Ocean Fishing – Yakutat, Alaska
What fish has both eyes on the darker upper side of their diamond shaped bodies, can weigh up to 500 pounds, and can grow more than 8 feet long? Living at or near the bottom, this is one of the largest flat fish in the ocean. If you guessed Pacific Halibut, you are right! Concentrated in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and off the west coast of British Columbia, halibut make seasonal migrations to shallower feeding waters during the summer months.
Yakutat, Alaska
Last week I fished for halibut off the coast of Yakutat, Alaska.
Halibut will hook themselves on circle hooks baited with herring. However, landing them is a whole different adventure. For the larger 108- and 115-pounders, our captain used a harpoon to spear them as we brought them close to the boat, and then pulled them in.
A smaller 37-pound halibut hit my rod. Landing it was a heart-pounding, adrenaline-spiking and riviting experience. It was 50 feet down and fought all the way to the surface.
It was not too long after the first halibut was landed that dogfish sharks arrived, lured by the herring bait. The sharks would circle the boat then follow the bait. They aggressively went after the baited hooks. Dogfish sharks sport sharp venomous spines in front of each dorsal fin. Aggressive and hard hitting, the sharks were dispatched and thrown back.
Spiny Pacific Dogfish Shark
The day’s catch hung at Glacier Bear Lodge
Situk River – Chasing Sockeye
Don Nelson on the Situk River
I joined 7 other incredible anglers from Oregon to fish for sockeye salmon on the Situk River. Swollen rivers from cold torrential rain covered shorelines making it impossible to access well-known holes where sockeye hold. Streamflow peaked at 625 cubic feet per second (cfs), significantly above the average of 200 cfs.
Schools of fish spread out and were found either close to the shoreline edges hovering underneath low hanging branches or on the bottom. Our lines were heavily weighted and bounced along the bottom using only a hook snelled with a piece of yarn.
Due to the high-water levels, anglers either balanced on small foot-wide sections of shoreline, fished in water up to their chest, or fished from the boat.
Large “red” sockeye buck
On the third day, the rain eased and water levels began dropping. Over 6,000 sockeye came through the weir heading upriver toward one of two lakes to spawn. For every three sockeye I caught, only one was chrome. I released the reds and any female chrome sockeye so they could continue their run to their spawning beds.
As I was photographing this “red” sockeye buck, guide Frank Deveraux leaned his fly rod against the boat with the hook dangling in the water. A large sockeye bit the hook, taking the line with him as he ran upstream, rod trailing behind him. The rod sank to the bottom and disappeared into the raging water. Frank frantically pulled the anchor in hot pursuit but was unsuccessful finding his rod.
Angler Derek Fletcher who was fishing not too far from the shoreline upriver, caught sight of Frank’s rod trailing behind the runaway sockeye. He cast his spinning rod a couple times toward the area where he last spotted the rod. On his second attempt, he could feel he had something on his line. Reeling it in, it was Frank’s rod! Derek hooked the top eye of Frank’s rod with his own jig hook! Not only did he land the rod but also the fish which was still attached!
Derek Fletcher landed the lost rod and the salmon that was still attached!
Mosquito Tips: If you are planning to travel to Alaska, I learned some new tricks from the locals to save you a lot of aggravation from those pesky mosquitoes. Dab Vicks VapoRub behind the ear, along the hairline, and neck to deter mosquitos from biting. I tried it and it worked!
Now back in Portland sweltering under oppressive record high temperatures, my thoughts wander back to the Situk. Cowering and shaking with cold after six hours in driving and blowing rain now does not seem so uncomfortable. As the memories of cold, soaking rain fade, I recall the pull of the fish and the wonderful comradery of anglers all chasing after Alaska’s wild sockeye. Boy, I do look forward to the grill and smoker this week, and celebrating the bounty of this incredible fishing adventure!
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