The Outdoor Line Forum

This is a 5-part piscatorial series on our trip up to Craig, Alaska to visit the El Capitan Lodge as well as to fish with Rob Endsley, owner and operator of Prince of Wales Sportfishing. This years trip doesn't focus on a ton of fish, as there wasn't a ton of fish to be had. We finally were bit by the weather bug as we were due. This is about good friends, good places, and good times. The fishing is just a bonus.

This year, the owners of Island Air Express and the El Capitan Lodge invited Rob and some guests up to their lodge to "break in" the staff before they started to receive clients in ernest. Mainly to see how the new staff would react and behave with a crowd of people to serve, pamper, etc. Robbo, Bucket, Stam, CanyonMan, and I were just what they needed and we booked our trip to include a day up there.

I will also write this up with the notion that some of you reading this have not heard of Prince of Wales Sportfishing, of Captain "Love" Rob Endsley, or what he has to offer up there. Let's just say it's a "Must Do" for anyone who calls themselves a fisherman.

First thing you should do after reading all of this is book a trip with Rob. Once your trip is booked, here's a nice long piscatorial tour of how your adventure *might* look like. With your trip in hand, get yourself up to Ketchikan. It's a small little airport and more than likely, you will see the fleet of Island Air Express planes that will ferry you over to Klawock, which is a short van ride to Craig.



Once in Ketchikan, Captain Robbo takes care of everything for you, from the moment you leave the airport to the moment you come back. Get yourself checked in downstairs and relax. Your fishing vacation of a lifetime is just beginning.

Don't worry if the weather is bad, or if the airport is socked in. The big Island Air Express plane(s) have all the fancy nav stuff that allows them to fly safely in all weather. You will get taken to Klawock in comfort when you fly in this bad boy!



You will get picked up at the Klawock Airport by either the Captain himself, or his assistant, Shay. Ok, maybe not Shay. Either way, someone will drive you from Klawock over to Craig where you will be shown to your room at Ruth Ann's. If you are one of the "lucky" ones, you'll get the Honeymoon suit on the corner, which is the PREMIUM room in the town to view the "intersection entertainment" that always happens in Craig on a Friday or Saturday night. My recommendation is to just stay on the deck and observe.



You won't need to go much further than what you see here. There is a restaurant and small bar at Ruth Ann's and I highly recommend you go say hi to Shay. If that's not enough for you, there's the Hill Bar...and off to the right of that is the cafe.



You are probably dying to see the infamous "ManTown" and the PolarBear. ManTown was voted the "Happiest Place in LasCraigas" the last 4 years in a row!



From here, I'm going to detour a bit away from the expectations of your trip, as we had a different plan when we arrived in town. We just grabbed our crap, hopped on the PolarBear and began a 3 hour run or so up North to the El Capitan Lodge.

Along the way, we did manage to rig up some gear and see if the new Cannon down riggers worked. They did...and they did well. I really liked the new Cannon down riggers. Actually liked them a lot better than the Scotty's. These things were buff, strong, and just worked really damn well over the 5 days we abused them.



When you are there, the kings should be in and it's a mooching show for you. But for us, the kings were just not quite there yet, so we had to pull some gear to find some fish. Stam loves gear fishing and it showed on his smiling face. He got over it by drinking a beer or many.



Fishing and drinking on the boat is hungry work, so the boys broke out the oysters. Either that, or they were preparing for the evening. I passed on the oysters, as I didn't feel like puking at the moment. Maybe later in the evening.



We ran across some curious locals on the way up......



Here's some video I shot of the pod of ocas as they came and checked us out. The hopping and baby whales were pretty cool.

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X80Uz9uttFI[/video]

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBT0oZjjQRY[/video]

Didn't catch any fish on the way up but we did pay our respects at the narrow El Capitan Passage. This statue was put up here around 300 years ago and I believe the there's someone buried next to the statue. Tradition states that if you travel through this passage, you must offer whatever is in your pocket (money, tobacco, etc) to this statue for good luck. Not wanting any bad ju-ju on this trip, we tossed the contents of our pockets at the statue and moved along. Still bummed the keys to my 4Runner was in my pocket at the time. Oh well.



We finally arrived late in the afternoon to the El Capitan Lodge. This place caters to the upper 1%. Just imagine being up in remote SE Alaska, at your own private lodge, private fishing boat, private wildlife tours, but yet pampered to hear hearts content. Probably out of the price range for the motley crew that is reading this now, but if you ever wanted to go someplace super nice yet still have the Alaskan experience, this is the place!



