Prince Of Wales Sport Fishing - Craig, Alaska Fishing Reports

My big, fancy Nikon camera went kapuuut shortly after our last report on August 5th. I’ve taken a few shots since with a Nikon Coolpix and luckily we’ve gotten some additional awesome shots from guests to use here.

Our August salmon fishery has been about as goofy as it gets. One day we’re on the silvers and doing well and the next they are few and far between. Luckily we got a good shot of king salmon in the middle of August to keep us going.

The Ram Construction group that joins us every year had some exceptional king salmon fishing offshore during their stay here the first week of August. A calm ocean allowed us to roam around and we had some great fishing, with limits of king salmon to 27 pounds and some decent coho action mixed in.

Ram’s owner, Mike Hammes, snapped up the 200 pound halibut in the photo below on a 16 ounce glow-in-the-dark scampi tail jig. The battle was a total rodeo and lasted nearly an hour. It was Mike’s biggest halibut to date and he grabbed the Ram halibut jackpot that usually belongs to Stu Heaton. Good times!

The Candini’s were the next to join us and they jumped right in with some wide open king salmon action on their first morning. We tripled up on big Chinook immediately, losing one of them after a brief battle and getting solid hooks into the other two. While those two fish were screaming around the bay Chris kept bombing bait at the school and missing bites. He did everything text book and they just wouldn’t stick. No biggy!

Finally I had to spin the boat around to keep one of the fish from running into the kelp and we lost the school. After a great battle Jerry and Milo landed their kings, 27 and 39 pounders. I had some great photos of their kings, but unfortunately they went bye-bye when my camera went down. Sorry guys!

We slid offshore in the fog and Chris drove the hook home on a 20 pound king salmon within five minutes. The bite was on and we were getting bit repeatedly, but the combination of a six foot swell and pea soup fog drove us back into calmer waters. No problemo…we managed to grab a quick limit of chicken halibut on the way in. Below is a photo of Milo with the 30 pound chicken halibut he caught on an 18 ounce pipe jig tipped with salmon belly. He’s always smilin’…

The Kvam’s and the Quades were on tap next and got to experience some outstanding salmon action. We hit Hole in the Wall on their first morning and caught four or five coho before Sally hooked into a 30 pound king salmon. She landed the fish after a great battle under sunny skies. After the bite died we diddled around at Roller Bay, hooking a handful of fat silvers, a bunch of sea bass, and a limit of halibut.

The ocean was relatively flat the next day, so we blasted well offshore to an area another charter captain said was holding a good mess of silver salmon. We were the only boat in the area and it didn’t take long to find the fish. We hooked around 30 silvers in two hours and landed half of them before the tide turned the bite off.

Amidst all the chaos Kathryn layed into a king salmon that ran off 400 feet of line out of the gate. We chased the fish on glassy calm seas and she landed it 25 minutes later, an identical 30 pound Chinook to Sally’s. This was Kathryn’s first time salmon fishing and well, she was hooked!

We ran back to this area again the next morning and the silvers were still jumping on like crazy. Our first drift produced twelve hookups and while we only landed four of them…who cares…we were having a ball! The schools would come and go and every other drift would produce wide open action with silvers running all over the place. Ms. Nicole also joined us for the day and when it was all said and done we landed 27 silvers and lost just about as many. Fun stuff!

On the way home we dropped on an offshore rockpile and cranked up a mess of ling cod on pipe jigs and scampi tails.

Sally’s 30 pound king salmon

Kathryn’s first king salmon is a 30 pound beauty!

We took some time to go cave-hopping while we were there, pulling the charter boat into two massive caves full of puffins and other nesting sea birds. Awesome!

Strong winds forced us inside the islands for a couple days on our last rotation of the summer, the Webb and Mihalic groups. Salmon fishing was slow, slow, slow and after several hours of “watching the paint dry” we decided to torment some sea bass and halibut.

The Webb group, fishing on the Polar Bear, got nice limits of sea bass and three of their four chicken halibut messing around in the islands. We ran back towards town at the end of the day to look for signs of salmon and after actually hooking up on two silvers Neal’s salmon rod doubles over with a huge halibut.

An hour and another rodeo later we landed the 160 pound beast and the guys were all smiles. In Alaska you just never know what’s going to happen!

Here’s Neal hooked up on yet another strange sea creature, this time a huge octopus.

Greg holds up the big yelloweye that he caught fishing aboard the Siketi with Capt. Mike Hailey. The guys had a great time fishing with Mike, catching a mixed bag of just about everything in the sea.

After four days aboard the Siketi with Capt. Mike I was lucky enough to take Greg, Tom, John, and Ted on my last charter of the summer. Nice group of guys from Colorado that fished with us for 5 days. Here’s Tom with his first saltwater king salmon.

Check out the teeth marks on Gregs silver salmon. All of our salmon on this particular day were gashed up with teeth marks…salmon sharks!

