The Outdoor Line Forum

Well I just got back from the annual voyage up north to Craig, AK. I was, once again, blessed to be invited by Rob Endsley of Prince of Wales Sportsfishing to help him get ready for his up coming season in the magical place that is SE Alaska. If you have never been there start saving every dime, nickel, and penny NOW and get this one on your bucket list. After spending a couple days working with some of the local businesses in Craig it was time to get some chores done and start Robbo's yearly search for the early season King's. We spent one afternoon trolling around town and were lucky enough to hook into 3 King's less than 5 minutes from the dock. Unfortunately, we were unlucky enough to lose ALL three...doh! One being a bonafide 45-50lber. Biggest saltwater king I have personally laid eyes on. Needed about another foot extension on that net handle!

The next day the rest of the crew rolled into town and it wasn't long before the Legend that is Stam was in his happy place, eating freshly cooked crab in Man Town with the Annandale in the background. (To view full images right click and hit view image)

The next morning was Day 1 on the fishing grounds and it didn't take long for us to double up for the first King's of the season. Here is Parker with the first one to hit the decks of the Polar Bear.

A couple minutes later we complete the double!

At the end of Day 1 it was nice King's and Butt's for all.

We also got some interesting information from the fish checker, who is now collecting heads off non clipped fish too. They are doing both genetic testing and looking for Thermal tags. This is a new form of tagging that I had not heard of that is being used in some hatcheries in Alaska.

A ritual in Man Town each evening is the local bounty of fresh Dungies and wow are they delicious!

And what goes well with fresh cooked crab....steak of course! Here is Robbo with a man sized slab of beef in Man Town.

Here's Bucket and Stam relaxing after a "Hard" day out on the big pond!

Day 2 was dedicated to the monsters of the deep and an attempt to fill the fish box with white meat to fill our freezers down south. We were doing a pretty good job cleaning up on seabass, various rockfish, yelloweye, and lings when IT happened. The legend was in the back of the boat minding his own business when he set the hook on something massive. At first Robbo thought he was stuck on the bottom, but after a few big yanks from Gringo Grande, he simply handed the rod back to Stam and said good luck! The fighting belt came out and the tug of war ensued for a little over 30 minutes. I truly believe this fish didn't even know it was hooked yet. Mind you that we were fighting this fish on a 2x4 with 100lb. braid and a 200lb. shock leader. As Stam began to tire it was Parker's turn.

After nearly 2 hours and several rotations from the crew we decided that some fish just aren't meant to be landed on hook and line. Robbo told us that the long liners have caught halibut up to 800lbs. in this area and one of his partner boats had battled a fish in the same area last year for over 4 hours before cutting the line. Not wanting to waste the whole day(and most likely night, and possible next day), the decision was made to simple tie it off on a cleat. A few half hitches later and a line so tight you could play your best guitar on it...bang! The line hit the gunnel of the boat and the monster of the deep will haunt us all forever. With a pretty veteran crew that has fished all over the world, nobody had ever felt anything like that before, including Gringo Grande! All was not lost though as some tasty treats were had by all. Thanks to Darin Koob of Outer Escape for the hoodies!

The end of Day 2 came with more crab, dinner in Man Town, and our Pet Eagle waiting patiently for a scrap or two.

I sure would have like to seen your "sea monster" halibut!
Two hours... incredible!

Great report and photos CanyonMan!

I'm going to see if I can copy/paste my report off another board here....


No need for the backstory here. Another year and another invite by Captain Robbo of Prince of Wales Sportfishing to help kick off the 2012 season. Joining me on the adventure were Bucket, Stam, and CanyonMan.

CanyonMan went up a couple days early to conduct some business and he and Robbo got things off to a good start by being the guests at some fancy-pancy lodge. Apparently they tried to play "Stump the bartender" and lost..........

My morning started by meeting Bucket and Stam at the gate. The announcement came over the air for available upgrades to 1st class, and I jumped all over it for us. Nothing like starting off flying 1st Class. My traveling partner was none other than Mr. Maris. We pretty much BS'd the entire flight up. The three of us put the 1st Class upgrade to use and had several cocktails and nice early lunch for our uneventful flight from Seattle to Ketchikan. Once in Ketchikan, we settled in at the airport bar and continued to fuel our buzz with more cocktails. Bucket looks pretty eager to be getting his drink on.



