Fish Blog for 3rd week July, 2010
This weeks blog will probably be a little short, and no doubt have a few errors due to a little accident I had on Sunday.
While lighting and attempting to throw a seal bomb(no fur bearing critters were harmed in this demonstration), out in deep ocean, it went off in my hand about 12” from my left ear. For the most part the fingers on my left hand are still attached however, I’ve lost the use of it for now and most of the hearing in my left ear. Hopefully, I’ll still make some sense( good pain meds).
The fish numbers for this week have stayed about the same, with the boats averaging 10-16 Silvers a day, 2-4 Kings per day, and some of the best Halibut catches of the year.
We started the week off with some pretty good Silver catches off the Cape, but it didn’t take the Troll and charter fleets long to figure it out. The best Salmon catch of the week belongs to Capt. Brent on the Ocean Echo, who landed 32 Silvers for the Stusser Electric group of 6. We then had a few days of hide and seek salmon style, but then found good herds in deep ocean while Halibut fishing. The nice thing about the Silvers is there average size now is 8-9 pounds which is good for this time of year.
Kings have been constant, with 2-4 per boats and just normal sizes.
The Halibut though have come on strong, with lots and lots of chicken size fish, but a fair amount of 100 plus pounders, and limits for everybody. The best bottom fish catch of the week and year was turned in by Capt Adam on the Ocean Legacy for the Rich Hoiland/Don Olson group. In 3 days of fishing, they boated a 200 pounder, several 100+ pounders, and several 50-100 pounders, and to top that off, released an 89” halibut that’s estimated to weigh just under 400 pounds. WOW !
The weather has been really good for a change, and looks to stay that way for a while.
Oh well, meds ran out - the hand is starting to hurt so time to go.
Hope to see Y’all soon.
Bruce
FISHING REPORT SITKA 7/14/10
It’s the second week of July, our mid-season break is over, and it’s time to get back to fishin‘.
It’s sunny, 85 degrees, and calm, “somewhere“. just not here in Sitka. We’ve been dealing with wind and lots of rain, pretty much like we left the end of June, and it has made it hard to fish. The storms keep the fish schools scattered, so it takes a little more exploring to find them. We have done all right on the salmon when we’ve found them. There hasn’t been a lot of Kings this week, but a few good ones, like the 29 pounder caught on my boat by Bill Moos, and a 35 pounder caught on Capt. Brents boat by Harvey of the Bruce Clemenhagen group.
Silvers are starting to show a little more regular now. An average of 10-20 fish per boat per day, by the end of the week. Coho’s are averaging about 8+ pounds rite now, which is huge for this time of year.
The bottom fish program has been a little tougher with the weather being marginal, but there has been a few good catches like Jenette McClearn and her dad who in 2 days boated limits of Kings, Halibut at 105,70, and 40 pounds, and limits of Sea Bass. Biggest Butt(fish) of the week goes to Bill Starr, while fishing with Capt. Cameron, which was 140 pounds. Capt. Adam and Capt. Brent also had some good catches of fish just under 100 pounds.
Looking for some improved weather and the Silvers to keep coming this next week.
Good Fishing, Bruce
P.S.- We are now starting to book our fall fishing on the snake and Cowlitz rivers. If your interested give me a call. 907-747-7976 or 360-887-3676.
06/28/10
Fish blog, last week of June,2010 We’re going to make this one short and sweet. Weather: Really nice with winds less than 15 mph, Seas calm, and after a few days of serious rain, some sunshine to dry out our bones. It made getting out to the halibut in deep water a lot easier, which we needed since halibut got a lot harder to find this week. We’re still finding a few nice ones to 100lbs, but some gaps in between. Capt. Adam Moran on Ocean Legacy seems to have the hot hand on the big flatties this week. There’s also been some good catches of 6-8 pound Sea Bass. The King Salmon catches have stayed very consistent with plenty of fish for those who want to catch and release or take a few home. Still no really big fish yet, a 30 pounder was the biggest of the week so far. I heard somebody in town caught a 72 pound White King this week( don’t mind the little drool spot on the blog). Still only catching a few Silvers a day. The Kings seem to be very under developed for this time of year, so we’re thinking that the Silvers too might be a little late this year. We are taking our mid season break next week, so no fish blog, just a lot of fun fishing( for us). Till then, stay safe over the 4th of July. Bruce
06/19/10
Fishing Report 3rd week of June
The week has been just about picture perfect with calm seas, a little sun and a little overcast but no rain and lots of King Salmon.
The boats have had no problem finding Salmon, and they’re pretty well spread out everywhere. We still haven’t seen a lot of big fish. A 30 pound King was caught by the Paul Cantor group taking the lead this week. The average size has been good at 20-22 pounds.
Halibut have been plentiful with the weather cooperating. Lots of chickens, 15-25 pounders making up the lions share. The average size was brought down a bit with no 100 plus fish coming in, however, we have been seeing the perfect eater size - 40-60 pounds.
The best catch of the week so far was the Weir\Claggett group with limits of Halibut (which included an 80 and 90 pounder) limits of Salmon to 28 pounds, and limits of Sea Bass and Yellow Eye to boot. And that’s just there first day.
So far, not much to report on the Silver Salmon. As last time reported, we’re still only seeing a few fish per boat per day, but the sizes have been good for this time of year at 7-8 pounds. Lots of Pinks starting to show too making for good Halibut bait.
