* Purchase Your Alaska Fishing License OnlinePosted on May 23rd, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed Just a friendly reminder to all of our guests that will be joining us this summer that’s it’s super easy to purchase your Alaska fishing license and king salmon stamp online before your trip. It makes your check-in that much quicker when you get here. Here’s a link on our website that will guide you thru the process of buying your license online: Purchase Alaska Fishing License and King Salmon Stamp Of course, we’re always happy to sell you a fishing license when you arrive on Prince of Wales Island. We’ve just found that purchasing it online beforehand gives you just a little more time to relax when you get here. See you all real soon! Rob Endsley * 2013 Southeast Alaska Charter Season Draws NearPosted on May 6th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed
Aaah….I just tied my last mooching leader for the upcoming fishing charter season in Craig, Alaska. Shame on me for not getting this done during football season. The Seahawks were so fun to watch last fall that I hardly had time to tie leaders during the games. With all the moves the Seahawks have been making next fall could be even better! I used to tie all my leaders with a 5/0 hook in the front and a 4/0 trailer and now I’m just using straight 4/0’s for everything. The larger 5/0 hook was great for holding the front of the cut plug herring, but the larger size made it a little more difficult to drive the hook home on a king or silver salmon. The 4/0’s seem to set the hook themselves. Some of the other charter captains run straight 5/0’s, some run a 4/0 with a 3/0 trailer and they all catch plenty of fish. The straight 4/0’s just seem to work a little better for me. And yes, I’m a huge fan of Mustad hooks. In Alaska I use Mustad 92568 black nickel hooks, which are 2X strong hooks that hold up to the wide variety of fish that our guests might hook while we’re mooching for salmon. In Washington, however, I pretty much stick with the Mustad 92604 fine wire bait hook whenever I’m using herring. All of these hooks are super sticky sharp and they work great…or I wouldn’t use them. Troy’s new North River is in Washington right now getting it’s full compliment of Lowrance electronics installed and then it’ll be headed for the barge next week. In the meantime I’m as busy as ever loading up on supplies and trying to get some quality time in with the family before heading north here soon. I’ve talked to a few of the guys in Craig the last couple of weeks and there’s already some king salmon showing up around town. A troller friend had a solid catch on his last trip of the winter season last week and I’m crossing my fingers that more king salmon will right behind the fish that he found off the coast. In the meantime there’s lots of work to do to get things ready for this summer. Rob Endsley * Thain’s North River Nears CompletionPosted on April 17th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed Capt. Troy Thain’s new 26′ North River is nearing completion at the North River factory in Roseburg, Oregon. It’ll arrive in Gig Harbor, Washington the first of May to have a full compliment of Lowrance electronics installed before being loaded on the barge in mid-May to head to it’s new home in Craig, Alaska. Chet at the Bay Company in Craig will be rigging this bad boy with twin 150 Mercury outboards and it should be ready to roll and put our guests on the fish by early June sometime. Troy’s new ride with have a ton of deck space so everyone has lots of room to roam and maneuver in the midst of a wide open salmon bite.
