Posted on
October 2nd, 2009 by
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A saltwater angling adventure in Southeast Alaska is perhaps is one of the most dynamic experiences one can enjoy in the outdoors. Five species of salmon, halibut, ling cod, and over 30 species of rockfish make the west side of Prince of Wales Island a very special place for wetting a line, but the experience doesn’t stop there. The fishing alone isn’t what makes this place so special, it’s the scenery, marine wildlife, the North Pacific’s rugged coastline, and the ever-changing tide and currents that swirl around hundreds of islands that really make Prince of Wales Island an exciting place to fish. Sharing this dynamic experience with close friends and family is what life in the outdoors is all about!
A picture is worth a thousand words! I can describe this experience a hundred different ways, but nothing highlights the saltwater experience better than a photo. These photos and more are available on the Prince of Wales Sportfishing Photo Gallery page.
We’re hosting all of our Southeast Alaska fishing videos over on The Outdoor Line video page. Check’em out when you get a chance!
Preseason scouting turned up this mid-30’s Chinook for Jim “Bucket” Heins. A better king salmon run than 2008??? You bet it was!
The sweetest lady on Planet Earth, Diana Rumley, bags her first Chinook ever. After a 30 minute battle-royale she landed this 42 pound Chinook!
From the sweetest lady ever to salmon slayer extraordinaire. Tim Linderman with a mid-30’s King on one of those mornings at Cape Ulitka.
You’ve heard that women catch more fish. Well, they do! Bob Say snaps a few photos of Danielle’s 37 pound beauty over on Capt. Kims boat.
A double on a king and silver, both in the upper teens, made this rodeo-bite a memorable experience for all of us! Lots of fun with Al and Julie again this year.
Mac’n Cheese, Top Ramen, and king salmon with a side of halibut. Food for college! I just found this pic from 2008 and couldn’t resist.
Tim “Slice and Dice” Koentopp prepares to slice and dice a thousand pounds of halibut. If you’re into halibut check out these great halibut fishing vids, “Al Sloka’s Halibut” & “Pipe Jig Hammers Halibut”
Those big halibut aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Deb Adams lifts this great-eating chicken halibut for a quick photo off St. Johns Island. We catch plenty of these halibut throughout the summer!
The Marshall gang shows us how to have some fun back at the pier. Chris Miles, owner of Cookin’ on Wood in Phoenix, Arizona (and a POW Sportfishing pro-staffer) whips up a mean mess of grub every night on the dock.
Just another day in paradise! Robert Aguilera lands another fat coho while a humpback whale breaches in the background.
“Quck, everybody grab a fish for a picture before the rain hits!” The Hine gang from Bakersfield with a very quick dock shot before heading for cover. Yes, it rains in Southeast Alaska!
Pete Rathwell with our biggest silver of the summer on the last trip of the summer. A 17 pound brute from Black Rock near Warren Island.
Rick shows some variety with a yelloweye rockfish from an offshore ocean pinnacle.
Ling cod numbers continue to build off the coast providing some pretty wide-open action in 2009. Here’s Robert with a keeper-sized ling caught on a pipe jig. A couple of ling cod videos worth checking out, “No Mas!” & “Ling bites it’s own tail”
A massive school of baitfish slides under the Polar Bear with a wide open coho bite following shortly thereafter.
Capt. Troy hauls a nice halibut aboard the Makai for the Preddy gang from Texas.
A little silver chaos for the Beaudry gang over on Capt. Kims boat. These guys brought 30 pounds of Kobe beef for our evening barbecues on the pier!
One bite of burrito, one chug of salsa! Nothing like a little hair of the dog in the morning.
It wouldn’t be a Southeast Alaskan experience without the humpback whales. A few photos from Rob Endsley’s collection.
From Capt. Rob Endsley, Nicole Huggins, and the great people we work with in Craig, Alaska we sincerely hope you’ll join Prince of Wales Sportfishing for another great summer of fishing and adventure in 2010!
Tags: Alaska, alaskan, blog, Charters, chinook, cod, coho, Craig, endsley, fish, Fishing, Halibut, humpback, island, king, line, ling, lodge, outdoor, photos, pictures, prince, report, rob, Salmon, saltwater, silver, southeast, videos, wales, whale, whales .
Posted on
August 22nd, 2009 by
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I skipped a fishing report post here on our website last week because, well, I just ran out of time on our last turn around day to post one. The last report is available over at www.theoutdoorline.com if you care to see some great fishing photos and a couple of humpback whale shots that might be better than seeing the
real thing.
