Seward, August 28, 2011

Launched out of South Beach in Seward around 10am after a few technical delays with my new thule rack for the 2 dr civic si.  Headed out with the intent of focusing on Halibut near Tonsina Creek.  Caught a pink while trolling out there.

Caught a bunch of P-Cod and a decent sized skate.  No halibut.

On the way back in I managed to land 3 of 5 silvers hooked.  Maybe I should have focused on the silvers.

The highlight of the trip was a porpoise running between my rod tip and the kayak. It just cruised by me staring and keeping an eye on me the whole time.  Pretty cool but FREAKED me out initially!  I didn't know what it was but it was big and it was close!

Oh here's a quick video where I reveal one of my most guarded secrets.  Never before documented training in the ways of Jedi/Ninja mind tricks to make the fish come to me.  Worked once...almost twice in the video.  Soon I can go without a net.  Eventually I hope to be able to go out without a rod or line.  lol.

Sunday August 21, 2011

On Saturday I had a board meeting which went very well and ended at 1:30 pm.  So I run home get ready, pick up supplies and I am ready to go.

Too bad there was a head on collision with one fatality at mile 84 at 4:20pm. I think that's between Whittier and Girdwood.  Well it must have just happened as people start turning around and I see emergency vehicles.  ARGH!  Well probably a lot less "ARGH" than the casualties and their family. Thoughts and prayers to the families involved.

People ask me what the most dangerous thing about kayaking is.  I say "Driving."

So I take a nap and head out at about 1am.  Wow..it's dark!  Impressive enough I took a pic!  lol. Maybe you have to live in Alaska to appreciate this...

Get there earlier than I thought so took another hour nap and hit the beach at 6am.

I saw pinks jumping which gave me hope.  I also saw a bunch of small salmon jumping or chasing my herring.  They were about 10 inches long.  I caught two of them.  If you scaled down, I bet you could limit out!

Slow Slow Slow!  I keep going back trying to replicate that one weekend and it is not to be.

The derby runs till noon so I fish silvers.  I get one by Tonsina Creek, miss one.  A little while later in the same area I pick up a pink and miss another Silver I had on for a minute or so.  Noon comes and go and so the derby is over.

Switched over to Halibut.  Tried Herring first but kept pulling up one cod after the other.  I did have one small halibut on  briefly.  You know immediately that it is not a cod.  So arms got tired of dredging up cod so I lopped the pinks head and sent it down.  A few solid whacks but nothing would take it completely.

On the way in, I hit one more silver.  So 3 for 5 (one pink though) and 0 for 1 on Halibut.

Oh yeah!  I forgot the highlight of the day!!!!!  a 13.5 inch flounder that worth points toward the AOTY tournament!  I had bigger ones but I was tossing them back.  I kept this one for bait and then later realized I was throwing away points no matter how few!

Seward Silver Salmon Derby -Round 2

August 17, 2011

Launched 8am Wednesday Morning.

Slow slow slow. Nothing for the first few hours. I started picking up fish after I passes Tonsina Creek which is a littel different. Had the most take downs near Caines Head. Nothing at all near Miller's Landing.

Ended up with 3 salmon on 8 hookups. I need to improve on that. 2 silvers and a pink. I did manage a nice 23 inch yelloweye rockfish...sort of. reeling up something decent from 300ft, my line goes slack part way up. Darn! Check the rig, bottom hook is broken off on a two hook mooching rig. Dogfish?

5 minutes later, I notice a buoy floating towards me. That's odd...wait it's orange, not really super red. What? A yelloweye? I pick it out of the water and there is my 4/0 gamakatsu hook in the corner of the mouth? Completely unexpected for inside the bay. I am glad it didn't go to waste.

Ran into a Hobie Oasis camped out at Caines Head. First one I have seen other than mine.

Also ran into Dudemandude whose buddy promptly lands a ten pound-ish halibut on a salmon head from a yak. Nice!  So obviously I had to try it.  that's why the silver has no head.  One good smack at the head but didn't hook it.

Seward Silver Salmon Derby - Round 1
August 13 & 14, 2011

Saturday I get off to a late start.  Don't get in the water till 11am.  8 hours later...nadda...for salmon.  Got bored so dropped deep and got a DOUBLE! Too bad it was P-Cod.  Argh.

So I stay at a great Bed and Breakfast, Alaskan Odyssey http://www.alaskanodyssey.com/  Check it out if you are staying in Seward.

I sleep in again! Ack! But at least I am on the water by 7am.  

Nothing for the first hour and then my rod doubles over!  Oh yeah!...Dang lost it...wait...what the heck?

WHaaaa?  THAT caused my rod to double over?  Hmmm..... something fishy going on here...

Finally after paddling out to Tonsina Creek, I see a few boats hooking up.  It took me over an hour but finally I get hit.  Nothing.  ARGH!  

Finally I get in the groove and quickly land 3.  My first one I thought was a monster.  Then I weighed it and it was only 12 pounds.  Needs to be 50% bigger to even have a shot. One's a runt that I let go after closely examining the fish for tags. 

I get hit another 3 or 4 times and no hook ups.  I hate shortening the second hook.  But I don't want to leave snag marks even if the first hook is in the mouth.  I'm going to make them longer.  I got to land them before I have to worry about snag marks. 90% will be ok.  

2 more towards the end of the day closer to Miller's Landing.  Kept one, let the other go.

So the tally after two days, 20 hours of on water time....5 fish landed.  Biggest a respectable 12 pounds and 30+ inches for an upgarde for my AOTY points!  Got something out of it at least!  

Because it was a derby, I really didn't mess around with the video.

I'll be back next week!

Seward.  Aug 7, 2011

Started fishing about 8am.  Launched the yak from South Beach.  Had a silver in the first 15 minutes.  Then I manage a pink on my ultra light and I am thinking this is great!

Because I was partly test fishing for a possible entry into next weeks derby, I did leave fish to go find fish.  I caught one other silver all the way out to Derby Cove and back.  I was use either a plug cut and whole herring.

I decide to try to go catch something in the deep water and the first fish up is a halibut!  Of course I forgot my net...ARGH.  15 pounds maybe.  No big deal.  Once again I am thinking this is great!  But after about a dozen BIG pacific cod from 250 to 300 feet down, i give up.

One last pass with the trolling gear and I hook one!

The silvers I caught today all had scales set.  Meaning they didn't shed them when they hit the boat.  Odd....

The highlight of the trip was watching a sea otter eat a big octopus right next to me.

Here's the video of the sea otter.

My Pink on an ultralight plus my lost halibut on video:

Took the family out looking for pinks so the kids could catch a few. Reports were they were in up North so off we go.

We get to Sheep and the water is high. We throw mainly size 5 vibrax. Saku used a hometied jig with a float.

The bad news is we didn't catch a single pink!!! What????

But we did manage 3 silvers and two chums. Saku hooks and lands two silvers all by herself!!

Aki catches her first fish this year. A nice silver all by herself.

The first couple of fish I hand off to my kids I hooked on my 4'6" ultralight 1-4lbs test Gloomis spinning rod.  Okay, I have 20 pound spectra and 12 pound leader...Not bad...for kids...lol!

Ryu catches a nice chum.

 

So all is good. Kids did great. They earn another trip!




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Location:Sheep Creek