By Carlos Gaudier
Beep, beep, beep, beep…. beep, beep, beep, beep. All of our alarms sound off synchronously Wednesday morning as it was finally time for Team No Bananas to depart from Juneau Alaska to our final destination of Whaler’s Cove Lodge in Angoon Alaska. This was the Third Annual Let’s Talk Hookup/Davis Boats Whaler’s Cove Lodge Alaskan Adventure and fortunately we have been able to join Pete Gray, Harold Davis and the gang for all three years and counting. Whenever my brother and I tell our family and friends we are going up to Whaler’s Cove we almost always jokingly say we are going up “just for the halibut”. But Whaler’s is much more than that. We’ve discovered a wonderful place to escape and spend some fun and memorable times with good friends both old and new.
Our journey began by flying into Juneau where we stayed in a local hotel for overnight lodging. If you get in early enough you can rent a car for cheap and check out the town. As a routine, our group of Judy Kanouse, Manny Gaudier, Carlos Gaudier, and Drew Varos will usually visit our favorite store, Costco, and load up on some libations and pick up some articles of warm clothing that we may have forgotten to pack. We then hit our favorite local dive bar, the Sandbar, for the big boy fish and chips, the best I’ve ever had. If time permits, you can also check out the sites, stores, and eateries in town. During our first trip we actually came in a few days earlier which allowed us to visit out the Mendenhall Glacier, tour the local salmon hatchery, whale watch, and take a great boat trip up the Tracy Arm Fjord. I
even got crabs downtown :o) as we had a delicious dinner at Tracy’s Crab Shack. Staying in Juneau is a great precursor for the great adventure to come.
As our alarms sounded off in the morning we are finally ready to head on off to our Whaler’s Cove adventure. Since the forecast was for rain and clouds Whaler’s Cove arranged for a large comfortable catamaran ferry to transport us to the lodge. In years past we flew in on a float plane when the weather was clear. The float plane takes around 1 hour compared to the approximate 2.5 hours with the ferry. Regardless of which mode of transportation, once you reach the final destination you are transported into God’s country. As you get into the harbor you see a beautiful quaint lodge set on the forest’s edge.
For the most important part, the fishing was spectacular as usual. Most boats limited out on halibut daily. The self-guided boats were allowed to take 2 per day and had no size limitations. The guided boats had a limit of only one halibut per person a day. And there was also a slot limit where you could not keep any halibut measuring over 42 inches up to 80 inches. Whaler’s also had a nice contest for the guided boats during our stay in which the angler with the largest released halibut would win a 2 for 1 deal on a return trip. Joe Burnetto from San Diego caught and released a fat 56 inch halibut to win this nice prize.
Although there were only a few king salmon this year, the coho or silver salmon had a nice showing. The grade was bigger this year with many in the 10-15 pound range. Pink salmon also showed up in the counts. Most boats ended up using these as halibut bait as it turns out that the buts love the pinks.
Last year’s coveted catch was the black cod, a.k.a. sable fish. These delicious denizens of the deep are prized for their flakey, buttery, moist fillets. Unfortunately these were not as prevalent this year and we had to fish deeper waters as well. Judy mentioned that she did not want to fish past 800 feet and so Captain Kevin brought us to his 799 special spot. We ended up fishing above 799 feet in a range of 760-780 feet! This was definitely not fun as we had a “reel” workout retrieving all this line with a one pound sinker. Every time we reeled up for naught, Drew would yell out cod darn it! Fortunately our hard work did pay off as we were able to land 5 nice sized black cod for 3 days of fishing.
Assorted rockfish, pacific cod, Pollack and other miscellaneous species, including an octopus were also caught. Most of us brought home 2 boxes of prime vacuumed sealed fillets averaging between 80-100 pounds per person. Kudos to the fish processing crew for their hard work with all the fish that were caught.
There were also some amazing occurrences this year. While fishing for halibut Drew Varos broke off on a nice sized fish. We figured the spectra line may have been frayed. Soon after he hooked up on another halibut and aft
er landing it noticed another line was tangled on his line. After checking that it was not line from the other rigs Captain Kevin spliced it on to another pole and Drew was able to bring up his broken off rig with a nice 43 inch halibut which unfortunately we had to release since it was in the slot limit :(. To Topp this, Rich Topp had a 2 for 1 deal on the coho. Rich incredibly brought in 2 cohos at the same time. One was on the hook and the other one was probably following really close and was lassoed by the fishing line. Way to go Rich the Coho Cowboy!
The lodge is not called Whaler’s Cove for nothing. Again we had some spectacular whale sightings this year. As we pulled in to Danger Point, don’t worry it was actually safe there, to make bait and jig up some herring we witnessed something out of a National Geographic show. We saw humpback whales bubble feeding just 25-50 yards away from our boat. It was incredible to see them cast bubbles underneath the herring to create “bubble nets”. The pod would then all come up at once and break the surface to engulf the herring! This was truly an incredible sight to behold.
The wonderful staff, the scenic setting, the great company, the variety of good fishing, etc. make Whaler’s Cove Lodge more than “just the halibut”. Many thanks to the Powers family and their wonderful staff for their warm hospitality. Thanks again to Pete and Harold for hosting another awesome trip. It’s no “fluke” that we love to “flounder” around up at Whaler’s Cove :o). Hopefully you can join us up there soon. We’ve already made our reservations for next year. Cheers to fun times, good fishing, no bananas, and great friends!