The action on silver salmon was just starting to fizzle here a little bit the last few days when we got a report of some big hooknose coho a 40 mile run from our dock. With a fairly big swell and 20 knot winds forecast we thought about it for roughly, um, 5 seconds before deciding to make the run and we couldn’t have been happier with the results.
It took roughly three minutes for coho chaos to descend upon the boat and all four rods lit up immediately with chromers jumping everywhere. Out of the four ballistic silvers hooked one ended up meeting Mr. Yamaha 250, another fish got snapped off with the weight making a big “Kaa-rang!” on the side of the boat, and the two others made it aboard the Polar Bear. Coho chaos…you betcha! The action yo-yo’d up and down for the next 4 hours as schools of fish moved thru until both boats were loaded up with fish and ten happy guests. A good majority of the silvers were between ten and fourteen pounds with the biggest hitting the scales at 17 pounds caught by Pete Rathwell of Phoenix.
Rusty Phillips was just here from Montgomery, Alabama with a group of friends and all he wanted was a big halibut. With 13.5 foot tides I knew it was going to be more than difficult and I was right. The guys cranked up more ling cod than you can shake a stick at, yelloweye rockfish, sea bass, and chicken halibut to 45 pounds, but we just couldn’t find the barnie halibut we were looking for. Sooooo, at the end of first day we pull into a well known black sea bass area on the way home to grab the guys some white meat on the salmon rods and Rusty hooks the mother of all halibut in 240 feet of water…ON A SALMON ROD! The big mamma clamped onto a small quillback rockfish and towed us around the ocean for twenty minutes before thankfully coming unbuttoned. I have no doubt that this hefty grandma was anything less than 250 pounds and who actually knows how big it was. Sorry Rusty…maybe next time!
Now that the last group is outa he-ah I’ve got a few days to pack everything up, take inventory of the gear, tackle, and supplies for next year, winterize the boats and RV, and check in with all the people we do business with with here in Craig. We had a very succesful summer here in Southeast Alaska with good weather, good fishing, and a very busy schedule full of great customers. Thank you very much for fishing with us this summer and we look forward to seeing many of you back in 2010. If you live in the Seattle area be sure to tune into The Outdoor Line on 710 ESPN Seattle every Saturday morning from 6:00 to 8:30 for fishing, hunting, and outdoor talk radio with yours truly.
Steve, Pat, Will, and Paul from Pennsylvania and Virginia had three days of great action for coho, chicken halibut, and ling cod.
We another great season for silver salmon here in Craig. Here’s Pete Rathwell with the big 17 pound silver he caught with us yesterday. Nice work Pete!
Rodney “Dangerfield” Frederickson from another charter company here in town gives a customer some very detailed instructions on how to mooch up one’a them fiesty silver salmons. Lots of fun!
Capt. Rob Endsley
www.princeofwalessportfishing.com
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Posted on
August 10th, 2009 by
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We just came off another great week of fishing here in Craig, Alaska with daily coho limits and wide open action on both halibut and ling cod. King salmon fishing is starting to fizzle, but there are still a few kings around here and there. Yesterday we got into a completely stupid coho bite on the Polar Bear…one of those scenes you just never forget. Every pass we made past a particular kelp patty was producing one to three hookups and then a massive school moved in with silver salmon finning all over the surface and crashing bait in every direction. The guys were dropping their baits over the side and watching the silvers zip in and grab them right next to the boat. On the last circus bite one big coho was twisting around in the kicker motor, two more were literally ripping monofilament across the surface as they slashed and jumped wildly around the boat, and the fourth fish (a king) was screaming line off the Tekota until it finally stopped around 200 feet. As I quickly tried to uncoil a 14 pound coho from the kicker motor propellor Stu exclaims, “Mikes got a king!” Mikes 26 pound king jumped from the water and landed with a Ka-Wooosh! I quickly gaffed the fish next the prop, cut the line, grabbed the two other ‘hos and off we went to get Mikes king. Three big ‘hos on the deck and a king in the bag. That would be the definition of coho chaos!
Halibut action has been absolutely wide open right now for chicken halibut from 15 to 35 pounds right now and there are bigger flatties around if guests want to put in the time. The ling cod fishing has also been very, very good and we’ve limited the last two groups on keeper ling cod, releasing plenty of bigger ones. Both the lings and the halibut are stacked in the areas the trollers are working and the action on heavy scampi tail jigs is fast, very fast.