Everyone came out to greet us at the dock and we were instantly treated like family....even if you do travel to SE Alaska with your wheeled luggage.



Off the dock, you walk along the gangway and if you were to look out over the lagoon, you will see the restaurant to your left, the personal cabins straight ahead and the ever so important bar on the right.



Turn around and this is the view that greets you from your cabin, the bar, and the restaurant. Quite stunning, really. The place is all hand-crafted wood and I shudder to know how much maintenance is required to keep a place like this looking like it does. It's pristine. It feels like home and you are treated like family there.



We found our rooms, dropped off or stuff, and quickly headed over to the bar where we found a table of h'orderves waiting for us as well as the Massage Therapist turned Bartender (normal bartender from last year was showing up the next day) to cater to our every drink whim. Whiskey was a good start for some. Dark and Stormys were a hit for others.



With several drinks under our belts, we finally settled in and started to unwind and relax. Did I mention *several* drinks (open bar, mind you) and this before dinner.



We were called to dinner and were seated at our own table (probably not to scare everyone away). The halibut they served was to die for. The fresh bread was awesome and the desert put Stam and Robbo over the edge. I think the booze and the oysters were kicking in. A nice Bromance was forming between the two. Did I mention that they were pouring endless red and white wine with dinner? Rob and I were the only ones comfortable with our manhood and settled for the chardonnay with our halibut. Everyone else pretended to be grumpy old loggers and drank the red.



We moved back to the bar after dinner and some of us went outside by the fire to relax and enjoy some more post-dinner cocktails.



At this point, we were all many many drinks in to the night and any normal person probably should have just called it a night and left it at that. Matter of fact, I was just about to do that when Rob called for shots. As they were deciding on what shot to start with, I made the mistake of telling Rob "No Mas" and that I was done. On the verge of going over that drinking edge where nothing good can come when that happens.

Rob just looked at me and yelled: "F*UCKING FAGOTT!" which got everyone else in hysterics. So, I did what anyone would do at that point. Manned up. Let the shots begin, bitches!!!!



And they did...and did...and did......and then the bartender left us to close up the place then things got crazier and crazier.....



We eventually broke Scott (the owner). Won't say much about this photo, other than it truly makes me laugh every time I see it. Sorry Scott!



We all woke up terminally hung the hell over. After some brekky and a ton of coffee, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the PolarBear for the trip down South. One last shot as we departed was the night's dinner. Of course, Stam had to stop and grab a freshies to shuck and eat raw. Last time I did that....I puked for many an hour.



End of Part 1.

Part 2

The rest of the photos are not in any particular order by any particular day. After 4 days of fishing on the ocean in rough conditions, most things just become a blur.

Back to those who are looking to go on this trip for the first time, you will get up at 5 and meet at the coffee shop at 5:30 on most mornings. Enjoy a cup or two of coffee before they serve breakfast at 6. There's no rush to be on the water at first light, which is a good thing, seeing how it kinda almost doesn't get dark there. After a nice hot breakfast, mosey on down to ManTown and get geared up in the plethora of rain gear and boots that is provided to you. Or, feel free to bring up your own rain gear and boots.



A tradition was started a few years ago to paint up the mooching leads before the season started. In years past, there has been such legends as ol' 9-ball - a fish catching machine. I've done the ol' 9-ball, 10-square, GLoomis fish logo, Jenny's number, and so on. This year, I just went simple. Smiley face on one side.....



Herring bone eyeball thing on the other. Apparently this has been fishing well as of late. Maybe you'll be the lucky angler that is reading this and has the opportunity to fish it this year. Just remember that it's a Paker Original.



Once in your rain gear, board the Polar Bear and your day of fishing begins. Take a peek out the back and you'll see this same exact view as you leave ManTown in the morning.



For you, be prepared to mooch. The most fun you can have with your pants on, besides flying in a Blue Angels F/18. Still have yet to fly in a Blue Angel or an F/18, so I guess it will have to be mooching. All the fishing locations look to the same to me and Rob seemed to call them ALL "The Chicken Hole". Guess he didn't want me to give up his secret locations. In any case, we dropped down and mooched for a little bit at the Chicken Hole. I think we picked up a bottom fish or two, but no salmon. Had to switch over to trolling gear and it did take a while to finally start whacking on the kings.

Here's the perfect trifecta for you. King, haliboot, and linger.