My Tequila Sunrise apparently wasn't a manly drink.....so it was not drunk in a manly manner. All I am missing is the ascot and a spey rod in this photo.



After Stam ordered his drink, he got on the phone and booked his last-second flight from Ketchikan to Las Craigas....and as always, The Legend was able to score the last seat on the plane. Few more cocktails later and we took the quick hop on Island Air from Ketchikan to Las Craigas. CanyonMan and Robbo were there at the airport to meet us and they had that "Rode Hard and Put Away Wet" kinda look to them.

....did I mention that they tried to drink the lodge out of booze the following night? Yeah, they were both suffering from an EPIC hangover...and I do mean EPIC! One for the ages! We got our stuff loaded up in the ManTownVan and this is what we'd been waiting a year to see.....

Paradise!



Normally, we are up there early to help Robbo set up his operation for the upcoming summer. This year, Robbo and CanyonMan took care of that for us and it was a pleasant surprise to see the Polar Bear all geared up and ready to fish!



Since there wasn't a whole lot to do, I rigged up a jigging rod in an attempt to catch a shiny fish off of ManTown. Every time I thought of it, I made 3 casts with the set up. Only thing I managed to hook was this critter. Oh well.



Captain Kim rolled in with the Knot Toppless after checking his pots and it wasn't long before CanyonMan and I had the crab cleaned. Off they went to Stam who cooked and iced them up in no time. Freshly caught and cooked crab are a daily ritual in ManTown.



The next day started off with some breakfast at the cafe and a nice run to the hunting grounds. Fishing was not hot nor was it even luke warm for most people, so expectations were not all that high. Rumors had it that we were probably going to use some down riggers on the Polar Bear. Wow! Down riggers! We'll see about that...

Did a little mooching on our first spot of the morning and we were pleasantly surprised to be rewarded with some fish! Didn't take all that long for CanyonMan and I to hook up with nice pair of blingers.



Like last year, I had to add a little extra something to my set up. Just because that's how I roll. Seemed to work...



Another fish on...



Bucket hooks up as I'm getting my photo taken...might as well make the best of it!



This gear/tackle ho' moment is proudly brought to you by....Mustad.. SIMMS..and Prince of Wales Sportfishing!



It was good to see a smile on Bucket's face as he found his Happy Place. Doctors orders were for some serious R&R. No problems, Doc!



False alarm. Not a shiny for Bucket. Just one of the millions of ping pong paddles that litter the bottom. As I like to say, "Nothing Good Happens On The Bottom".



Not too sure why I'm missing the photos, but I think we ended up tagging 3 shiny fish and limits of halibut on the first day. Stam was coming back up in July so he opted out to tag out on a shiny, but it was a good day on the water. We eventually scooted back in to town, checked the crab pots, got all cleaned up and processed the fish, and it wasn't long before we had Stam doing what he does best - taking charge of cooking up the crab.



We normally bring up some pretty good weather with us when we arrive in Las Craigas. This year was no different. The radio was telling of a front coming in with heavy winds and seas. Other than some clouds, the weather was quite nice. Here's Trident Seafoods luxury client yacht, the Annandale parked out in front of ManTown.



Once the processing of the daily catch of fish begins, it's not long before the fleet of pet eagles invade ManTown to pick up on the scraps that are chucked up from the dock on to ManTown. Here's the baby. Big baby......



Where there is a baby, there's going to be the Ruler of the Roost. Here he/she is.



What does one do with 15 fresh dungeness crabs caught daily? Eat them, of course! The daily ritual at ManTown after a hard day of fishing. Clean up, process fish, cook crab and eat them. Repeat.



Gotta love Paradise!



I believe after a hard day of fishing and eating crab, it was decided to have dinner at the bar in Ruth Ann's. The beer on tap was nice.....



Off to the HillTop we went for the next round. Was pretty calm in there as it was still daylight and a week day. Cocktails were ordered up.



Since the weather was cooperating, the next day was a planned day to assault "The Volcano" for the great big fish that inhabited the deeps. The entire day was mostly dedicated towards big lings, big butts, and whatever else lurked down there. Since the weather was so nice, we stopped in a couple of places to see if we could mooch up some fish.

Feel free to caption this photo: "Hey Robbo, what do I do again?" or "Wait...What????"



The sun is always shinning on the Golden Child.