We’re hearing early reports of a few king salmon being caught around Craig and Klawock already. When the herring spawn in Craig and Klawock, well, the king salmon aren’t too far behind. Summer can’t come soon enough! There are still a couple of great dates available for the summer of 2013. One of them is July 14-18, which is prime time for a big king as well as a mix of silvers, halibut, and bottomfish. If you’re looking for some awesome king salmon fishing two seats just opened up on the Polar Bear June 16-20. Shoot us an email or call 888-943-4746 if you’re interested in learning more about these great fishing dates. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll post another update soon. Good fishing to you! Rob Endsley * 2013 King Salmon Limits AnnouncedPosted on April 5th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed The Alaska Department of Fish and Game just announced the king salmon limits for recreational fishing in Southeast Alaska. Here’s how the recreational limits play out for non-resident anglers fishing in Southeast Alaska in 2013: January 1- June 30 - Nonresident’s harvest limit is three king salmon 28 inches or greater in length; July 1 - July 15 - Nonresident’s harvest limit is two king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length, and any king salmon harvested by the nonresident from January 1 through June 30 will apply toward the two fish harvest limit. July 16 - December 31 - Nonresident’s harvest limit is one king salmon 28 inches or greater in length, and any king salmon harvested by the nonresident from January 1 through July 15 will apply toward the one fish harvest limit. We’re experiencing a decrease in the king salmon limits this year because the Chinook Abundance Index, which is the barometer used to gauge the king salmon runs in Southeast Alaska, came in at 1.20. We’ve seen the index go as high as 1.69 in 2011 and as low as 1.07 in 2008. When the index hit’s a certain level it automatically triggers a set of recreational limits as set forth in the Salmon Treaty between the U.S. and Canada. Even on years when the abundance index has been very low we’ve still experienced spectacular king salmon fishing in the waters around Craig, Alaska. I’m always a “glass half full” kind of guy and I see this as a great opportunity to harvest a nice king salmon in late July and early August when the big boys are around. Heck, you’ll probably get to catch and release a few other king salmon in between hooking silvers, halibut, ling cod, bottomfish, and all the other fish that you might catch with us on your trip. Rob Endsley * Rockfish Submersion Devices Required for Charters in 2013Posted on March 13th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed
One of the regulations that’s been looming for a while for sportfishing charters in Southeast Alaska is the requirement to use rockfish descenders for all rockfish caught after an angler has retained their limit. These devices will be required on all charter vessels in Southeast Alaska waters for the summer of 2013. While it’s going to be somewhat onerous to connect a rockfish up to the device and send it back down to a safe depth before releasing it I’m firmly behind this new rule. I grew up fishing in Washington’s Puget Sound and if you don’t know how many rockfish are left in the sound I’ll tell ya…very damn few! We didn’t have this rule sooner because no one knew exactly which submersion technique was best for the rockfish. After a lot of experimentation with fizzing needles and milk crates, to name a couple of the test methods, biologists finally landed on this type of device. Some of the gents associated with this rockfish catch and release project tell me that 50 to 60 feet of depth was all that was needed to relieve barotrauma and get these precious bottomfish headed in the right direction. And get this, they had a more than 90 percent success rate during the study. Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulations state that fish need to be released at a depth of at least 100 feet, so I’m guessing that fatality will be next to nothing. The device in the photo above is made by Shelton Products and it’s had great reviews. You can either order one directly from Shelton or build one yourself. Ron Garner, President of the Puget Sound Anglers here in Washington, has been building them with a large Siwash barbless hook, a couple pounds of lead, and a large snap swivel. I think a pipe jig with an upside down barbless hook attached to it would also work. Most of the bottomfish that live in Southeast Alaska waters live a very, very long time and releasing them alive is a good thing for the long term sustainability of charter fishing. Yelloweye rockfish, for instance, live as long as 80 to 90 years. When we deplete these stocks it takes several generations to rebuild them. If using this device means that my daughter can enjoy rockfishing with me in the years to come I’m all for it. I also want to continue taking all of you fishing, as well. Looking forward to another great summer in Alaska. See you all soon! Rob Endsley * New Bait Station for 2013Posted on March 4th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed I’m finally adding something to the Polar Bear that I never thought I would need…a bait station. I’m having Three Rivers Marine in Woodinville, Washington build me a custom bait station that is almost identical to the one below that a good friend has on his Duckworth. At six and a half feet tall the constant bending over of cutting bait and bending over to get bait out of the cooler when the hooks are empty pretty much thrashes my back in the summer. We all spend enough time hanging over the rail taking care of fish there’s just no need to increase that repetitive motion cutting bait and baiting hooks. I’m fairly certain that both Rafael Ramirez and Troy Thain will also be ordering bait stations for their boats, the Brown Bear and the Makai. It just makes perfect sense to have one of these on the boat. Three Rivers Marine custom builds the stations to your specifications and I’m getting pretty much everything you see in the photo below except for the recessed cup holders. Those will simply fill up with herring heads and guts…there’s no need for that.