Since we were trolling gear, we each took turns at being the designated "reeler" when the rod was hit. Can't say we caught these fish as so much as reeled them in for Robbo. Either way, it was still fun and of course, there were many shenanigans to be had along the way. Here's one of the kings I reeled up during the trip.



For a guy that doesn't like gear fishing, he kinda got in to it a bit.



At some point on the first day, fishing gear was tough and the bites were far and few between. Putting our collective limited brain power together, we determined that the fish were keyed in on smaller candle fish type baits and switched over from big herrings to small spoons, small ace-hi's, hootchies, and other various gear things that resembled a smaller bait fish. We were instantly rewarded and if we found any kings, we could generally get them to bite.....much to the chagrins of the rest of the struggling mooching fleet out and about. We almost felt bad as we'd pass a pod of fishless boats, hookup on a king, and just shrug our shoulders in apology as we reeled in another king. Ok, we didn't really feel bad. Ever.

I got a new nickname on the trip after Robbo posted up some photos of us on another board. Rumors have it that it came from a one-eyed writer who frequents this board. Huh? All parties involved are denying everything, but the name of "Crazy Eyes" was born.

I guess that will happen if one loses a bunch of weight in the face. I's got the Crazy Eyes!!!!!



Stam instantly jumped all over this and the conversation quickly turned to the movie Zoolander where the "Blue Steel" look was invented and perfected. So, for the rest of the trip, not really enjoying the "Crazy Eyes" label, I started working on my Blue Steel look.

The Blue Steel look. Aka, The Alaskan Stare.



The Golden Child always catches the biggest and most fish. This year was no exception.



We got so good at the gear thing that even Bucket Goodsport cracked a smile and landed a few fish!



Oh crap. Stam is really having a good time at this trolling this. I think we created a monster!



Your normal day on the water will/should entail filling up the tote with salmon, halibut, and various bottom fishies. Most days seems anglers coming back with a tote full of fish. As you dock up to ManTown, only one thing left to do.....put the fish on the Prince of Wales Sportfishing rack and take some photos. You will probably be repeating this for several days.....



End of Part 2.

Killer story so far man. I talked with rob a bit before he left. My goal is next summer. Thats exactly what im lookin for... especially the double merlot pour.

dang, what a great post. totally brings back memories from last june when me and my dad went up there and fished with Rob. can't get back there soon enough and can't wait for my son to get old enough so i can take him up there. that town and Rob's outfit is all about fishing and good times.

Another day brought more adventures on the water as a well as a few guests along the way.

Our very own TBird is guiding up for Waterfall Resort this year and guess who do we see putting around in Boat #8? The Bird himself! I'm sure TBird will have a great summer up there as I've already seen some of his photos up on FB.



Another great surprise was running across the Dawley's in their decked out River Wild. Katie and the kids were running the boat while Bill was out manning the gear. More on the Dawley's in another update...as we had an EPIC night with the Dawleys!

Bill gettin' it done on the deck of his River WIld.



There wasn't any Rainier's in the ManTown fridge when I showed up, so I had to use what was available for my obligatory crab and beer shot overlooking the scenic view from ManTown. It's a tough life up there, eating crabs and drinking beers and whiskey while at ManTown, but someone has to do it. Might as well be me.



Did I mention crabs? Yeah, expect to catch those, too. Oh wait, saying you are going to "catch crabs" in Las Craigas probably isn't a good thing. What I meant to say is that expect to put out the crab pots and get nice hauls of fresh dungeness crabs. The crabbing was a bit tough this year and I'd be lying if I said we had easy limits in every pot like years past. But, as tough as it is, there were still keepers to be found which kept us fed. Well, it kept Stam fed anyways.



CanyonMan shows off a pretty typical haul for each of us on all the days we were here. Had to work a bit, but we managed to scrape up our limits of king and butts every day.



A bit out of order, but if the crabs, oysters, beers and cocktails were not enough to tie one over, there's always dinner. Somehow, I got volunteered to be the ManTownBitchChef while up there. Not a big deal, as ManTown has just about all the seasoning's and spices one would ever need to cook up ultra-fresh halibut and salmon. In this case, I think I used a little salt, pepper, and some olive oil on this halibut and the only coho we caught for our trip. Did I mention fresh? I think Tim The Fish Cutter had just tossed this fish up to me minutes before this picture was taken. If it were any more fresh, it would be swimming.



Never a dull moment out in front of ManTown as the traffic can get a little busy at times.



