Alive and Well in Craig, Alaska Leave a reply
It's been a whirlwind since I left Washington on May 24th for my annual journey to Southeast Alaska where I run saltwater charters for the summer. The drive north this year was easy and thankfully uneventful. I did run into some wildlife along the way, including this good sized black bear that was grazing in a meadow along the freeway. After they come out of hybernation the bears load up on grass to get their intestinal tract working again.
In Houston, BC you'll find the largest spey rod in the world. If and when a 200 pound steelhead ever shows up in the Skeena system these folks will be ready.
Most of the rivers in northern BC were fairly high as warm temperatures were quickly melting snow off the surrounding mountains. This picture is on the Bulkley River at Mauricetown rapids.
After approximately 20 hours of drive I'm at the Alaska Marine Highway terminal in Prince Rupert, where I'll depart first thing in the morning the next day for Ketchikan and then finally over to Prince of Wales Island on another ferry.
After a week of hard work installing a bunch of new Lowrance electronics and getting the dock ready our first day on the water was outstanding with sunny skies and a greeting from a humpback whale playing offshore.
King salmon fishing has been phenomenal here and it didn't take us long to find the fish. We got into a good bunch of fish between 18 and 25 pounds the first morning. Pictured here in Scott Sypher with a beauty of a king salmon.
Steve Maris, Jim Heins, Mike Parker, and Scott Sypher with the days limit of king salmon. All these fish were caught mooching cut plug herring…no trolling here!
I had a hunch one of the ocean "freeway" spots would have fish in it and low and behold…it did! I think we hooked four king salmon on our first pass before things busted wide open. After several passes here and quite a few fish we moved on to scout out some other areas.
We've got a very difficult Marine Forecast here the next few days with 22 foot seas tonight and strong Westerly's. The seas calm down to 12 feet early in the week and hopefully the good folks at NOAA over-forecasted this one and we can get back out on the ocean ASAP where the big numbers of kings are hanging out. I'll report back again in a few days.
Rob Endsley