No longer will there be tools scattered all over the top of the fish tote. Everything will now be conveniently stored in it’s proper place on the bait station. Well, most of the time anyway. I’ll still leave the pliers laying aroundnd just to keep things interesting. The bait station mounts in two “pockets” on the stern of the boat and they can make them as high or short as you like. Mine will just be high enough to open the transom hatch where I store cleaning supplies and other miscellaneous items.
If anyone else in the Craig area would like to order one I’d be happy to ship it north in May when we ship all of our supplies on the barge. If you’re outside of the Craig area Three Rivers Marine will ship your custom built station anywhere. For more details call Kent Alger at Three Rivers at 425-415-1575. I’m also going to have them build me a custom UHMW rack for holding halibut and ling cod jigs. I’m tired of them banging on the storage trays when we’re running offshore. Only three months until we start fishing again in Craig, Alaska. Time sure flies! Rob Endsley * Steamer Clam Recipe Appears in Alaska Airlines MagazinePosted on February 21st, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed A big thanks to outdoor writer Terry Sheeley for including our steamer clam recipe in a recent article he wrote for Alaska Airlines magazine. If you’re in the need for a mid-winter delicacy pick up some steamer clams and give this one a shot. It’s super easy and makes some downright awesome steamers.
I’m already ordering supplies, tying leaders, and ticking down the days before our Alaskan charter fishing season in Craig starts up again. If you’re looking for a saltwater fishing trip in Southeast Alaska this summer drop us a note. We would love to have you join us! Rob Endsley * New Alaskan Fishing Video PostedPosted on February 5th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed Those of you that saw me monkey’ing around with my new Contour video cameras last summer can now see some of the results in our latest Prince of Wales Sportfishing video that I posted to YouTube about a month ago. I use the Contour Roam cameras, which are waterproof right out of the box and are super easy to use. They have an easy On/Off switch on top of the camera so there’s no more guessing as to whether the camera is on, or not. Click on the image below to check out our latest alaskan fishing video and let us know what you think.
We’ve still got a few openings for the 2013 fishing season in Craig, Alaska. These are all great dates during some of the best fishing in Craig: June 12-16 June 24-28 July 6-10 August 16-20 (2 seats) Give us a call at 888-943-4746 for reservations or questions. We’re looking forward to another great fishing season in 2013! Rob Endsley
* Halibut Limits to Remain the Same in 2013Posted on January 26th, 2013 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed The International Pacific Halibut Commission met in Victoria, BC this week and decided to take no action on guided angler regulations in Southeast Alaska for 2013. This results in the same regulations we had in Craig as last summer with a limit of one halibut per day under 45 inches or over 68 inches.
If you’re wondering what that equates in size it’s one halibut under 43 pounds or over 163 pounds. We’re still able to keep the nice chicken halibut that we’re fond of catching and if you happen to catch a big one you can certainly keep it if you like. We released quite a few halibut very close to the 68″ mark last summer, providing both angst and entertainment for our customers. Watching us measure halibut very close to 68″ inches proved to be quite entertaining!
There won’t have any solid salmon news from Alaska Department of Fish and Game until April. Judging by the run forecasts the last couple years, ocean conditions, and the rebound of quite a few king salmon stocks on the West Coast we expect king salmon fishing to be quite good again. I’ll post more news on the salmon front when we get something solid from ADF&G.
We’ve still got a few seats open throughout the summer. If you’re interested in fishing in Craig now is the time to jump on these openings before someone else does. Call me at 888-943-4746…happy to help or answer any questions you might have.
Good fishing!
Rob Endsley * “Hammer Time” T-Shirts Available for ChristmasPosted on November 13th, 2012 by . Click Here to get this RSS Feed Christmas is just around the corner and what could the fisherman in your family want more than one of our “Hammer Time” fishing t-shirts. We’ve got plenty of them in stock and can get them shipped out to you pronto. Our “Hammer Time” t’s are $20 apiece plus $5 for shipping and free shipping when you order 3 or more shirts. Call Rob at 1-888-943-4746 for credit card payment or send a check and a note telling what size(s) you want to: Rob Endsley Beat the Christmas rush…order a shirt for your honey now : )
Ben Rogers from Defiance Marine in Bremerton, Washington sporting his “Hammer Time” t-shirt!
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