On Monday, August 12th, I set out from Orange County Airport on my way to Sitka for a few days of fishing. I had already heard from Seiji Kama that the weather and fishing had both been great the week before. Even though the weather forecast was calling for showers during the days I was to be fishing, my spirits were not dampened and I was really charged up. The flight from Seattle to Sitka was a postcard in motion! The sun was shining and the air was crystal clear, so the view of the inland passage, with the mountains, islands and beautiful waterways was fabulous. I landed in Sitka about 1:30, and was met by a van from Wild Strawberry Lodge, the home of Alaska Premier Charters.
After arriving at the lodge I was provided with my full suit of rain-gear, including boots, and shown to our rooms overlooking the harbor. There were three sets of bunks for the three of us, and a private bath. After dropping off my gear I headed off for a walk into town to scope it out, and make plans for the next day. A short walk along the shore brought me to the town. There were plenty of shops to wander through, and very few people around. The population of the town is about 8,500. It is on Baranoff Island and there are no roads connecting it with the mainland. The highway starts at the ferry landing on the north end, and just ends on the south end. After getting my bearings, I made plans for the next day when I would have more time, and headed back to the lodge for dinner. Dinner is served at 6:00. It is set out buffet style, with salad, fresh vegetables, a non-seafood dish, a salmon dish, a halibut dish, rice, fresh baked bread and desert. Every dish was great every night. When you leave they also give you a recipe book that contains most of the dishes you get during your stay.
Tuesday I had the "Late Breakfast" at 8:00, then got a ride to the Raptor Center. This is a center for helping birds of prey that have been injured, most by humans or their devices. They have a number of birds on site, some healing prior to being released to the wild and some are permanent residents that would not be able to survive in the wild. After visiting the center and touring the museum I headed down the trail to the stream. It was packed with pink salmon getting ready to spawn. They were thick, especially below a fish ladder. It was a sight to behold.
After the Raptor center I set off for the Sitka Historical Park, right across the main road though town. It has some fantastic paths through the forest, with a number of totem poles and historical plaques. There are some great views of the water, the rain forest and the town. After leaving the park there are some very interesting museums to visit which show both the local area and displays from all of Alaska. It was impossible to fit them all into a single day of playing tourist. After a great lunch of local shrimp and some more sightseeing, I headed back to the lodge to meet the other members of our group, Jim Matsueda and Lui Kodama. We had dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in Sitka, then headed back to the lodge to get ready for the next day.
Wake-up calls come at 4:30 on fishing days. We had already been up and almost dressed by the time the call arrived. Breakfast is ready at 5:00, served buffet style. We filled up and headed down to the docks. Johny, the skipper of the Hunter, and John, the deckhand were ready for us at 5:30, all set to head up the water to the day's fishing spot. The morning was fantastically clear as we headed up the inland passages, seeing pleanty of jumping pink salmon, and some bald eagles along the way. We pulled up on a spot of "feed", with salmon marks visible on the meter. The call came to "Drop them in", so we made our first cast. After about a 50 foot drop I felt the tapping on the bait. I cranked until the tip loaded up and then set the hook on my first silver of the trip! A fine start to a great day of fishing. We then hooked up on some rock fish, so immediately moved off the pinnacles to get back to the salmon. The Kings and silvers kept coming until we had a limit of Kings, one per person, and were close to a limit of nice silvers, six per person. All before 10:00!
We moved a few hundred yard to an area with a flat bottom covered with pebbles and anchored up to try to get some halibut. It was fairly shallow, about 250', so we were able to continue using the salmon rods, baited up with salmon guts instead of the plugged herring. We finished our limits of silvers, caught two ling cod, and were close to a limit of halibut. I managed to get a 35 pounder, and a 77 pounder. Altogether a fantastic day! We headed back to the lodge with a boatfull of nice fish. During the day we had also seen 6 whales moving through the area, blowing, rolling and doing tail flips. What a sight!
We got back to the lodge with plenty of time to get cleaned up, enjoy the halibut seviche, and swap tales of our days fishing before dinner was ready at 6:00. Then relax for a little while before hitting the bed for a good night's sleep.
Thursday morning we were again up and dressed by the time the wake-up call came. After breakfast we headed down to the Kuma (Japanese for Bear) and met up with Theresa, the skipper, and Greg. We cast off and headed north, returning to the same grounds as the previous day. I started out as almost a repeat of Wednesday, except that we were limited on the Kings by 9:30! We again anchored up on the pebbly bottom for a chance at some halibut. I set up a "meat-stick" with my 2-speed TLD-30 loaded with 60 pound mono and a large jig tipped with salmon guts and a herring. I spent hours jigging that thing off the bottom, getting a 16 pound silver and a nice 43 pound ling. I finally set it in the rod holder to watch Lui bring up a small halibut.
Suddenly Greg noticed my rod was doubled over and gave me a shout! I was barely able to get it out of the holder as the line was zipping out. We had to lie down on the pulpit to hand the rod under the anchor line. I then proceeded to bring something up from about 250 feet. I worked it up about halfway a few times before it headed back down to the bottom. Finally it came up high enough to see the boat, and headed back down again, thankfully not all the way back. Theresa had already loaded up one bullet into the 357 magnum to get ready. When it finally came into sight again she loaded up another round. I eased it close enough for Theresa and Greg to grab the line. Theresa got a grip on the line and put two rounds through a halibut brain before she and Greg gaffed the fish and dragged it on board. It taped out at 150#!
Shortly after dressing out the halibut it was time to head back to the lodge to clean up and have another great dinner. On the way back Theresa pointed out the flamingos on one of the islands north of Sitka. Another interesting sight in Alaska!
Friday morning was a repeat of Thursday until we got to the same fishing grounds. The Kings started biting immediately! We had our limits by 9:00, and still kept hooking up big Kings. Before the day was out we had released eight BIG King salmon! I had thought that nothing could beat our Wednesday trip, but Thursday did. Then I thought that nothing could beat Thursday until Friday came along. We had limits of Kings, limits of Silvers, and close to limits of Halibut. I ended up with two 80 pounders on Friday! It is hard to come up with the right words to describe these three days of fishing in fantastic weather, on flat water, surrounded by beautiful scenery for great fish.
Saturday we had the late breakfast, 8:00. The boats were all out fishing, and three of us were scheduled to head back to California. We headed down to the van with our gear, and watched 12 boxes of fish being loaded up! That comes out to 4 boxes for each of us, with each box containing 65# of frozen filets. We were driven out to the airport, got our fish checked in as baggage, and settled down to wait for the flight.
It had been a great trip, which we will remember for a long time as we are enjoying the fish. Of course we had set up next years reservations before we left. I don't think any trip could match this one, but any trip to the Wild Strawberry Lodge in Sitka has to be a great trip. Keep a watch out for "Alaska '02" on this same web site!
