By Ken Morris
Alaska Fishing or Bust: Tom Stockey and I recently had the occasion to visit Sitka, Alaska with the Lets Talk Hook Up AM 1090 crew at Kingfisher Charters. Having the gracious opportunity to “junk fish” with Rock Cod Rick Maxa and his father Richard along with annual stalwart Gary White was too much to pass up. I had previously fished for 11 days in Sitka having caught plenty of King (Chinook) Salmon from 15-25 pounds, Coho salmon, lots of “chicken” halibut and a few nice ling cod. Alaska is famous for its barndoor halibut, but the 25lb halibut I landed on my first drop on the first day of fishing was the biggest that I had ever landed, more like a “doggie door” instead of a barndoor. I witnessed a 70 pounder and a couple of bookend 95-100 pound halibut get landed over my 3 visits, but none on my line.
Orientation to the Lodge: After arriving via Seattle into Sitka on Alaska airlines, we were met at the airport by the Kingfisher lodge crew. From there, everything is handled by Kingfisher in their turnkey operation. We got in relatively early and after being driven to the lodge and shown our quarters, we filled out paperwork to get our licenses with a 3 day King Salmon stamp. Limits for 2014 had the highest annual King Salmon limit ever at 6 per season and 2 per day before July 1st and 1 per day thereafter. The lodge is about 15 minutes outside of downtown Sitka with a beautiful view of the inlet. In years past, a bald eagle used to hang out on the dead tree in the center of the lodge. He didn’t show so he has apparently moved on in life. The lodge is several two story compounds. Each floor has a kitchen and lounge area with 4 or 5 x 2-3 bedroom suites that each have their own bathroom and shower. One of the central compounds has its dining room on the lower level where breakfast and dinner is served. Adjacent to the office is an industrial fish cleaning station where 4-5 fish cleaners work each evening fillet cutting and vacuum packaging the fillets from the days catches. At the docks, boat captains are required to clean the fish somewhat. After vacuum packing, the fillets are flash frozen at 30 degrees below and then placed in 50lb travel ready freezer boxes that will eventually be carried on as baggage for the return trip. In the fish cleaning station is a dry erase board that lists the weight of fillets packaged per party. For our Maxa group, we split even steven five ways. This way, whomever has the luck of the draw or lack thereof does not get the short end of the stick.
The Schedule: Wake up is shortly before 0500 (Sunrise was at 4:07 AM) with a hot breakfast served from 5-5:30. The vans filled with eager fishermen and fisherwomen leave promptly at 5:45 AM. The lodge managers and shuttle drivers drive everyone to the marina where everyone boards their designated boat. They also bring the lunch for the day, which is comprised of a sandwich, bag of chips and a cookie. Drinks are kept cold on the boat. Bring your own beer if you wish. Normally, if fishing is steady, you don’t often get to eat lunch. Fishing is then from 6:00 AM to approximately 4:00 PM, sometimes a bit later, sometimes a bit earlier. On most days, you start off your day trolling for King Salmon with down riggers until you get your limit. Sometimes, you “mooch” for salmon by dropping down a dead herring and attempt to draw a salmon bite. With 5 fisherman and a limit of 10 fish per day, if definitely takes a while longer to get your limit. When it is good, you get your limit within 30 minutes and when it isn’t, it can take 4-6 hours. After getting your limit, you generally wander to a deeper water spot on the outside and anchor up trying for rockfish, halibut and ling cod. Sometimes, you get a chance to light tackle jig for black bass and ling cod off an inside reef. Halibut fishing can be done in two ways: Talent and No-Talent. The no-talent method involves taking a big hunk of salmon guts reaped from the morning catches and placed on a 16/O circle hook and sent down to the bottom with a 24 ounce lead weight. You put the rod in the rod holder and wait for the action to swim by while anchored up. You can literally take a nap and I think I caught a few of our crew dozing off at times. The talent fishing involves bouncing a lead head near the bottom with a giant Kalin grub and a little bait as a teaser. On a previous trip to Sitka, I once got 8 chicken halibut on the jig in a day, but none bigger than 15 pounds. Having a nice mix of talent and no-talent fishermen is a must on any boat. After getting in from fishing for the day, you shower up and get ready for the appetizers served at 5:15 PM in the lodge lounge. Dinner is served promptly at 6:00 PM and sleep generally follows soon after for the non night owls with the cycle repeating itself each day. Sunset was not until around 11:00 PM.
