The Big One

Well, it finally came  -- the big King opening.   Fish and Game says 6-10 days, and we are on day 4.  How do I have time to write this?  It’s Sunday, and we came back to Sitka last night to unload, re-ice, get a shower, and recharge for 24 hours (us, that is, not the batteries)!  More than half the fleet is back in town for the same, and  the  weather is cooperating fine – blowing 25-30 knots last night when we came in, and is supposed to continue into this evening.  Not impossible to fish in, just tiring.   We plan to go back down among the little islands to the south this evening, and see how many more we can coax out of the nooks and crannies.  Ever look at a detailed chart of this part of the world?  There are lots of little bays and islands, and fish all around.

We were one of the last boats out of the harbor for the big one – Tuesday and Wednesday were frenetic around here, big beautiful boats and old scabby ones with bilge pumps running non-stop, all getting ready for the big lottery of finding the mother lode of fish.  Being new, I had no real plan, other than to go to Cape Edgecumbe or Salisbury Sound, or ??? wherever…

The charter fleet and the commercial fleet both look down their noses at the other, but we have made friends with a really nice charter guide.  He made a comment about the large number of fish they were finding out at Biorka Island, so we decided to try it for lack of better knowledge.  After a couple of hours sleep Wednesday night, we headed out at 2 am for the hour and a half cruise to the island.  It was beautiful weather, hardly any swell, no wind or chop, just radar driving since it was the darkest part of the night when we left.  As we neared the grounds, we saw about 40 or 50 anchor lights – seems like a lot of other people had heard the same report, and all went out and overnighted in Symonds Bay, on the Island.       As soon as you could see your hands, we were all putting gear in the water, trying to fish the same contours, depths, and speed – what a zoo!!  I put Lovie on the wheel, told here where we wanted to go, and to not hit anyone!  Boats were cutting in, cutting across, guys trying to run their gear alone, a regular madhouse.  To top it all off, we all were immediately catching nice fish.  No sooner would  I get a line in the water than Lovie would yell, “You have a fish on your port wing line!”, and I’d pull it up, conk a fish, re-bait, and drop the line again.  From 3:30 am till 1pm, I raised, lowered, conked, gaffed, gutted and gilled, washed, and packed fish in ice in the hold.  Lovie, bless her heart, had a baptism by fire about driving in a cut-throat fleet all trying to maximize their catch.  Cutthroat is a harsh word, these are 95% nice folks, but so are the guys who crowd you out on the freeway!

I learned so much about managing my gear – being efficient and keeping gear in the water to fish at all times is really important when you are in a big bunch of fish.  Ok, before you all get to thinking we sunk the boat with thousands of pounds of fish, we sold 34 kings when we landed.  I was hoping for 100, but would have been glad for 20.  Prices have dropped, as I figured, so this first jaunt just paid a couple of monthly bills, not even all of them!  We hope the season is the 10 day one, as it would give us amateurs a bit more chance to find more,  but we’ll see. 

We fished our way along thru some of the many small islands and bays south of Sitka, including an anchorage in Hot Springs bay – we have to go back and soak in the springs there.     This time, we were too involved in trying to catch fish while the kings are legal, so had to pass.  Friday was nice weather, so we ventured out in the big water outside Biorka – mostly caught cohoes there, but it was fun to get out off the coast a bit in nice water.  I wouldn’t want to be out there tonight!

Well, we’re off again this evening, so stay tuned…!