As some of you know, I have a major halibut jinx. I can't catch a halibut over 30 pounds to save my ass - either here in Washington or up in Alaska. Just not possible. I'd liket to say I finally broke that jinks and show you this awesome photo of me a good sized halibut....but that would be lying.

Kim - Rob's partner caught this halibut. I just picked it up for a photo to see what one would look like if I'd actually caught it. Yeah, I am just that jinxed when it comes to big butts......



Normally Tim does all the fish processing, but at one point, he and Stam ran off to go set a skate for some more halibut. I don't think it ever happened, but that left all the fish to be cut up by Canyon Man and myself. Not a big deal, as we've cut up a fish or two in the past......



I got to play with a fillet knife and hack away at some salmon. Ready for the vac packer......



Another day, another limit of kings........



End of Day 3

Another detour for those that will book a trip with Rob, but we are friends with Bill, Katie and BrotherDave Dawley. They work up on the slope and all over the world for BP so some times they are home and other times they are not. Bill just happened to be back from an awesome hunt in Africa and he and Katie invited us over for a dinner and the opportunity to see one of the coolest photo shows of an Africa hunt one could ever wish to see.

Didn't really want to invade their privacy, but I did take a picture of the main house in the Dawley Compound, which now consists of the main house, a garage, a spare house, and a "hunting" house.

Let's just say the main house is nice. Super nice. Like really super nice.



The view off of their back deck is to die for. They live on a little inlet within the salt water and when the tide is running, the place looks like a raging river. The tide and currents were mellow when we were there, but I don't think I'd ever get tired of this view. This is going out one of the french doors to the back deck and looking to your left.



Straighten your head and this is what you'll see as well:



Look to your right and you are just blown away. Well, I was/am.



Bill is a big game hunter and has a very impressive trophy room in his basement. I really should have taken a panorama shot, as there are animals on all the walls, not just what you see here. You're not even seeing the full sized musk ox or 1,000+ pound grizz in this shot. But, it gives you an idea. He will be adding all his Africa animals to one of the walls in the upcoming future. I think he needs a bigger trophy room....



Bill just got his big bear back and was installed in the house the day before we got there. This is a Boone and Crockett bear. Actually, feel free to read up about it here:


Boone & Crocket Club

Bill does have a video out there of the bear hunt that was pretty cool to see. I'll see if I can't dig it up and put it up here if I have the time. Any ways, it's a damn big huge gear and looks awesome.

The bear apparently wants the fresh apple cobbler that Katie made for us. I'd just give him the cobbler, Robbo.......



This is the last thing you will see before a 1,000+ pound Boone and Crocket bear crushes your head like a grape.



We got to watch and enjoy Bill's photo show of his Africa hunt. Way too many animals to list and it would be the hunt of a lifetime for anyone. He's going back in May of 2015. Damn! Of course, the subject turned to guns...as it's what I do. Love guns. I also knew that he was given a double barrled (side by side) .470 as a gift for this hunt. I don't recall the maker, but it's an American made gun that was bought at Cabella's in their high end gun locker market. It was sold as a field gun, but when they contacted the maker, it was determined this to be a collector's piece. The engraving and craftsmanship on this rifle was awesome....and they apparently got it for a steal of a deal at Cabella's expense. Anyways, after a few cocktails Bill asks if I'd like to shoot the .470.

Really? Oh HELL YEAH!!!!!! Everyone else was hesitant to shoot the rifle and/or scared it might hurt their precious little wussy shoulders. Bets were made that the rifle would blow me over, or I'd cry like a little girl. Damn, morons. Gimme that rifle.

$12 a pop for the bullets. Plop two in the chambers. Cose that bad boy up and let's see what it can do. Here I am taking a last look at the beauty, making sure I'm set on which trigger I'm going to use. While my finger is close to the trigger, it's not on it.....as I'd done some dry firing of the rifle and determined that a no-seemums fart would touch it off.



Sorry for the set of blurry photos, but these were all taken with my iPhone 5. Does a pretty good job of staying in focus on the objects that are not moving and did a pretty good job of capturing the after-effects of the shots.

First up is Paker. Line up the sights....put the front sight on the top of the rock, bring the gun down.......and think about squeezing the trigger...

<BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!>

Recoil was minimal and it was quite a nice gun to shoot. Just felt bad at cracking away ammo at $12 a pop! Ouch.

Shot a tad low.....but if it had been a critter, it would be long dead.



Of course, once I fired the rifle, and everyone saw that it didn't break me in half and that I hadn't fallen over wasn't crying like a little girl, that opened up a can or worms and now everyone wanted to take a shot at Mr. Rock.