The Food: For dinner, there is generally a seafood option and a meat option in addition to a burger for the non palate refined. Many parties brought their own wine to add to the meal. In addition to a salad bar, a fresh fish or clam soup was available. Seafood options were generally halibut, salmon and shrimp and crab when available. A tasty dessert option always finished off the meal. Pre-meal appetizers included shrimp, thai ling cod and salmon toasties. Breakfast option included pancakes and waffles, fresh fruit and cereal along with a daily breakfast meat.
The Fishing & Weather Report:
Day #1-Monday: Weather had been a bit of a problem every 2-3 days or so. The boats coming in on our Sunday arrival day enjoyed good weather and good fishing with the day before being less than stellar for both. Monday also had good weather predictions with Tuesday predicting to have a gale blow through. On arrival down to the docks, we boarded Captain Simon’s 23 foot Parker, “Makai” meaning ocean in Hawaiian where Simon was born. Straight lining it to Cape Edgecumbe, we dropped the trollers in and scratched away at the Salmon very slowly. We actually pulled the lines and ran towards a small bay to the North where we had better fishing and better quality of the Kings finally getting our limits by 11:30 AM. Making the short run to the outside, we anchored up on a favorite spot 350+ feet deep. Ricky and I dropped the jigs and Richard, Gary and Tom dropped down the bait. It didn’t take long for Ricky to nail a Yelloweye snapper on the jig. He is notorious for decimating the population single handedly and this was the first of many more to come. Because the limit is 1 per angler per year, we had to let many go by dropping them down on the downrigger to decompress their bladders. As I mentioned before, I had never decked a halibut bigger than 25 pounds and then a few minutes later I got hammered on the jig big time, a very large fish. The 
rod bent over double and there was some serious head shaking indicating a large halibut. After working the fish for 15 minutes, a very nice halibut came to the surface. On board, it measured 61” long indicating that it weighed an estimated 114 pounds based on the halibut measuring book that is used. Unfortunately, halibut must measure less than 44” or more than 74” in order to keep one, so I was in no man’s land. After some nice pictures, we let the fish back to swim to the deep. 4 years ago, I finally got my swordfish after having the bait in the water for 15 minutes and I did it again with the 15 minute mini barndoor halibut! When I first went to Sitka, you were allowed 2 halibut, any size per day, followed by 1 any size per day and now the outside slot limit, which only allows for some Chickens plus or a trophy. Ricky continued to be hot on the jig with Yelloweye and I managed 2 Ling cod of 25 and 35 pounds (you can only keep 1 that is 30-35”). I also got a couple of Yelloweye and a couple of keeper halibut. About 3 hours into the anchor, a couple of bigun halibuts found our bait sticks and Tom got a 63” incher (127 lbs) and Gary got a 59” incher (101 lbs) to make 3 x 100+ halibut in 1 day. We ended up getting 5 chicken halibut for the filleting and Tom, Gary and I were rewarded with an exclusive Kingfisher 100lb release club hat and a letter good for $100 off of our next trip to Kingfisher within the next 2 years. After pulling the anchor Alaska style, we headed to the docks with an absolutely gorgeous ride in. The second half of the day was full on shorts weather in Alaska. With the weather like that, how could there possibly be a gale the following day???
