NCKA goes to Ketchikan, 9/2-9/9

The "significant mark" on my first dusky rockfish was that I had gut hooked it and it was partially eviscerated.  So, I nose hooked it and sent it back to attract a ling.  After a couple of odd bumps, during which I thought I had lost my wounded Dusky, suddenly I had a soft load.  I brought it back up only to be amazed that I had a healthy, lip hooked Dusky....which I released......... ...........indeed.

Once Brian reports back in, he will be required to change his signature on this board.......

And, with the supporting actors Seabreeze and Polepole, the plot line increases in suspense...

"It was a dark and stormy night and suddenly"...Brian...your line...any time...cue from stage right...

The suspense is killing us 

I'll just keep telling stories until Brian chimes in.  I'm a bit scared that by the time he tells the story, it will be anticlimatic and not that good of a story in the end.  Please don't hold it against me.

Here's a couple pictures for you, attached.  The first one is of a chicken on the wire.  Notice the bait being used.  I was using an 8" (maybe 10") green/glow hootchie over a 16/0 circle hook.  A piece of salmon belly was on the hook and I'm not talking about a small piece either.  This was all slathered in herring scented smelly jelly.  This cocktail did me well landing me 4 chicken keepers and 2 other smaller halibuts.  It also got me a couple of nice sized true cod.  One of the cods was hooked in the gut ... on a circle hook.  I guess what I heard about offset circle hooks is true, they can gut hook every now and then.  Brian got a couple little guys on straight salmon belly and one other on I don't know what.  The 3 larger halibuts were caught on a 10" glow scampi on an 8 ounce jig head (Tom's 60+), a plain salmon belly on a circle hook (Pat's 45), and a halibut spinnow (Dave's 45) which looks like this:

 

Pat got her large yelloweye on salmon belly on a circle.  Dave got his yelloweye on the spinnow.  So it seem seems like Dave and Pat were neck and neck.  Spinnow against salmon belly.  Dave got a true cod on the salmon belly as well so perhaps that breaks the tie..  My salmon came on a plain cut plug herring.  All herring were salted down by Howard which really toughened them up.  Tim's salmon came on a herring under a white hootchie behind a flasher.

When we were fishing out of the skiff we caught 6 silvers and 2 humpies.  Brian got 2 silvers on this spoon:



Dave got a couple silver on another green spoon (I can't remember ... "lucky" something or other??) behind a green/glow hot spot flasher.  I got 2 silvers on a green FBR and herring before I broke one of the fins on the FBR.  Dave caught the 2 humpies on a clear FBR/herring behind the same green/glow hot spot.  Brian did hook up on a silver while top lining that green spoon I can't remember.  It was quite interesting.  He was waiting for Dave to rig  up something in the back of the boat (a bit crowded) and didn't have his line in the water.  He had previously been dragging the spoon off the downrigger, so it was on his line with no weight.  I'm a big fan of having something in the water no matter what so I let out about 80 feet of line.  Wouldn't you know it, it hooked up!  But was shortly crackered!

Many, many rockfish were caught on herring a a 2 hook rig behind a banana sinker (2-6 ounces).  This rig catches everything up there.  I did have a couple nice runs on rockfish.  The first one came after I took a shore break.  On the way in I metered some really nice structure.  It turned out to be a drop off that went from 40 down to 120 in a very short distance, perhaps 50 feet.  I'd start my drift at 120 and as soon as the ground came up, I'd hook up every time.  By the time I got the fish up, I need to paddle back up and start the drift again.  After the first couple drifts, I switched to half a herring as I was afraid of running ou t.  After a few more drifts I switched to a point wilson dart.  The hits were fast and furious there for a while and I brought up coppers, quillbacks, dusty's, chinas, and greenstriped.  And that ronquil.

The second run came on the last day.  We stopped to check out some structure at slack.  I started by tossing a buzzbomb looking for silvers as we had caught some right there.  BTW, this spot was like 20 feet from the shore and it dropped to 250+ feet rather quickly.  One of the guys had dropped down and brought up a rockfish so I let my buzz bomb sink.  It was hit after hit on duskies, silvergrey, tigers, chinas, and a yelloweye or 2.

Anyway, those are the stats as I remember them.  The second attached picture is an underwater picture of sunstars on a halibut carcass.  The thing about this shot is that I had just thrown the carcass in probably 5 minutes prior and these starfish were moving fast.  In addition to the 2 on the carcass, there were more moving in quickly.  I couldn't believe how fast these things move.

-Allen

Another teaser from the Brian story...

 Pat and I are fishing about 1 1/2 miles away and out of sight of the other guys when we hear over the radio "Brian's got one on and it's a big one!"  So, of course, we start paddling furiously toward the action.  Then, halfway there, we hear Allen on the radio again "Brian's cranking like a girl - no offense, Pat!"  So I call back "we'll be there to watch the gaff" and we keep on paddling toward where we think they are.  When we finally catch up to them, everyone's sitting around on their yaks quietly.  We asked Allen what Brian landed and he just said "Ask Brian.  I'm maintaining a 30 minute veil of silence." 

So we paddle over to Brian and ask what he caught.  He looked at us a bit sheepishly and said.....

 

Glad I've been slackin' on this thread till now.  I've barely just gotten through the posts and can't wait to hear the end of that story. 

The stories and pictures already provided are top notch!  Thanks for sharing, all

  great pics and report!!! alaska or mexico?

Wow! What a great set of POSTs! First of all, thanks Mooch for letting me take your spot on this trip. I've heard so many 'mooch stories'- I think 50% of the 'mooch stories' revolved around your popular apron rather than fishing!

Okay, I've got to chip in my $.02 on the Brian story... By the time I chimed in, the battle was nearly over. Dave and Allen convinced me that slapping the water would help tire the fish out, so I turned my paddle around (to achieve maximum sound affects from the 'slappage') and started whaling away  . After a couple of 'smacks' I asked Brian- "Hey Bri, how many times did the fish already run"? He repled, "about 5 times now and it's still not giving in"  ... I looked at his reel and he was right- Brian was reeling, but this fish was not coming in quickly. Wow, I thought to myself, this must be twice the size of the fish I had the first night . [rest of story is up to Brian!!]

Some of my favorite pics are coming...

-tim

I've never hauled in a salmon from a yak, so this is a first for me  ... This was the second silver caught that morning, a bit smaller than Allen's, but still a whole lot of fun and a great fight!

Here's a good view of Pat's big flattie ... What a sleigh ride she had with that one! Howard gave us awesome 'mother ship' support as you can see here. I've never had lunch delivered to my yak before and was pleasantly surprised several times with great food and beer!

Here's a good shot of Dave's yelloweye and Allen's silver... Awesome catch!

And I cannot forget Pat's yelloweye... What a beautiful fish!

And if you needed a break, you could yak around and see plenty of scenery just like this:

It was cool to meet you, Tim.  You got the fishing off to a great start and you were the only one who responded when I got up to check out the bear began working the kayaks over that night.  It was good to have back-up........... ....especially when the mouse started chewing and I thought the bear was up from the beach and working its way through the wall....small noises are intense when you are listening and working hard......

It was good to see you guys up here.  I see howard often from the dock fishing with clients and it makes me wish I had my kayak with me.  I have been fishing but thir is just something about doing it from your kayak that makes it that much more exiteing.   I wish I could of gone out to vist you one night when you were on POW.  If you read this Howard I would like to meet up one day before I leave And maby do Some Kayak Halibut fishing.   I leave for home October tenth.