This morning is Saturday, July 20. The last time I posted, it was raining. This morning, I am tied to the transient dock at AB Harbor, Sitka, and I can barely see the bridge to Japonski Island. Fog again, rain soup really, 54 degrees. Just checked the weather in Texas and Salt Lake, both over 100 – hard to imagine right now. Why are we tied to this particular dock, when we have a perfectly good stall a quarter of a mile away, somewhat removed from the pirates that inhabit this spot? Another fishing story… but first, Whale Bay.
We were up at 3:30 on July 1, pulling anchor in the early light and heading out of our pristine little cove to see what we could catch. On our way in to the Basin, I had carefully arranged all our freshly tied up king salmon lures so there would be no delay in getting started. I was even smart enough to put a 20 pound (hand troller size) cannon ball on each of my lines and lower them down to see how much line I had, if there were any bad spots that needed attention and so forth. Everything had worked perfectly, so I was eager to get gear set. Just outside the entrance to Kristoi, I dropped my first wing line into the water with its 50 lb cannon ball. The night had brought the ubiquitous drizzle, so my Grundens jacket felt good with the hood turned up. It was really good to be setting gear again! First line out without a hitch – attached the new, ridiculously priced float bag to the line, and bingo, we were fishing. I began to set the heavy line on the same side, with its 60 lb cannon ball; I got the first spread attached, lowered to the next beads, and zzzzzooom, the ball began to head for the bottom at a high speed. The first reaction is to grab the stainless steel line to stop it, but I have learned to resist that temptation since I really enjoy having all my fingers. I tried the brake to no avail, so grabbed a wooden handled gaff hook and pressed the line against the support column. Finally it stopped before unreeling the whole 900 feet. I put the gurdy into gear and tried reeling it up, but it only slipped and would not engage. I was worried that the ball was so far down we would hang it on something and lose it, so I had Lovie head for deeper water. Tools came out, and I adjusted the gurdy enough to get it to wind back up. Analyzing the situation, it became clear to me as it had to many other misguided fishermen (or so I’m told!) – spray PAM is a great lubricant for gurdy slides and collars, but when you get over ambitious and put lots on the clutch and brake surfaces, don’t expect them to start or stop the reels! 
Basically, I had oiled the brakes and drive clutches, then the rain worked with it to create a freewheeling situation. Some spray brake cleaner applied judiciously and minor adjustments took up an hour of prime fishing time, but by 6 am we had all the gear in the water again. Another lesson learned…
Whale Bay has a couple of really long arms at the head of the bay that extend several miles. We worked some terrain features out toward the main mouth of the bay with a few other boats, and picked up several nice kings for starters. I have realized I really don’t know very much at all about king fishing – coho trolling has been our main experience the last few years, and it is quite a different technique. We have tried to pick up as much wisdom from any source we can, and it was really rewarding when some of the tips and techniques began to pay off. After a long day, we headed back to the anchorage, happy with our little successes. The next morning the wind had shifted, making our previous site a bit bumpy for comfort. The fact that no other boats were to be seen in the area helped us make the choice to explore a bit deeper into the protected waters of one of the arms. The water is really deep in theses great cuts, and to fish at 20-25 fathoms we were within 40 feet of the shore much of the time. We picked up a number of coho as the day went on, and an occasional king. Perfectly calm water and stupendous scenery made the slow pace be just fine. A couple of times I would hear an increasing roar, and look up to find a thundering waterfall from several thousand feet above – a couple of spots you could see all the way the the deep blue pocket of glacial ice high on the mountain where it began. One waterfall had carved a cave through the rock in a shape that looked like a Mickey Mouse silhouette – this is what we had in mind when we first envisioned owning a troller.
Another night back at the basin, only this time a huge luxury yacht registered in North Carolina was our neighbor, along with a couple of other fishermen. Lots of dollars just to drive around – at least we justify ours with catching some fish!
If you want to see a video of this spot, check out this Youtube link -- Whale Bay trolling
Third day was still bumpy with seas outside building – we began to worry about a tender showing up, as we don’t like to keep the fish in our hold more than 3 days if we can; we could go a week, but the quality and appearance go downhill, and prices with it. If Eyak ( Sitka Sound Seafood’s tender) doesn’t show up tonight, we will try to head north in the morning if it isn’t too snotty for the hour and a half run off Necker Bay. Fishing the inside corner we found a sweet spot where a point of land ran out shallow, and every time we went over it, we picked up a king or two. We circled there for several hours, slowly adding to our catch, then the day was done. We heard a broken transmission from Eyak, working their way up the coast, but they won’t be here till late Thursday, so we will run in the morning.
We set out early, to get a jump on the predicted westerly – seas were 7 feet, with wind chop, which is just plain rough and tiring in our little boat. We spotted a couple of boats heading south, so didn’t feel quite so alone out on the rough part. With tide, swell, and wind chop, it seemed like we got tossed every way possible – no way to get into a comfortable rhythm. Not scary, just uncomfortable. Finally, we made Walker Channel and saw 4 or 5 boats in a little drag in the lee of the northwest shore, so we set some gear out and fell in line to see what was happening. We picked up a few coho, and decided it wasn’t worth the effort for them while kings were still open. We headed straight on in to Sitka, got unloaded, re-iced, and slept soundly tied to our Sealing Cove slip dock.
Next morning, we headed for Biorka where we had seen a number of trollers working. First line in, and it barely hit depth and we caught a nice king. We worked the area the rest of the day, but nothing great – a few here and there, and some small coho. We eavesdropped on a couple of the other guys that were heading back in, and my ego got squashed -- “we picked up 180 kings yesterday out deep”, or “Bob got 125 in his favorite spot..” -- even with the fisherman’s truth discount, some people caught a LOT more than we did. Readjust and study some more for next year.
The problem for us beginners, the summer opening is so short we don’t have time to experiment much. Next year we should come and fish the king hatchery openings with the intent of learning a bit more about them. I want to target kings only; coho is a tough way to go when you have to chase the schools, and spend most of your time offshore to be really into them. We’ve proven we can do that, but this king thing has me intrigued – a challenge, if you will. More money in them, too. Average king was $65 dollars to us – coho is about $7.50 each.
With king season ended on Saturday midnight, we came in with our catch, got a shower, and got on the list to unload. It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that we made it to SSS – everybody must unload all fish caught in the king opener before they can fish again for coho, so it was quite a traffic jam. Just get on the list and wait.
We sat out a blow thru Wednesday, as did most of the Sitka fleet. Harbor was full as people regrouped and enjoyed not getting beat up. We headed out offshore Biorka with about 40 other trollers – coho were definitely there. 120 in a day, and we even quit early around 5pm. Up and out the next day for a repeat – just plain fun fishing, with a good delivery load.
We stayed out till Saturday, and dragged gear in the water on the way back, scoring some really nice big fish in an unexpected location on the way. Just got tied up to the dock, heard the plane land, and Em texted us they had made it. We met them at the airport with blood splattered clothing, still swaying from getting back to solid ground. They got their crew licenses at Murrays while I brought the boat over, picked them up, and within an hour of landing they were helping me unload fish at the cannery. Welcome to the other world, kids! And thus began the next phase of our adventure, which culminates in us being tied to the dock, looking at the grid… check out why on the next post!
Fish on!
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