Mike Hammes and his 26 pound king salmon
Stu Heatons 82 pound halibut, winner of the Ram group halibut jackpot
 Stu also took the Ram king salmon jackpot with this 29 pounder. The jackpot money all went to our fish cutter Tim “Slice and Dice” Koentop, who’s wife Nan is fighting cancer right now. Our prayers are with them!
Rod Tople with a big ocean fresh 14 pound silver salmon
Always a good time with the Marshall group. They also were kind enough to donate their group jackpot to Tim’s family. Thank you so much guys and we look forward to seeing you again next summer!
Fishing in SE Alaska is about more than filling up the freezer. The wildlife and scenery our guests enjoy here is second to none and whale shows like this one occur almost daily. This big humpback was slapping it’s tail repeatedly on the surface on the way in a few days ago and we were able to grab some great pics.
Look closely and you’ll see the bubble ring around this feeding humpback whale. This whale was bubble feeding along the same kelp line we were hammering the coho on yesterday and on several occasions we had to move because the bubbles were getting a little too close for comfort.
Capt. Rob Endsley
www.princeofwalessportfishing.com
Tags: Alaska, Charters, chinook, coho, Craig, Fishing, Halibut, herring, humpback, island, king salmon, ling cod, ocean, prince of wales, report, Salmon, saltwater, silver, southeast, whales .
Posted on
August 1st, 2009 by
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The action on silver salmon is about as good as it gets right now with early morning limits just about every day on coho’s from 6 to 13 pounds and multiple hook-ups the norm. We were finding king salmon on the outside of Noyes Island before the winds came and much of our silver action has been a very short boat ride from town. With NW winds cranking out a 20 to 25 knot breeze every afternoon all you have to do is find the lee side of an island and it’s calm seas and mill pond waters. Between the fishing and the weather it’s about as good as it gets right now!
I’m running a Lowrance HDS 10 for my sonar unit this summer and a Lowrance 113 for my plotter/radar and the combo is working out great. The big screens allow me to see everything that is going on under the boat at all times. The HDS allows me to mark bait at cruising speed and I crank the sensitivity to between 90 and 95 percent once we start fishing and we don’t miss a thing. Most of the fish in our waters are actively feeding and all you have to do is stick a bait in their grill and they will usually bite. Between the Lowrance HDS and the Shimano line counter reels there isn’t a lot of guess work. Today I called out fish at 40, 70, and 130 feet and seconds later the guests aboard had them all hooked up and we had fish going everywhere. King salmon fishing has gone much the same way. With the last group the HDS picked up two kings sitting ten feet off the bottom and seconds later we had one hooked up and muffed the second fish. That’s pretty darned fun, I don’t care who you are!
Eric grabbed this ”29″ pound king salmon near the ocean several days ago. Highlighted because we actually stuffed a lead ball in it’s stomach in attempt to win the group king salmon pot, but Slice and Dice immediately caught on while he was filleting out the fish and ratted us out. Darned fish cutters anyways : )
Casey turns to me on the third day and says, “I’m serious! If there’s anything I’m doing wrong don’t hesitate to tell me.” Capt. Rob follows up with “You set the hook like a girl!” Seconds later Casey slams the hook into his first king salmon. Nice work buddy!
Nine times out of ten women catch more fish and Deb and Sally definitely proved that point again. Ironically they usually catch more fish because they aren’t so anxious to set the hook.
Pretty sure they don’t have these in Georgia! Deb and the gang stroked out a bunch of these good little eaters every day with us.
Our guests have enjoyed some amazing whale shows here lately. I captured this photo of a humpback breaching within sight of town on our way in a few afternoons back. Nice way to top off a great day of fishing!
Capt. Rob Endsley
www.princeofwalessportfishing.com
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Posted on
July 24th, 2009 by
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I’ve been sitting here for the last ten minutes trying to come up with something snappy for a title and it just isn’t coming to me. All I could come up with is “Craig, Alaska Report”, which will work just fine. Two months of sleep deprivation and long days on the ocean have pretty much eliminated all the fluff. Fish, eat, sleep…in that order!
In this business people always ask “how’s the fishing?” My response lately has been “pretty good”, which translates to not slow, not white hot, but somewhere in the middle. “Somewhere in the middle” is darned good by many people standards. Our guests have been in some white hot coho bites this past week and there have been days where we’ve had to scratch around to find them, getting limits on most days and close to it on the other days. There continues to be some enormous king salmon around and if guests want to sacrifice a few silvers to target these fish I’m all for it! Most of the action lately has been occurring on the north end of Noyes Island at places like the “Tree Hole”, Cape Ulitka, St. Joseph Island, and down the outside coast of Noyes. The inside fishery is starting to pick up, as well, and with an afternoon charter today we plan on scoping many of the areas close to town.
