Posts Tagged ‘ alaska king salmon fishing ’* 2013 Southeast Alaska Charter Season Draws NearPosted on May 6th, 2013 by . Filed under Uncategorized .
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 * 2013 King Salmon Limits AnnouncedPosted on April 5th, 2013 by . Filed under Uncategorized . 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 * July 11th Southeast Alaska Fishing ReportPosted on July 12th, 2011 by . Filed under Uncategorized . King salmon fishing has remained very good here in Craig, Alaska this past week and the silver salmon fishing seems to be getting a little better with every day. Most of the really good fishing has been occurring outside of Noyes Island and a few fish are coming out of the islands. Spotty weather kept us off the ocean earlier last week and once we got back out there we found plenty of king salmon biting. Rumors of a few king salmon in the 30’s and 40’s from yesterday and I’m sure it won’t be long before someone bags up a big bruiser in the 50 plus pound range out there. Here’s Nancie Wilder and husband Ron with her low 20’s king salmon from last week. Most of the king salmon here have been running in the 15 to 25 pound range lately. These fish will tear you up on light mooching tackle. Fun stuff!
Dave Allan was lucky enough to bag this 36 1/2 inch halibut on the last day of his trip here in Craig. The Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife requires all halibut over 37 inches be released aboard charter vessels in Southeast Alaska this year. Hopefully these regulations will help to rebuild the halibut stocks. Legal halibut have been easy to come by this summer.
Brothers Dave and Greg caught ling cod that were identical twins measuring 39 1/2 inches. They had a $20 bet on the biggest bottomfish and it would have been a tie but Greg’s fish gacked up a good sized rockfish just before we weighed them. Dave’s fish weighed 22 pounds and Greg’s weighed 21 1/2 pound after losing the rockfish. One of several funny stories on this trip and thankfully this one didn’t involve me : )
And here’s a couple more Alaskan salmon fishing videos recorded with the GoPro video camera I have mounted on the charter boat. It’s raw unedited video and you just never know what might happen when I turn the camera on: Mooching for King Salmon in Southeast Alaska Salmon Fishing in Craig, Alaska Looking forward to more great fishing here in Craig this coming week. We’re looking for that first big push of silvers any day now! Captain Rob Endsley * King Salmon Fishing Remains Strong!Posted on June 19th, 2011 by . Filed under Uncategorized . The numbers of king salmon seem to have fallen slightly here this past week from the wide open action we had in early June. Overall the king salmon fishing remains very strong here now though and fish are spread out in quite a few areas. The weather and ocean conditions has been nothing short of spectacular! Mike Campbell from Lowrance electronics scored this 44 pound Chinook a few days ago aboard the Polar Bear. It’s the biggest king we’ve seen so far, though we’ve heard of at least king larger. Nice work Mike!
Bob DeLong and gang experienced flat calm seas and great fishing the last three days. We got on some good king bites and picked up easy limits of legal chicken halibut offshore every day. Looking forward to seeing Mike, Jeff, Jim, and Bob again next year!
Captain Rob Endsley * June 6th Craig, Alaska Fishing ReportPosted on June 7th, 2011 by . Filed under Uncategorized . My apologies for not getting a report up sooner. We don’t have internet service yet and won’t have it for another week or so. King salmon fishing has been nothing short of spectacular here in Craig, Alaska for the past couple of weeks. We’ve been having so much fun mooching cut plug herring that we haven’t even broken out the new Cannon downriggers yet! Here’s a few pics from the last week of fishing: Jim “Bucket” Heins with a mid-30’s “Tyree” that he released. The Canucks have Tyee’s…we have “Tyree’s”
Michael Parker with one of the typical king salmon we’ve been seeing here lately.
David Garst and Madeline Mair from West Virginia with a pair of king salmon. West Virginia…thus the “Tyree”…I like it!
