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The wife and her family and I took an Alaskan cruise and just got back 3 am this morning.
One of our stops was Ketchikan and this seemed to be the best location to fish out of. The first plan, which was booked in January was a 6 hour combo halibut/salmon charter that I privately booked separate from the cruise. However, I got a call the day before we were scheduled to go saying that they would have to cancel the trip due to boat problems. To make matters worse, I didn't get the message until the morning of the trip and thought that there was no way we would be able to make alternate plans. After trying to make a few calls to other captains in the area with no luck, we ended up going to the cruise excursions desk and they had spaces available for a 4 hour afternoon salmon fishing charter. Not really what I had my heart set on, but it was better than nothing.
We set out from the marina with a friendly Capt. only our family aboard and a clean, newish boat around 12:30, with an improved mood and things looking up. The method we used was deep trolling with down riggers, using herring plugs, cut herring, and spoons. Not long after the Capt. got the gear all set we had a fish on and I brought in a spunky but short King Salmon. We spent the next 4 hours doing pretty much the same thing, with not too many lulls in the action. Many short King Salmon were caught (they call the short Kings "Shakers" because you are supposed to shake them off the hook without bringing them into the boat), several nice sized Silver salmon (aka Coho - no size limitation) were put into the ice box and one Pink Salmon. The catch of the day was had by my brother in-law with a King Salmon pushing 40" and 30lbs. Even better was that the large keeper King turned out to be a white king Salmon, which is a rare delicacy, apparently.
This was my mother in-law's first time fishing and brother in-law's second time and everyone really enjoyed themselves.
DSC05754.jpgDSC05756.jpgDSC05762.jpgDSC05767.jpgDSCN5495.jpgDSCN5503.jpgDSCN5512.jpgDSCN5518.jpg
One of our stops was Ketchikan and this seemed to be the best location to fish out of. The first plan, which was booked in January was a 6 hour combo halibut/salmon charter that I privately booked separate from the cruise. However, I got a call the day before we were scheduled to go saying that they would have to cancel the trip due to boat problems. To make matters worse, I didn't get the message until the morning of the trip and thought that there was no way we would be able to make alternate plans. After trying to make a few calls to other captains in the area with no luck, we ended up going to the cruise excursions desk and they had spaces available for a 4 hour afternoon salmon fishing charter. Not really what I had my heart set on, but it was better than nothing.
We set out from the marina with a friendly Capt. only our family aboard and a clean, newish boat around 12:30, with an improved mood and things looking up. The method we used was deep trolling with down riggers, using herring plugs, cut herring, and spoons. Not long after the Capt. got the gear all set we had a fish on and I brought in a spunky but short King Salmon. We spent the next 4 hours doing pretty much the same thing, with not too many lulls in the action. Many short King Salmon were caught (they call the short Kings "Shakers" because you are supposed to shake them off the hook without bringing them into the boat), several nice sized Silver salmon (aka Coho - no size limitation) were put into the ice box and one Pink Salmon. The catch of the day was had by my brother in-law with a King Salmon pushing 40" and 30lbs. Even better was that the large keeper King turned out to be a white king Salmon, which is a rare delicacy, apparently.
This was my mother in-law's first time fishing and brother in-law's second time and everyone really enjoyed themselves.
DSC05754.jpgDSC05756.jpgDSC05762.jpgDSC05767.jpgDSCN5495.jpgDSCN5503.jpgDSCN5512.jpgDSCN5518.jpg
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