Halibut fishing has remained solid and we’ve had halibut to 135 pounds this past week and several more in the 90 pound range. And the “Semi” drift kicks out chicken halibut in short order whenever the need arises. Dad just hand delivered another case of 16 oz. pipe jigs that will be put to good use here shortly now that we’re coming down off these huge tides.
Jim Murphy joined the Bakersfield gang this year for the first time and walked away with their group halibut jackpot with this 92 pounder. After buying drinks for the group with the prize money, however, I’m pretty sure he ended up in the red : )
Frank Reed, Mr. Perma-Grin, with his 135 pound halibut.
Joe, Frank, “Tuna”, and dad with a limit of fat silver salmon, chicken halibut, and a nice king salmon. “Tuna” will be sending us some interesting downloads for our Icom radios. You all thought our scramblers were annoying : )
I’m sure TSA had a field day with this box of pipe jigs
Humpback whales have been in our waters in big numbers and the killer whales have also been making an almost daily appearance.
Capt. Rob Endsley
www.princeofwalessportfishing.com
Tags: Alaska, Charters, chinook, coho, Craig, endsley, Fishing, Halibut, humpback whales, island, ketchikan, killer whales, king salmon, photo, pictures, pipe jigs, prince of wales, report, rob, saltwater, silver salmon, southeast .
Posted on
July 16th, 2009 by
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Nothing like a total computer crash in the middle of summer to keep things interesting. Luckily I was able to send the toasted computer and a brand new one to a friend, Michael Parker, in Seattle who transferred everything over for us and got it shipped right back. Thank you for the help Mike!
Fishing has been a far sight better than last season and the weather here in Craig has also been darned pleasent. We’re hitting anywhere from 10 silvers per boat a day to full limits and every day and every tide seems to be different. The king salmon fishing has also yo-yo’d up and down quite a bit, but there have been some huge king salmon hitting the docks here in Craig lately and when you hook up you just never know how big a king it will be. Our boats have had quite a few in the mid 30’s, one in the low 40’s, and we’ve heard of at least half a dozen over 50 pounds and a few more over 60 pounds. That’s right…60 pounds! The leader in the Craig Derby right now is a 60 pounder.
While there’s no shortage of chicken halibut around we really haven’t had many big halibut this summer. Calm seas the last two days allowed all three boats to roam offshore and we found plentiful ling cod and yelloweye but very few halibut of any size. The nice thing about the chicken halibut, however, is that we can target salmon all morning and then grab a quick limit of these great eating fish on the way home.
 Tim Linderman with one of the two king salmon he caught over 30 pounds
Tags: Alaska, Craig, endsley, fishing report, Halibut, king salmon, prince of wales, rob, saltwater, silver salmon, southeast .
Posted on
July 15th, 2009 by
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Sorry for the lack of reports here lately folks! Our computer went down in late June and took all of our passwords and login info with it. The new computer is up and running and I promise to have a new report up ASAP!
.
Posted on
July 1st, 2009 by
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Last weeks salmon bite was absolutely wide open with great action on both silvers and king salmon. In three days of fishing we landed around 25 kings, 40 plus silvers, and god only knows how many chicken halibut. King salmon were biting at 120 feet, 60 feet, 25 feet, and as the guys were lifting their weights out of the water and checking their bait to make sure it was still spinning. “Looks good…WHOA!” W.F.O. baby! With great action to the north and south of Craig we’ve got high expectations for great action here again soon.
Then, as if to say “that’s enough” Mother Nature comes wallowing in with one helluva storm that sent the entire charter fleet into the islands several days ago. 20 plus foot swells and strong gales sent us in early one day and we fished the next day in a 15 foot swell and a lovely wind chop. My crew comprised of Dave Vedder, Bob Reed, and the Grabowski brothers toughed it out and fished hard for a handful of kings and some silver salmon over the course of three days. We made a stop at a place we call “Semi” yesterday and hooked a mess of halibut in less than 10 minutes, then went back to the salmon grind, eventually finding some willing silvers and a king at Roller Bay at the end of the day. The storm took a mess of king and silver salmon and flushed them off to parts unknown. More fish showed up out there today, though, so I’m sure we’ll be back on step here shortly. Local resident Bill Russell put a friend of his into a 54.5 pound Chinook today and I heard of two others over 40 pounds caught today. Not wide open action, but those that put the time in caught some nice king salmon.