Day #2-Tuesday: On wakening, possibly became a reality. Rain was pouring down sideways and the wind decided to blow 25-30 knots. It was not Bob weather, it wasn’t Ken weather either. Fortunately, the salmon like to hang out inshore so we headed for a Southern spot that was a little bit protected with little being the operative word. Having fished in some crappy weather before, this might have taken the cake. Several times while huddling inside the cabin, the rain came in sideways while waiting for a salmon bite. If was almost dreadful to get hooked up, because if the wind and rain was blowing into you, it would sting your eyes like hail. We trolled around until 10:30 before finally getting our 10 fish limit thanks to one lucky quadruple where we got all 4. We even caught one halibut on the downrigger. Of the 11 Kingfisher boats fishing, 7 were back in by 11:30 AM. We collectively including the Captain would have no more of the weather where it was gusting to 37 knots on the outside with 9 foot sea averages. One of the boats staying out was Pete Gray (Ricky’s radio partner) along with Steve Pinard tackle shop owner at Dana Landing. They somehow found a chicken honey hole after getting early salmon limits and got halibut limits along with other fish. The weather somehow got better after noon and they toughed it out. The “dream team” as they anointed themselves gave us a load of crap for woosing out, but we paid them back on Day #3. Speaking of woosing, I started not feeling well by Tuesday afternoon and by the evening, I had chills and a severe upper respiratory infection. By morning time, I seriously considered not going fishing, but it was Alaska and they needed my body for the limits. When the going gets tough…the tough go fishing!
Day #3-Wednesday: On waking, I felt barely functional, but loaded up on motrin and mucinex and sucked it up. There were a few small rain cells, but the wind had backed off considerably. The seas were a little snotty, but fishable by my standards. We actually managed Salmon limits by 0900 back off Cape Edgecumbe including a beautiful 27lb King, the biggest I have seen landed. We also landed a second, highly prized White King Salmon (we got one on the first day as well). Part of that salmon found its way on my grill last night. The only way to tell a White from the traditional orange King is to fillet it. Heading around the corner, we brought out the bass gear and fish trap rubber lures and loaded up 1-2 pound black bass rockfish for our limit of 5 a piece plus one legal ling cod thanks to Ricky. After heading offshore into the slop, we slugged our way out to a deep water spot about 780 feet deep. I can’t begin to tell you how crappy I felt and it had nothing to do with the sea. I decided to bait fish, because I didn’t have the energy to fish the jig, which would require more effort at double the deepness. The plan was to fish for halibut and a crack at some black cod at this depth. We managed a limit of keeper halibut, a couple of which were closer to 40 inches. I also got a real nice halibut on bait of about 50 pounds that was 1.5” past the 44” slot…$%#&! The bonus was the landing of 7 black cod (sable fish) by the group of us, plus another cod that they use for bait on the deadliest catch. A few more red cods, whiffle giffs and a couple of yelloweye rounded out the great day of fishing. When the fish started biting, it did make me feel a bit better. Back at the lodge, I did the laundry (each floor has laundry units for use), ate dinner and was in bed by 6:45 PM shivering under the covers until 8:20 PM when my fever broke and I woke up.
Departure Day: We were allowed to sleep in until 7:00 AM before having breakfast and making the trip to the airport. Kingfisher brought down the fish boxes, labeled with our names, contents of fish by weight. Total fillet weight was 88 pounds of which 50+ was King Salmon. Alaska Air charges $20 per box for the first two and then $75 for each extra bag. If you are smart, you pack lightly and carry on your clothes. After pick up by Amelia and the mother from the airport, I unpacked the fish and it was still frozen solid and placed into the freezer for future grilling. Next trip to Sitka, possibly 2 summers from now…Interest anyone??? Can’t wait for another trip of world class junk fishing….
Black cod is currently marinating in a miso glaze in the fridge ready to be grilled tomorrow night. A Big Thank You to Rock Cod Rick, Captain Simon and the Lets Talk Hook Up Group for a wonderful trip. Until the next time, tight lines…
