Part 2 of my report.
We popped some shakers and some bottom dwellers and finally picked up and moved around a bit. Finally found some fish on the screen and we started to make a believer out of Stam. CanyonMan comes through with the gear with this nice dandy shiner.
Even Stam is all smiles after seeing what was happening by running gear. A good crew with good gear results in some good things to those with a little patience and knowledge.
Seems to be a big of downtime when running gear. Nothing better than a BS session while waiting for a rod to go off.....
Some just were air drumming to the good tunes.....
Captain Robbo shows off a pair of blinger kingers caught on gear.
Not a bad days work on the gear. When the rest of the fleet was scratching out a fish here or there, Captain Robbo and the Prince of Wales Sportfishing crew were delivering limits plus some.
Prince of Wales Sportfishing. Where your fishing dreams do come true. Just do it. Save your money. Put it on your bucket list. Everyone on this board should fish with Robbo up there at least once....and Bob, too. Two completely different styles of fishing, but the results are the same.
Tim, the fillet guy, was down in Seattle during this time, so we..uh I mean The Legend took over on knife duty. Here's the Legend showing off his cutting skills.
He and I had a bet as to who could do the best job on filleting up a fish with points awarded for time and quality. The Legend went first and delivered up this nice fillet of fish using the cut off the backbone method. Maybe not the fastest, but the end result sure looked good.
My turn was next and I opted to butterfly fillet my fish. Nice and fast, but questionable on the end result. I think I made Dr. Kevorkian proud, though! I think it's a good thing I didn't go in to medicine and become a surgeon. Looks like The Legend clearly won this bet....
Doc will be happy to note that all those nasty salmon bellies were put in a gallon back to be used as halibut bait and the collars were bagged up for crab bait. Who eats that crap any ways?
My fillet hackings were not a complete disaster as I used all the excess meat left over on the carcass to feed the pet eagles!
Eagles gotta eat too!
We were treated to our last day on the water with great weather and seas. So much for the weather predictions. Stam and Robbo talk about life as we start the morning looking for some shiners.
First rod that popped was mine. I was all over it like a Strike Zone on a Twinkie! This was the first of many shiners on this last day.
Sir Mr. Muscles Stam get's it done! No one messes with Mr. Muscles Stam!
Is there ever any doubt that the Golden Child wouldn't come through and pop a fish? The guy shits gold. Fish literally jump in to his arms. A high liner for sure! A perfect shiner for CanyonMan during his turn at the rail.
Leaving Jurassic Park behind and heading toward Japan.
Next stop was a wall to mooch off of and CanyonMan delivers. Again. It's what he does. It's all he does. The guy is the Terminator of Kings. Fish really do fear him.
A few coho were starting to get caught and I we had a few coho playing with the baits at the location. I had a nice coho chomp on the bait in around 5' of water with Stam looking down at the lead on the surface as the coho took my bait and spit the hook.
The madness that is coho will only start to increase up there.
Another day with Robbo and the Prince of Wales Sportfishing and another limit of blinger kingers.
Group limit shot. Look at the shoulders on Stam's fish. Thing looked like an albacore.....
One thing we all noticed during this trip was that the fish were here today but gone tomorrow. We found fish, but never at the same spot twice and as we were leaving, were hearing good reports from places that were devoid of fish a few days earlier.
Apparently 3/4 of the Las Craigas fishing fleet reads this board and will read this thread and figure out the fishing locations from my photos. Good luck boys if you run out hoping for an easy day on the water based off of a photo. You'll need it. By the time you read this, those fish will be long gone.
Any ways.......
The fish were cleaned (by Stam) at the dock and after things were tidied up a bit, another great meal was cooked on the BBQ at ManTown. I forgot to mention that our meals consisted of cooking up massive T-Bone steaks (thanks Bucket!!!) and fresh from the fillet table slabs of salmon, halibut, ling cod, and yellow eye. Top that off with a fresh salad, some garlic bread and far too many cocktails, every night was a feast fit for kings.
The last night is always reserved for a night out on the town. IE, a night at the HillTop Bar. This year was going to be a little extra special as it was CanyonMan's bachelor party night.
Hard to document what happened that night and let's just say that what happens in the HillTop should normally stay in the HillTop. Just a couple of couple photos to document the evening wouldn't hurt, though........
Of course, we tossed CanyonMan out on the dance floor. It was his party......
At some point while Robbo was talking to Chelsie (in the pink) the lady looking at the camera came up to say hi to Robbo. Actually, just about everyone in the bar came up to say hi to Robbo. As they were talking, I think CanyonMan told her that Robb was famous and that he had his own ESPN Radio program. The lady facing us in this picture started laughing and laughing then laughing so hard that she started to cray from laughing. Probably one of the funniest things I've seen. At one point, Rafae walked over to Bucket and said "You can't pay for this king of entertainment".
I took this photo right before the lady looking at the camera busted up laughing at the thought of Robbo either being "famous" or having a radio show.
Of course, the drinks were flowing and the laughs continued. Not too sure what Robbo said to Chelsie, but she doesn't look pleased. Would be a good caption photo.....
as for the rest of us? Yeah, we were laughing our asses off that evening. Non stop shenanigans. Rafae joins in on our mayhem....while Stam has his eyes locked on....look up Stam...eyes up here.....look UP!
The night wasn't going to be complete without some type of gift for our host of the last few days. What better gift then getting a couple of the local ladies to dance with Robbo. Actually, Robbo got up to use the head. As he did so, Rafae went over to these two ladies and had them stationed right out side the pisser in waiting for Robbo to come out. As soon as Robbo came out of the pisser, each arm was grabbed by the ladies and he was escorted out to the dance floor.
Captain Love did not let the crowd down as in evidence of this photo, he can clearly tear it up on the dance floor!
Go Robbo! Go Robbo! Go Robbo! WOOO! WOOO!
Woke up the next morning to see that the clouds, rain, and wind that were forecasted for earlier in the week finally arrived. Like the past trips, our weather timing was perfect! Couldn't have asked for any better weather.
After a late breakfast and a stop at the freezer to pack up 12 gallon bags of crabs in our fish boxes, Robbo saw us off at the airport and away we went back to the Ketchikan Airport. Another cocktail or two while we wait, sure, why not?
Of course, if one has a pair of fish boxes to travel with, it only makes perfect sense to pay for the $50 1st Class Upgrade, so that's what the three of us did. Sat next to that Maris guy again and we conversed about the trip over another round or three of in-flight drinks. For a Enumclaw guy, he's an OK guy to travel with. Back on the ground in Seattle, all our fish boxes were rounded up, goodbyes were said, and we all went out merry ways backed to loved ones and family which ended up another completely awesome trip to Las Craigas.
Can't thank Robbo and the Prince of Wales Sportfishing operation enough for the invitation and hospitality for this adventure to Las Craigas. I just hope I'm invited up next year!
Also can't thank my compadres enough either. Stam, Bucket, and CanyonMan are a bunch of Class Act, A+, dudes. Just glad they are willing to put up with me.
June 24th can't get here soon enough. Me and my dad will get to experience what we've only seen in photos so far, with hopefully a little less white guy dancing. Gringo Grande........love it!