Lady Luck! I’ve been a fishing guide and charter captain for going on 15 years and one thing I can say for certain is that women flat out catch more fish than us know-it-all guys. They listen, they’re patient, and they really don’t give a damn! When a woman shows up it’s pretty much an automatic that they’re going to put on a clinic and Danielle was no exception. Between naps she bagged an 80 pound halibut and a 37 pound king salmon on Capt. Kims boat. Thank you for not letting us down Danielle!
Sorry for the lack of pictures ya’all. My computer went down about a week ago and I’m hoping to have it up and running again soon. Michael Parker from the infamous Piscatorial Pursuits fishing forum was kind enough to transfer all the data from my old lap top to a new one that’s on it’s way to him as I write this. Many thanks to Parker for the help!
Capt. Rob Endsley
www.princeofwalessportfishing.com
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Posted on
June 22nd, 2009 by
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King salmon fishing continues to be decent here in Craig and the silver numbers continue to build here. The begginning of last week we were seeing 6 to 10 cohos a day and now the numbers are double that and we’ve had two full boat limits hit our dock the last two days. The two biggest kings to hit our dock this week are a 36 pounder by Paul Becker of Victoria, BC and a 34 pounder by Dan Shaw of Chimacum, WA. I’d post some pics of these great fish, but my camera went kapute a few days ago and erased all the pics off of my disk. Moisture and technology just don’t mix!
The bay we’re fishing is absolutely loaded with bait and with that come the whales. A couple of days ago we had two big humpback whales come up next to the boat as we were landing a king salmon in the ocean. Best part is that Dave Allan got it all on video!
Halibut fishing remains strong for chicken halibut and we’ve been hammering the salmon program so hard all day that none of us have spent much time poking around looking for big halibut. Yesterday we limited the boat on chicken halibut in less than ten minutes and then went back to salmon fishing…fast action! The new pipe jigs dad made up for me this summer have been lights out. Two pounds of copper and lead with a 12/0 Mustad treble and a hoochie skirt over the hook. Ling cod, yelloweye, and halibut can’t leave’em alone!
A couple of pics courtesy of Kevin Kent, who just departed on this mornings float plane out of Craig.
Kevin with a typical 18 pound feeder king
A great batch of fish for mid-June!
Tags: Alaska, Charters, chinook, coho, Craig, craig alaska fishing report, endsley, Fishing, fishing report, Halibut Fishing, ketchikan, king salmon, Prince of Wales Island, silver salmon, Southeast Alaska, sportfishing .
Posted on
June 17th, 2009 by
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Each and every day we’re seeing an improvement in the king salmon action here in Craig. The key to success lately has been the “stick and stay” program and we’ve been sticking to a deep troll lane off of Baker Island that has been producing king salmon all day long. We’re mooching in anywhere from 200 to 240 feet of water and the bites are occurring anywhere from 30 feet deep to right on the bottom. Paul’s big 36 pound hawg was caught just off the bottom today in 210 feet of water and shortly after landing that one we doubled up on king salmon in the low 20’s at 80 feet. The beauty of mooching is that we can cover it all!
The silver salmon are also making an excellent early showing and with this many fish around now I can only imagine how the fishing will be in July. Our cohos have been running anywhere from 4 to 8 pounds and I’ve heard of a couple of bigger fish already. A nice bonus to the king salmon this time of year!
Trust me…I know how hard it can be to not set the hook immediately when a fish grabs your bait on the drop. Click the reel into gear and reel, reel, reel like son of a gun until the line comes tight…then reel, reel, reel some more to get it even tighter…then set the hook once the fish is already on and peeling line. Sounds easy doesn’t it! Fish that hit a mooched bait on the drop are the hottest fish in the ocean, yet they can be the toughest fish to hook because the insulation usually melts off the wires and the fuses blow the second the bait goes “thunk” and the brain says “SET THE HOOK DUMMY!”
Paul’s arms are about tuckered out after the fight on this 36 pound king salmon. At one point the line counter read 360 feet…that’s when we decided to chase it : )
The doctors, Barry, Bruce, Bon, and Paul with an early limit of 16 to 36 pound king salmon on a glassy Pacific Ocean.
Rob Endsley
WWW.PRINCEOFWALESSPORTFISHING.COM
Tags: Alaska, Charters, Craig, cut plug, endsley, Fishing, herring, island, ketchikan, king salmon, lodge, mooching, prince of wales, report, rob, Salmon, silver, southeast alaska fishing report .
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