Slab Kings! 1
There have been some enormous king salmon hitting the docks here in Craig this past week with several in the mid 50's and at least two over 60 pounds being boated. That's right…over 60 pounds! One thing about fishing here in Southeast Alaska is that every time you drop the bait over the side it could be your turn.
Lady Luck! Another captain named Lance who works for a lodge here in town trolled by us a few days ago with two women on his boat. In case you didn't already know this, women catch more fish than men…PERIOD! Lance and I are talking as we're passing one another and he mentioned how another friend of ours had caught a 65 pounder right next to his boat the day before. "It always seems to be everyone else's turn," Lance lamented. I replied with "Yeah, but you have an unfair advantage now with those two ladies on your boat. Shouldn't be long now Lance."
You can probably guess how the rest of the story goes. One of the ladies hooks up on a big king moments later and off they go chasing it into deep water in the middle of the channel. 35 minutes later Lance cruises back in on the kicker motor and gives me that "holy cow" look. The fish was 46 pounds and it didn't take them long to bag their second king of the day, another big king salmon, and off they went back to the lodge.
Day 2 went much the same way, with the nice lady bagging a carbon copy Chinook in the mid 40's literally seconds after pulling in and lady number two hammering yet another huge king salmon over 40 pounds on their next pass. We gave them an "it's not fair" shout across the water and off they went back to the lodge. We had a great day on my boat, bagging Chinook from 20 to 34 pounds and losing a monster at the side of the boat, but once again the ladies simply get the job done. Thankfully more women don't fish or there simply wouldn't be anything left!
Silver salmon fishing has stayed fairly consistent here with our boats hitting anywhere from 10 to 24 coho's per day and the king salmon action is what I would call fair. We've had boats limiting on kings and boats hitting one or two. It's just a matter of who has the hot rod on what day. One thing about fishing for king salmon here, however, is that on any given drop of the herring a king salmon of a lifetime can climb on.
I wish I could report on some huge halibut, but we simply haven't been targetting them much, spending most of our time salmon fishing. The "Semi" drift is literally carpeted with halibut from 15 to 30 pounds and we make a quick stop there at the end of each day to grab guests their halibut. Ling cod fishing and yelloweye fishing has been excellent, with yelloweye over 25 pounds and a big 55 inch ling hitting our dock this week.
Tim Linderman with one of the two mid-30's Chinook that he bagged with us the last few days.
Rob Endsley
60 pounds... Just once I would like a shot at at a slab like that! Let one through for us OK???