steelhead/Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss):

Rainbow and Steelhead trout are the most widely known trout in the world and are highly sought after by anglers because of their strong fighting abilities.  In Alaska, there are two commonly recognized forms of the rainbow trout and these sup-groups or "forms" are based primarily on where they spend their time feeding and maturing.  The most common rainbow trout in Alaska is the stream-resident form that lives its life entirely in freshwater with maybe short periods of time spent in esturaine or near-shore marine waters.  The second form is commonly known as Steelhead and these rainbow trout leave freshwater as juveniles and migrate long distances in the ocean where they grow to maturity before migrating back to their original waters.  Their length can range up to 45 inches and weigh up to 55 pounds.  

Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii):

Coastal cutthroat trout occur as sea-run or freshwater-resident forms in streams and lakes along the coastal range from lower Southeast Alaska to Prince William Sound and are the most common trout species in the region.  The freshwater-resident form lives in a wide variety of habitats, from small headwater tributaries and bog ponds to large lakes and rivers.  Sea-run cutthroat trout are usually found in river or stream systems with accessible lakes, mostly south of Fredrick Sound.  In some watersheds, like the Taku River, the two forms are found together.  The extent of breeding between the two forms is unknown, and the reason that some fish migrate to sea while others stay in fresh water remains an interesting question.  Freshwater-resident fish living in small ponds or streams are typically 6-16 inches in length.

Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush):

Lake trout have a body shape similar to that of trout and salmon.  they generally have small cream or yellow irregular shaped spots on a silvery-to-dark background.  Males and females are similar, with males having a slightly longer, more pointed snout.  Lake trout can be distinguished from other chars by the absence of pink spots and their deeply forked tail.  A breeding male has dark stripes on its side, and lacks the red or orange exhibited by Dolly Varden and Arctic Char.  There is usually a white leading edge on the pectoral, pelvic, and anal fin.  Alaska lake trout can live longer than 50 years but more typical maximum ages are around 20 years.  The maximum size attained in some Alaskan populations probably exceeds 50 pounds, and 8- to 10-pound fish can be taken in many of the state's fisheries.  The current record is a 47-pound laker caught in Clarance Lake in July 1970.

*Trout information credit:  Alaska Department of Fish and Game

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=animals.listfish

I hope this small trout guide is helpful and I will be updating this section of the blog with current catches and locations (but not to specific) throughout the season.

Happy fishing!

Thank you for reading and if you like this blog please subscribe and share.

-Eric

4.13.13

Fishing Recap 2012

Stika (July 11-15)

Last year was a very interesting year for fishing in Alaska.  It was my first trip to Sitka for some real king salmon fishing.  We spent four days out fishing on a little 15' Boston Whaler.  The limit for any given day was around 12 kings.  The picture below was from day 2.  The largest king we caught that day was around 20 pounds.  

On this day I actually caught the large one on the bottom right, and he actually snapped my pole right in half but i managed to reel him in and net him!  The only reason the pole snapped in the first place was because I tried to set the hook right as he pulled away and the combined pressure definitely was too much for my pole.  A big thanks to Devin for taking me around Sitka and showing me how to set a halibut line as well as the good spots to fish for king salmon, Sockeye salmon, and halibut.  A general word of advice for fishing in Sitka is you have to have someone with a boat to get to the good spots.  Most of them are not accessible from hiking trails.  If you do plan on hiking to your fishing spot be forewarned bring a gun as there are black and brown bears.  On the last day in town, we decided to hit up Redoubt Cove which is a large river mouth that empties into a cove where all of the Sockeye salmon go to spawn.  We were fishing along the banks, and also dip-netting into the river mouth.  All of a sudden we hear some rustling in the woods and that is when a huge grizzly bear mom and 2 of her cubs pop out not more than 20 feet from us.  We immediately got into our boat and cast off the bank.  It was a very surreal moment and I will be inserting more photos from this trip tonight.  At the end of the day we had limited out and headed back home.  My favorite way of preparing Sockeye salmon is not a filet but smoking the belly.  Sockeye belly is considered by some people the best part of the fish and when you smoke it you get a very unique taste and it also retains a lot of the fish oils.