A few play days for us before we pack up everything and head back to Washington for the winter. Even though our fishing here in Craig, Alaska was a roller coaster ride this summer we still had a great time, had many memorable experiences, and look forward to seeing you all back here again sometime.

Rob Endsley

Prince of Wales Sportfishing

Tags: Alaska, alaskan, Charters, chinook, Craig, endsley, fish, guides, Halibut, island, king salmon, prince of wales, reports, Salmon Fishing, saltwater, silver salmon, southeast.

Then they were gone! We had a great week prior to our last report, with quite a few salmon around to bend rods and then in the matter of a few tides they vanished. Since then we’ve been working very hard for 6 to 10 silvers and a king salmon or two per boat per day. Not the end of the world…but definitely not the sizzling hot action that we all hope for when our customers show up here in Craig, Alaska.

Many of the large power trollers here in Craig have been having good success 15 to 20 miles offshore, with rumors of 100 to as many as 300 silvers per day with king salmon mixed in. Then a week ago they were seven miles offshore and just two days ago most of the troll fleet was working within sight of St. Joseph Island just north of Noyes Island.

You can bet these guys aren’t going around in circles out there for their health. The fish that we’ve been holding our breath for seem to be headed this way and we saw the first good king salmon bite in nearly a month yesterday just inside the ocean. Along with the king salmon came a few ocean silvers in the low teens, the kind that engulf a cut plug and hit the air before you even know what’s going on. Hopefully the vanguard of a big push of salmon heading this way!

As is always the case here, you just never know what’s going to happen when you drop a cut plug herring into the depths. Ty Beaudry isn’t a stranger to fishing in Craig and had a morning to remember on the first day of his group’s trip here recently, hammering a 46 pound king within the first five minutes of fishing with Capt. Kim McCarthy on the Sea Hunt. After landing his huge king salmon they spun around and nailed a 38 pounder on the next drift. How’s that for the start to an Alaskan fishing trip!

Ty with his 46 pound king salmon caught in Craig, Alaska.

When the ocean’s cooperated we’ve had no trouble at all grabbing limits of chicken halibut from 15 to 35 pounds, as well as sea bass, yelloweye rockfish, and various other “cellar dwellars”. Getting the ocean to cooperate, however, has been a little challenging lately. With the Puget Sound in Washington now closed to all bottomfishing below 120 feet it sure gives us a new level of respect for our bottomfish species here in Southeast Alaska.

Capt. Rob Endsley

Prince of Wales Sportfishing

Tags: Alaska, bottomfish, Charters, Craig, endsley, Fishing, Halibut, island, king salmon, prince of wales, report, reports, rob, Salmon, sea bass, silver, southeast.

Silver salmon fishing has improved slightly the past few days with huge minus tides sweeping some of these great fighting fish into the islands. We’ve had four boats running lately and it seems like at least one will hit the jackpot every day and grab an entire limit of silver salmon with the other three somewhere around a dozen or so fish for the day, while losing or missing at least that many. When a school of snappy silver salmon passes under the boat doubles, trips, and quad hookups can happen fast!

Debbie and Denny Adams from Athens, Georgia are pictured below with “Lady Lucks” 28 pound king salmon. Much of the better king salmon fishing has occurred on the ocean recently with some trophy class fish being taken at the usual haunts. There definitely aren’t great numbers of king salmon out there right now, but those that are willing to work the better king salmon areas have a shot at the fish of a lifetime.

Denny holds up the 50 pound halibut that Debbie hooked on a salmon rod after bagging her first king salmon.

John Morris from Virginia bagged this great ling cod after he and the gang aboard the Rover caught their limits of silver salmon. From the sounds of things they were having a ball…we could hear them a quarter mile away hooting and hollering. These guys get it!

After a mixed bag of silver salmon, king salmon, halibut, and yelloweye for the first two and a half days we decided to target some bigger halibut with the heavy gear the last afternoon. With one minute left on the halibut clock Dick’s rod doubled over with this 70 pound flattie. Dick calmly reeled this great halibut up to top off he and the rest of the crews fish boxes with some fish and chips. He and wife Nancy are pictured below.

Capt. Kim pulled in just as we were leaving and after several drifts Ryan Wieder from Vancouver, Washington slammed the hook home on this 156 pound to finish a great day of fishing. Ryan and rest of the crew on the Sea Hunt were also lucky enough to get a full limit of silver salmon first thing in the morning. Nice work guys and thank you again for the engagement card and gift!

Rob Endsley

Prince of Wales Sportfishing

Tags: Alaska, Charters, Craig, Fishing, Halibut, island, ketchikan, king salmon, prince of wales, report, Salmon, silver, southeast.

Our customers have caught some magnificent king salmon the last few days here in Craig. Brian Borchardt from California landed a monster 52 pound king salmon aboard the Makai on July 8th (pictured below) and Will Fuller from Long Island, NY nailed a 43 pound chinook aboard the Polar Bear on July 10th. The fish haven’t come easy lately though, and we’ve had to make every single bite count. With some huge king salmon around and more on the way it isn’t hard to imagine would could happen every time a salmon chews on your cut plug herring.

