First Opener Fishing Recap

 

 

July King Salmon fishing season lasted just 6 days this year (July 1 – 6th). The first 3 days were pretty good but that was about it for the bite. We found a few of these beautiful fish, including the 25 pounder in the picture.

 

We fished the opener off Yakobi Island. This island is designated as a wilderness area and its remote beauty and wildlife never ceases to thrill me (we saw brown bear, otter, humpback whales and Orcas). We fished the Gulf of Alaska side of the island and then took a trip south looking for Coho Salmon (open for fishing July 1 – Aug 6).

 

We fished down Chichagof Island, then went thru Peril Straits to Chatham Strait and south to Kuiu Island. We decided to look further south for fish, crossed Sumner Strait and fished inside the islands near Craig, Ak.  It was really fun to see that area as I hadn’t been that far south before. We also found some nice, calm inside drags which I especially enjoyed as the beginning of the season the seas were pretty nasty outside.

 

We travelled back north to Yakobi for the end of the opener but lost our autopilot on the way. I learned to appreciate the autopilot! Trying to keep the boat moving in a straight line (so all the other boats around us know where we are going) without autopilot means I really can’t multi-task like I’m use to. At least not when we are bashing into the wind and waves that are always trying to pull or push us off course. But, we also ran into our best bite of the season (so far) so dedicated

driving was worth it!

 

We were treated with a thrilling electrical storm our last week out that blew thru the anchorage in the middle of the night. We were one of 3 boats to drag anchor and had to reset in driving rain and lightening (never fun when you are in a boat with very large metal poles sticking up)!

 

On August 7th, Fish and Game closed our fishery for eight days. We ran to Juneau for parts for the autopilot and reprovisioning. We planned to head home to Haines for a few days but Mother Nature had other plans. We had a couple days of high winds and decided to stick it out in Juneau.  Second king and coho opener begins the 15th so we are headed back out to the fishing grounds for round two.

 

Here’s to many more fish showing up and our autopilot working

Comments

  1. Patti DAugust 15, 2020 at 8:18 AM

    Cheers �� my friends. Stay safe and be sure to let us know when you are headed to Cali. Miss you ��.

    ReplyDelete

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