Sitka 2011: Lots of flat water…and flat fish! 3

If there is a constant to our annual Sitka, Alaska adventure, it’s that every year has it’s own personality and pace. It seems that each year the fish are found in different locations & depths and it’s our job to decipher the puzzle.

In stark contrast to last year, 2011 was marked by a flat calm ocean and a chinook forecast to cause even the most seasoned salmon angler to salivate! With an increase of over 100,000 chinook headed to the Columbia and nearly 30,000 additional Puget Sound bound kings, we anticipated great chinook fishing and we were not disappointed!

As soon as we hit town, we got the boat in the water, I jumped in the captain’s chair and we were on our way!

It wasn’t long before we were into a good chinook bite! Here, Larry Stauffer holds up his end of a double on kings!

Here’s a chunky 25 pounder that is coming home with your’s truly! This dandy king bit a herring in a Krippled “Helmet” fished above a flasher on the downrigger ball.

Phil Michelsen on the left turns away from the camera in shame after boating the first humpy of the year. Larry Stauffer on the right offers some words of comfort to Phil with little effect.

You know you’re in Southeast Alaska when you find puffins! These cheery little blokes take the place of the marbled murrlet commonly found in Washington.

Here’s a pair of 25 pound halibut with starkly different coloration. Despite the fact that they were caught in the same location, these two specimens were “dressed” quite differently!

My friend Dave Heiser on the right, helps me hoist my largest career Sitka halibut that pulled the springs down to the 109lb mark! This lunker inhaled a humpy belly rigged on a circle hook and mounted a tough battle from 400ft down!

Our last full day on the water yielded a great catch with limits of halibut, chinook, yelloweye and lings. Nothing to complain about when you’ve got a full fishbox!

The biggest regulatory change to the Sitka scenery for 2011 was the draconian, one fish 37-inch maximum size restriction on halibut for chartered anglers.  In all of our years in Sitka, we’ve never seen more commercial longline fishing… or less sportfishermen in town. Tourism is the economic straw that stirs the drink in Southeast Alaska.  I sincerely hope that the commercially driven IPHC (International Pacific Halibut Commission) recognizes the impact that their misguided management is having on these coastal communities.

I cannot help but be fired up over the amount of coho and pinks that we encountered during our quest for chinook. If the early presence of these fish are any indication at all, we are in for a banner season on the coast and here in the Puget Sound! See you on the water!

Tom Nelson
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com