See you next week, Keep the line tight and your thumb off the spool,
Bruce
06/16/10
Sitka Fish Blog Week 2
Well, what a difference a week can make. 1st week found great weather, lots of Kings, Lings, and other fishes, but scratchy Halibut action.
In week 2 the weather turned to crap ( mariners term for really bad weather), Forty knot winds and 21foot seas kept us on the inside waters for a few days. Needless to say, the Salmon fishing went from 6-8 fish per hour to 3-4 fish per day.
By the end of the week the weather had moderated a bit, enough to let us back out in the ocean. The storm, however, had scattered the fish. By the end of the week they were schooling in descent numbers again.
The halibut action, on the other hand, has picked up (when weather permits) with several 100 pounder’s being taken.
We’re also starting to pick up a few Silvers every day now.
Looking forward to kind seas and lots of fish
Bruce
06/06/10
Welcome to my first Sitka fish blog of the year,
We arrived in Sitka on May 4th, and set about putting things together for the season, which took about 2 weeks. There were not a lot of big changes going on, just the usual painting, cleaning and general cleaning up before we could start fishing.
We started the season off with a bang this year, lots of sunny calm ocean days, lots of Kings(averaging over 6 per hour), and no slow days in action. Halibut are spotty like last year, but some really nice fish when we find them. Our associates at Angling Unlimited pulled in a whopping 420 pounder that was 91” long. That’s the biggest Halibut I’ve ever seen pulled onto our dock. We’ve seen a lot of Halibut in that mid 50-100 pound range. The Salmon have been just good average 20-22 pounders.
As good as the weather has been for our ocean fishing, its been a curse for our new stream adventure package for Steelhead. Nice sunny weather means no rain, so low water in the streams, making for spooky fish. Where we will normally average between 8-12 fish on these trips, with the low water its been more like 5-8 per trip. There has been some bright spots though. Because we’ve had to do some searching to find enough water to fish in, we found a stream(No names mentioned), about a 2 hour boat ride away that had lots of water lots of fish(20-25 per day), and a pristine water fall to eat your lunch by. Rory and Joyce McCallum fished this one day and banked over 25 fish including Joyce’s first Steelhead.
We’re now in our 1st week of June and the king fishing is still going strong, with a 6-8 per hour average, and Halibut about the same as before. I fished the Ed Tausk group from Minn. 2 days on the ocean and got limits of everything, then did a adventure outback where we fished a beautiful stream with no fish in it, but got limits of Spot Prawns and crabs which was great fun for somebody from Minn.
Its Sunday, June 6th, its sunny, 65 degrees, and the oceans like glass. You’ll understand if I gotta go
Bruce,
04/10/10
Welcome to fishing, Horizon West 2010.
This is my first fishing report of the season. Spring Salmon is our focus now and the pre-season forecast of 470,000 Chinook looks like it may be accurate. The first week of the season saw an average of 2-3 fish per day but some nice big fish have come in. Dennis Goldsby, fishing along Kurt Wagner, landed the biggest so far at 21 lbs. It was a very memorable fish as it was his first fish on his first day of retirement. Nice start Dennis!
This last 5 days has seen pretty consistent limits or near limits of more average size fish (12-14 lbs). Who’s complaining though, we haven’t seen springer fishing this good in many years. It also bodes well for our Sitka AK. operation as these fish have to swim by us up there before they get down here. Our Fall runs are forecasted to be strong as well.
Be sure to check out the latest photo’s in our gallery section. I will be updating our blog weekly so check back often for up-dates.
We are also prepping for Sitka. If you are fishing with us in Alaska this year you should be receiving some information sheets. The limits for the season have just posted and will be the same as last year.
If you have not booked Alaska and would like to, we have some good dates available. Shoot us an email or give us a call.
Till next week - tight lines.
Bruce
360-887-3676
04/06/10
The second half of the Columbia River Spring Chinook season started much like the first half ended, with a strong showing of fish . It seemed in the I-5 area the run peeked around the 13th-15th, with limits early and an afternoon nap for the “old guys” (no names mentioned).
Then on Friday the16th, things slowed and I was only able to find 1 fish for the Gary Wilson group. It was tough fishing for everyone on that stretch of the river that day. Mr. Wilson’s group are good fisherman, even the Idaho contingent, so, it was that tough.
With reports of hot catches down river the day before, I pulled my boat and moved down the creek for my last Columbia trip of the year which netted me 2 lost fish. Don’t know what happened to the fish, but from I-5 to Cathlamet Fishing died that last day. We hooked 2 fish and lost them both. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
We are now on the North fork of the Lewis and working hard for the fish we’re getting, but, we are finding a few.
See you next week.
Bruce
03/29/10
Fishing report for the last week of April 2010
I’ve been fishing the North Fork of the Lewis and the Cowlitz Rivers and working hard for every bite.
We’ve been averaging 1 to 4 bites ( you know its tough when you start counting bites), and catching 1 - 3 Springer’s per day. When you are getting just a few chances a day, you really don’t want to be sleeping when you finally do get a bite. You need to be at the top of your game.
For example, on my second to last trip, one gentleman out of a group of 4 had 3 bites, and, because he had not fished much all 3 bites eluded him. Final score - fish 3, fisherman 0.
Next day the James Mattila group had 5 bites, hooked 4, landed 3. Can you say BBQ.
In a nut shell, fishing has been tough, as Springer’s usually are. This last week has brought us back to reality.
Now say good-by SW Wash and Hello Sitka Alaska.
See you then, Bruce