Parker with a beauty of a king salmon
Jim with our first silver of the summer. Here’s a couple of killer trip reports from forums in the Pacific Northwest! The Outdoor Line http://forum.theoutdoorline.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=438 Piscatorial Pursuits http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/686742/1/Report_SE_AK_POW_Island.html Thanks for checking in and don’t forget to give us a shout at 888-943-4746 to plan your Alaskan king salmon fishing vacation! Captain Rob Endsley * Come by and say hello!Posted on January 30th, 2009 by . Filed under Uncategorized . I’ll be speaking at the following clubs and events in the next couple of months if you want to swing by and say hello. Nicole will also be on hand at the weekend events to answer questions. February 10th, Tacoma Puget Sounds Anglers, 7:00 p.m. at the Tacoma Outboard Association February 18th, Bellingham Puget Sound Anglers, 7:00 p.m. at Nicki’s Bella Marina Restaurant in Squalicum Harbor March 7th and 8th, Cabelas Captains Weekend, 10:30 to 5:30, Lacey, WA Cabela’s retail store March 21st, Viking Marine and Tackle Spring Salmon Clinic, Marysville, WA 9 am to 3 pm March 28th and 29th, Anacortes Salmon Derby, Team Lowrance, Anacortes Washington * -August 2nd Craig, Alaska Fishing ReportPosted on August 2nd, 2008 by . Filed under Uncategorized .
On this last rotation we had coho chaos every day on both Kim’s boat and my own. Yesterday we were drifting over a huge school and I just told the guys, Hang On! The guys baits were below the school, which was holding 25 feet deep, but with the line counter reels they quickly adjusted and WHAMO! All four rods went berserk, Richards rod pulled directly under the boat as his fish shot the wrong direction and right into a line on the other side of the boat and the two back rods were immediately tangled. Of the four fish hooked two were landed and who knows what happened to the other two. This is kind of how it went every day…good clean fun! Jim Wilson from Georgia had the lucky rod yesterday, releasing a chrome chinook of about 25 pounds and another in the low 30’s. Jim was all smiles, but he and Denny, both from Georgia, just couldn’t figure out why the fish needed to be released. Releasing Chinook and huge ling cod “just ain’t right”. Halibut fishing has remained rock solid and it seems like we get big fish every day. During one of the gales last week Kim managed to fish the ocean for a couple of hours one morning, getting Mark Yuasa into a 155 pound halibut. Mark was here to do a story for the Seattle Times, which should appear sometime in August. Dave Vedder was also on board, enjoying the good fishing and the even better weather. On board the Polar Bear we’ve had halibut over 90 pound three of the last four days. With the weather looking like it’s going to hold for another week, or so, we’re hopeful the fishing will even get better. Yesterday while we halibut fished offshore I gawked at the sonar, which was picking up school after school of silvers. I don’t think we’ve even seen “Wide Open” yet!
[Click here for August 2nd photos]
* June 28th Fishing ReportPosted on June 28th, 2008 by . Filed under Uncategorized .
 Bon The wind finally quit blowing here in Craig, at least for the moment. We’ve fished in some pretty horendous conditions lately, with water spouts coming off the ocean on two seperate occasions here in the last week. Not enough wind to keep us from fishing, however, and the North River gives a certain level of comfort when the conditions get tough around here. King fishing has picked up a little bit, with some kings hitting the west side of Noyes Island the last few days. We mooched up two kings today in 50 feet of water, both in the high 20’s, and two more in 200 feet of water offshore. Bon Hartline picked up a 44 pounder with us, seen in the picture below, a few days ago mooching on the deck in 55 feet of water. The fishing has been tough and the best approach is to grind, grind, grind and make every bite count. When you get bit keep reeling until the rod is fully loaded before swinging for the fence, as the fish have to turn with it first or the bait comes right out of their cold black lips. Halibut fishing continues to be consistent with a ton of chickens around. If guests want to work a little harder for their halibut we’ve been finding some larger fish working some of the rocky structure offshore. We landed the 110 pound ‘but that Chris is holding in a 30 knot gale just offshore yesterday, which turned into a total rodeo the second I let go of the kicker motor. The kicker was in full reverse holding the drift and once I let go off we went with the wind, with mamma in tow. A harpoon poke thru the gill plates and a .410 shell ended the battle shortly thereafter and we raced off to calmer water. The forecast for the next few days looks awesome! Dixon Entrance to Cape Decision- 400 PM akdt Sat Jun 28 2008
 Bon's 44 lb king salmon
 The "Polar Bear" in front of Noyes Island |
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