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