Next up was Stam. Be aware this is the same guy who admitted he emptied a lever action 30/30 at an elks and missed at every shot. No surprise that Mr. Rock lived another day......



For those that go up to Craig, you will probably hear about and meet Raefe. He's another captain up there that was pretty much mentored by Rob and friends. He's a great stand up guy. He had just come back from his own Africa Safari so after he saw that Paker could shoot the big gun, he wanted a crack at it. Shooting a little high there, Rafae....



Robbo should just stick with being a fishing guide. Not too sure he even scared Mr. Rock let alone thought about hitting it......



I was feeling kinda about about the miss until Bill grabbed the rifle and cracked off two shots in succession at the rock. Kinda makes me wonder who shot all those African animals for him.



...and then The Legend wanted another shot. The guy who missed an elk 50 times at 5 yards. The Rock was laughing at him. We were laughing at him. There goes another $12 down the drink......and then it happened.....

No one fucks with The Legend!



Gott admit that was a pretty cool shot and photo. Sorry about that rock, Bill. He stands no more at low tide.

More drinks, more food, and more goofing off with Ry and Lilly. Ry and Stam are buddies.

Again would like to personally thank the Dawley's for their hospitality and friendship! A very memorable day in Paradise for us DSMF'ers.



End of Day 4

This trip was about friendship more than fishing. So, when CanyonMan and I rolled in to breakfast at the cafe first thing in the am, we were quite shocked to learn that Bucket was in the local clinic for a medical emergency! His medical needs were critical enough that he eventually had to fly out to Ketchikan that morning and catch a flight to Seattle that day!

No need for you all to worry, as Bucket is still alive and well now. Ok, he's still grumpy as Hell, but I'd be really worried if he wasn't. But it was still a shocker for us and we spent the day pretty much just worrying about our good friend. Everything else is put aside at that point.

This was the weather that greeted us that morning and just about every morning we were there. High winds, rain, and big seas. All one had to do was look out the coffee shop window to know what you was in store for the day.



So, what do you do when you are a ManDown in ManTown? You play 3-handed cribbage, of course. Unless you are playing against The Golden Child, in which case, it's best to just hand him your stack of Alaskan 10's, your credit card, and just start drinking everything in sight. Oh, and be grumpy about it, too.



Ok, this photo is way out of order, but I do recall me being nominated as ManTownCampBitchChef. Not knowing what to do with halibut again, I looked up one of Sky-Guy's halibut recipe off of the board here. What a great board! Thanks for the recipe Sky-Guy and it turned out great...even if Robbo did manage to forget my onion and my lemon.

Halibut purists can just look away now.



Around dinner time, we picked up Rob's next set of guests and the boys from the Annandale stopped by. Good people's and we had a great time shooting the ##it, eating good food, and swapping hats. I was just about to ask the Annandale crew about their hats when Stam beat me too it. Damn bastard walked away with one of their hats. Hope it had lice! Oh well, score one for Team FreeShit! Like I needed another hat. Bastard.



Like all good adventures and stories, this one must come to an end. Sorry for the massive piscatorial essay of our trip and hope some of you got some enjoyment out of it.

But, as we got up the next morning to leave, the clouds parted, the sun came out, the seas lay down, and the salmon came charging in. No, not kidding.....

Couldn't ask for a better morning plane ride back to Ketchikan.....



Best thing to do when traveling with fish boxes and checked luggage is to upgrade to 1st class on Alaskan Airlines....so we did. Knowing that we had some free drinks ahead of us and bit of a lay over until our flight to Seattle, we did what you'd expect us to do - hit the bar. Time to break out the last of the Alaskan 10's to pay for round #2.....



We boarded our flight and since I was technically still on vacation, might as well have another in-flight cocktail or two.



I'm working on perfecting the Blue Steel look. Look up Zoolander Blue Steel if interested. Blue Steel this, bitches!



All good things must come to an end, including this post. Just about to touchdown in Seattle and I'm already thinking about next year!



Just need to say THANK YOU to:

Rob Endsley and
Prince of Wales Sportfishing

Scott, his wife, the staff and crew at the El Capitan Lodge

and to my travelin, fishing, and just all around good buddies, Stam, Canyon Man, Bucket, and Robbo. Not too sure why they put up with me, but I'm glad they do.

Can't wait until next year.

Great Story! I really Enjoyed it. Get's me jacked for my trips this summer.

Again great story!