Juneau

Cowee Creek (June-July)

Cowee creek is a very interesting place to fish.  There are a few species that run through there in the early summer.  You can catch anything from a dolly varden to coho salmon.  On many of our trips out there Brian and I would limit out on our pink salmon catch in roughly an hour.  The dolly varden are a lot harder to spot and don't bite as aggressively as the pinks.  The larger salmon in this picture are all male and have a leaner meat with less taste.  The smaller fish on the right side of the picture are all female.  These are the ones you really want to catch if you are looking for some decent early season steaks and fillets.  They are not the most coveted salmon in Southeast Alaska but man are they tasty.  The pink salmon run is from early June to mid July and the runs really depend on the location.  

     My favorite early season fish though has to be the dolly varden.  If you are lucky enough to catch some of these their meat is tender, juicy, and full of flavor.  My favorite recipe for this fish has to be a basic blackened seasoning with a flour, egg, salt, and pepper batter.  They don't take long to cook so be careful not to overcook them.  The size of the dolly varies greatly and you can catch anything from a few pounds to well over six or seven pounds.  Below is a prime example of a female (top) and a male (bottom).  They can also vary widely in coloration.  The ones in Southeast Alaska are mainly a greenish silver color with spots.  If you manage to catch one on a small setup they are a lot of fun to reel in.  Be careful though as they like to run to hiding places which can get your line stuck under some nasty logs or rocks.

North Douglas (June-September)

North Douglas in Juneau, Alaska has to be one of my favorite places to go bank fishing.  It is wide open with lots of shoreline.  You can basically catch all of the species of salmon that run through the area and most of them will be fresh and not spawned out.  The false outer point location is an excellent spot to get an early season king but be careful as there are a lots of locals that like to sit out there all day and they are not the friendliest of people.  If you go out to false outer point make sure it is at low tide as there are lots of rocks to get your gear caught on.  Intermediate and high tides are probably the worst times to go out there.  Fish Creek, which is also located on North Douglas, is a great spot to fish King Salmon in this small lagoon which is just off of the main river, but this location is also heavily fished so it is best to go very early in the morning or just before dusk.  Later in the season around August you can sometimes find people fly fishing the river for Coho Salmon.  

Catch of the day

Two King Salmon- Sitka, AK

Alaskan Summer Fishing Guide

Entry 1

Today I begin the quest to start blogging.  As this is my first attempt there will most likely be a learning curve.  

The start of the new season (spring) is official, but it sure doesn't feel this way.  It has been surprisingly cold this spring so far, and it snowed last weekend.  However it was 60 degrees on Sunday.  So this past week it was mostly clear but crisp and cool with a mild hint of a spring breeze.  When we were on our hike I noticed that none of the native critters had come out yet.  Quite weird being that I am a native Californian and the critters are usually out all year. The only animals out and about were the spring time birds which had arrived only a few weeks earlier.  

Mendenhall Glacier

A Steller's Jay

The Steller's Jay is very similar to a common blue jay from down south.  They are quite annoying and like to nest away from people.  They often will try and take food from anyone who will leave it out in the open, however if you even think about approaching their nest... think again.

Fishing Season

It's that time of year again.  Time to break out the rods, reels, lures, and fishing line.  On Sunday I had enough free time in between laundry, cleaning, and a beer run to get all the fishing gear set up and ready for this season.  There aren't very many places you can fish right now but the Steelhead Trout will begin their run in the next few weeks.  A fishing license for out of state visitors is very expensive, so if you are thinking about coming to visit Alaska for its legendary fishing, be ready to drop a solid 100 dollars to catch some salmon.  The in state license is only 37 with a King Salmon stamp which allows an in-state resident to catch up to three King Salmon per day.

The main purpose of this blog is to provide an accurate account for this years fishing season.  Brian and I have a boat this year so there should be more entry's then there would have been last year.  I will also be keeping track of any interesting activities and wildlife I encounter this upcoming summer.

So stay tuned and subscribe. If you have any questions or comments feel free to shoot me an email.

-Eric

4.9.13