The silver run is just getting started here and we’re catching around half a dozen per boat right now, with a high of 14 on one of the boats several days ago. The Fuller party aboard the Polar Bear got to experience a totally wide open silver salmon bite on July 8th, landed ten in less than 50 yards and losing at least that many. Not a bad way to end the day!

Halibut fishing for chicken halibut from 15 to 30 pounds has been fast and furious at one of our ocean drags. We fished an area known for big halibut yesterday and managed to pick up a 42 pound flattie before the winds drove us off to calmer waters.

Capt. Kim found some absolutely monstrous black sea bass fishing an ocean pinnacle, loading up on blackies in the ten pound range the last few days. Not content to grind it out for kings all day (like me) Kim got his guests into halibut, yelloweye rockfish, lingcod, silvers, kings, and chum salmon.

Brian with his trophy class 52 pound king salmon.

Will Fuller with his 43 pound king salmon and Jake Dowling with a 42 pound halibut.

Thou shalt not disrespect thy rockfish! With a total closure of bottomfishing in Washington’s Puget Sound it’s not hard to give a little respect for the plethora of rockfish species that we have in our waters. Here’s Bill Fuller with an ultra cool Tiger rockfish he caught on a salmon rod at Granite two days ago.

Big storm coming here the next fews days that will likely push the Craig charter fleet back into the shelter of the islands. Next report in a few days…Ciao!

Rob Endsley

Prince of Wales Sportfishing

Craig, Alaska

Tags: Alaska, bottomfish, Charters, chinook, Craig, endsley, fishing report, Halibut, king, king salmon, prince of wales, reports, rockfish, Salmon, silver, silvers, southeast.

Fishing has been great here the last few days despite the opening of the power troll season. Our customers have caught a few limits of silver salmon already and we’ve had limits of king salmon on the Polar Bear and Sea Hunt just about every day. Halibut fishing has been great for chicken halibut from 15 to 30 pounds, but we’ve found very few of the larger halibut around thus far. Not a big problem for us, however, as most of our guests prefer the better-eating chicken halibut anyway.

Here’s a few pics from our last groups here in Craig, Alaska.

Will and the first king salmon he’s ever caught, a 35 pounder. He’s also the only person taller than me to ever fish on my boat.

Jim was too tuckered out to hold up his 38 pound king salmon for a picture. No problem at all…don’t have to ask me twice!

Craig’s 24 pound king salmon from Granite Point off Baker Island

Craig and the boys with their limit of king salmon, halibut, and a bunch of late June silver salmon.

Vince with a tiger rockfish. We catch a few of these a summer out there bottomfishing…pretty cool fish

The Morrow group fished on the Sea Hunt and hammered every day. Here they are with a whole bunch of fish.

Vince with a 10 pound silver salmon he caught with us on June 30th. The silver salmon are running big for this time of year.

Tags: Alaska, Charters, Craig, fishing reports, king salmon, lodge fishing reports, prince of wales, saltwater, silver salmon, Southeast Alaska.

In addition to the prospect of great king salmon fishing in 2010 we’re also expecting a good “jag” of silver salmon into our waters this summer. Those same ocean conditions responsible for rebuilding the king salmon runs are also helping those fiesty silver salmon that make July and August so much fun.

Wild silver salmon stocks in SE Alaska are expected to fair well this summer and huge plants of coho the past few years by the Prince of Wales Hatchery Association (POWHA) should make for some “Wide-Open” action for silver’s in 2010.

The POWHA plants approximately 4.2 million silver salmon smolts, the largest silver salmon hatchery program in Alaska!

Halibut Limit the Same in 2010

I just got off the phone with Greg Williams from the International Pacific Halibut Commission and he assured me that our halibut limits would remain unchanged for 2010 in Southeast Alaska. That means a one fish per day limit with a fish of any size for our guests this summer.

Lowrance Structure Scan Added to “Polar Bear”

Until now side-scanning sonar was always reserved for the Navy, large commercial fishing vessels, and multi-million dollar yachts. Not any more!

Lowrance’s new “Structure Scan” operates on the HDS platform that worked so well for us last year and offers both side-scan and down-scan capabilities. This new system is going to be a valuable tool for locating schools of salmon, baitfish, and bottomfish and halibut-holding habitat in our waters. Expect to see more about this system on our Fishing Reports page during the summer and over on my blog on The Outdoor Line website.

New Passenger Van

We’ve added a new passenger van to the fleet this summer. Watch for the white Prince of Wales Sportfishing van on your arrival day in Craig, Alaska.

Tags: Alaska, Charters, Craig, Fishing Charters, fishing report, Halibut, island, king salmon, king salmon forecast, limits, prince of wales, Rob Endsley, silver salmon, Southeast Alaska.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.