Wow...what a trip. I do not remember sleeping so little, and having one of the best times in Alaska. Of course, the night before leaving, I couldn't sleep. I got just under 2 hours. For the next 4 nights, I averaged just 2 hours. Some of it from excitement, some of it from necessity. When an easterly wind is howling outside, and you are on a 27' boat in Prince William Sound, it was hard to not get worried about breaking away from the anchor, and being washed up on shore until the next big tide. Or being rolled into rocks and having every soul on board in danger. "Man up I did", as Yoda would say.
-This trip was planned fin 23' when 2 of my good friends asked if I would bring them to Alaska on a father son graduate present for both young men.
Day 1- We arrived in Anchorage and immediately went to Midnight Sun car rentals to pick up our van. Then off to the grocery store, and headed down to Whittier to meet Matt from Whittier boat harbor rentals. We did the walk through, and the kicker was not working, so he and a friend were working on it until 11 pm. "All Aboard" for a cold night in a cramped space. I took the breakdown table, and Darren and Tony stayed in the belly of the beast. The Grads, Dec and Trace stayed in the van on lumpy seats. Not much sleep for all, as we were excited to steam out 60 miles in a short 4 hours. The harbor was beautiful at night and many pictures were snapped. What a great place. Another thing we were worried about was the herring on board, and getting hit by one of the many black bears we saw sneaking around the boat docks, raiding boats to find food. We buried our food and bait under the hatch and hoped Yogi would leave us be.
Our boat the M.V. Salmon Shark.
One of the many black bears raiding the docks.
Darren getting some rest in.
Whittier Sound.
Whittier boat harbor at midnight.
Beautiful Night!
Day 2- We awoke around 5 am, and made some coffee. I had brought a cowboy coffee pot, and we made our first of many pots. We did not have cups, so we converted empty Coors Light aluminum cans and drank from them. Trace, Tony, and Dec started baiting our shrimp pots while I packed up the boat and got it ready to head out.
Baiting Shrimp pots.
Good Morning from our stern.
The Ride out to Montague was slow. We expected 22-23 miles per hour however our little Salmon Shark wouldn't break 17. Luckily the water was glass, and we decided to get some fish time in instead of continuing another 2 hours to the island. We also had a hot tip from Capt. Matt that the Silvers were in around the East side of the island. We made it to Smith in about 3.5 hours. Looking at the underwater features, and a current rip from tides, we cut the engine and floated in between the 2 islands. In no time, Darren's reel was screaming, and line was pouring out. We had our first king salmon on ...and what a beauty!
Darren with his 20lb. King
We continued drifting and picking up fish at the 100-120 depths. We made about 3 passes and caught halibut, cod, and rockfish. Things were looking great.
Coffee out of Coors Light Cans
One of PWS Islands
Pacific Cod
Yellow eye
The Crew inside the Salmon Shark.
The tide swung, and fishing was slowing down, so we cut outside the island to look for halibut in deeper water. We got to the N.E. side of smith in 280 feet of water to see if we could call up some Denizons of the Deep.
Triple cod spot
Couldn't keep yellow eyes off lines
Crazy rock fish with spines.
Dec lands a tiny butt
Limit of Yellow eye was easy.
Darren's new electric reel
The Tunnel to Whittier
Dec has a "Fish on"...again.
We kept catching all the species of the ocean except halibut. We managed 2 chickens, and kept at it. The fishing was hot and heavy. Not much time to rest before dropping down again. What a day!
It was about 8 p.m. when we heard the forecast for the next 2 hours. It was not good. We had to get to a protected bay, and Culross pass was looking very good. We steamed ahead and was hit with 2-4 footers of our Starboard side making for an uncomfortable ride. So we did what any good captain would do.....Blast Led Zeppelin, and take on the ocean!!!
Angry seas.
We arrived in Culross passage after 1.5 hours and were greeted to flat seas. What a place to seek shelter from the impeding storm. And the forecast was only going to get worse. 4-6 footers were predicted and a small craft advisory was in effect. Glad we made it to safety. We trolled the pass and immediately hooked up with a slab of a silver salmon. Wow, almost as big as the King we caught earlier in the trip. Fresh sea lice was all over it, and it looked like a diamond when we landed it. Trace was pumped. What a fish buddy!!
Jeff and Trace with his silver.
A bit of Jazz music after a tough crossing.
The whole boat wants more fish, even in the rain.
Dec grabbing some shut eye.
Ravioli for breakfast
Calm, calm, Culross passage
Lunch time subs.
Our anchor plotter. Over 200 times of swinging was very scary.
Some gorgeous scenery from the boat.
Day 3 We woke in long bay where we anchored. I slept very little because we had 2 tide changes, and I was not sure the anchor would hold. It was blowing sideways, and the rain was non stop all night. The 5 of us packed into a little boat to try and sleep. It was like sardines in a can. Perfect for 3 guys, but way too small for 5. We woke, made coffee, fished a bit as we were preparing to hit the entrance to Culross Passage for halibut. We hooked some rock fish, but nothing to keep us warm. We made it back to Whittier sound and did some fishing around whittier. We trolled the North side of the sound with no hits. The boat was due back at 6, and we had to refuel and unpack. So at 4:45- we headed back the 20 minutes to our soaking shrimp pots in hope of some delicious P.W.S. Shrimp.
The boys posing with crabs before they went back in the ocean.
Using the pot puller. Better than lifting 550 feet of line.
SCORE! 50 shrimp in our first pot.
We close out our Ocean part of the trip as we head for Cooper Landing tonight. We drop our fish at the Kenai Cache to have processed as we cant get into our cabin until later that day where we keep our vacuum sealers and freezers. It is important to take care of your meat.