Land was about 15 or so miles away when we reached the deep water hunting grounds. Good things the seas were flat and the weather was nice!



Little Miss Golden Sunshine catches a nappy on the way out.



Captain Robbo hard at work in his office doing what he does best! The new fancy HDS Gen2 HD Lowrance units were pretty sweet!



We finally got to our spot and did quite well on some of the bottom fish we were after. The fish box was filling up quite nicely with halibut, lingers and some yelloweyes. Nothing too huge until *it* happened........

Stam was off in the corner minding his own business bouncing a pipe jig down on the bottom when his pool cue of a halibut rod folded over. It was obvious he hooked something big. After a minute or two of the rod kinda doing something (other than folding in half) Robbo figured he had snagged the bottom and took the rod from him. Something shook it's head down below and damn near yanked the rod out of Robbo's hand. Robbo instantly got that look of "Oh ##it. Stam just hooked a 300+ pound halibut." , laughed, sighed, ordered a fighting belt on Stam, and handed the rod back. Of course, there was much excitement and anticipation as to what was on the end of Stam's line down there. Whatever it was, it was big.......

...so big that Stam was working the gear as hard as one could with little to no gain on the fish. If Stam gained a couple of feet of line, the fish instantly shook it's head and took him right back down on the bottom. Line gained, line lost. The fish finder showed us making a huge circle on the flats as this fish just basically stayed within 100 yards of where we first hooked it. Probably never knew it was hooked.

The drag on the Pen 320 was cranked down to max. The 100lb. power pro sounded like a guitar string with so much tension on it. Over time, both Robbo, CanyonMan and I had turns on the rod. At best, CanyonMan probably gained 50 feet on the monster, but lost it all back. Two hours later, Robbo put away the harpoon, buoys and it was decided to break it off. We were not going to win this battle. The line was slacked up, tied off on the cleat, went tight as well, then finally broke when the power pro touched the bottom of the boat.

Whatever was down there was BIG. MASSIVE. Not one of us has ever had to purposely break off a fish. We lost. It won. It's going to haunt us for ever. We honestly figure it was probably a 8' halibut or so. Something so giant that it boggles the mind. Something in that 600-800 pound range. We were completely outgunned and I don't think that fish was even close to getting tired.

We spent the next 3 days coming up with solutions on how we could have, and should have, tried to get another rig down on and in to that fish to hoist it up. In hindsight, we should have rigged some massive hooks on to the 15 pound down rigger ball and shot that down the power pro line to on top of the fish.....250' down. If we could have got one of the Cannon's on the job, we could have hoisted it up....or broke off 250' of cable and lost a 15 lead ball. Either way, makes for some great stories.

Here's one of the few photos I took early on when Stam hooked up. This is about how the battle went for 2 hours. Pressed against the rail fighting a losing battle......



We left that area and hit a few spots looking for some more suitable bottom fish. We did find a few unfortunately yellow eye. Here's Bucket "I'm Going To Hell" glory shot.



Don't worry Bucket, I'm following right behind you. Hey, one is going to Hell, might as well make the most of the Grip n Grin!



Got Teeth?



We did find a nice mess of lingers to take home. That's some good eats right there!



Not a salmon day for us, so no shiny fish were killed by us on day 2 of our adventure. Can't say the same for Captain Kim and his crew on the Knot Topless. They did some harvesting.....



As the fish were being cleaned, the eagles were back. Why not take photos of people taking photos....



Eagle Whisperer Stam calls for the ManTown pet eagle to land on his arm....



Day 3 saw some rain in the morning and with our first attempt at running down riggers on the Polar Bear. Down riggers? Polar Bear? Really? Yeah, really. Fishing had been pretty slow and spotty and the reports coming in were far and few between. We decided to hammer down with the riggers just in case they were to be needed for his real paying clients. We needed to refine the operation and get Robbo on his A-Game with the gear.

Stam's not convinced of this whole down rigger thing......

Thanks for the help getting things going here last week you guys...and for the awesome report write ups. The run has been building here since you left and barring any major hurricanes the month of June should fish well. I went against my word and kept the downriggers on after ya left. Darn things have been jumping all over the gear, so I figured why not

It's time to get back to mooching soon though...probably with the next group

I cant even imagine what a 800 lb hali would look like. Wow.

Canyon Man misquoted me...it was more like 8,000 pounds. Oil well, or so they say in Texas