Who's ready for another Seeth and Wife Adventure to AK?

[duckhunt]

Great stuff so far.

 

[Dave N]

 

[Dave N]

Question of the day. Will I post my Alaska fishing pictures before @seeth07 continues with his story?

 

[seeth07]

We wanted to get to the cabin before the high tide so we didn't have to worry about the tide running out while unloading gear. Also it should make the walk to the cabin much shorter. We got this done without too much excitement. The cabin was exactly as we expected it and very thankful that the forest service puts in the time and effort to maintain these. It sure beats tenting it when it rains every day!

 

[seeth07]

Some views out the door from the cabin.

 

[seeth07]

 

[seeth07]

Notice that the last two photos it was sunny - the last day. Only day with sun besides the day we arrived. It also rained both of those days still. Everything in between was cloudy, windy and rainy. Lots of rain.

 

[seeth07]

Perhaps its because we have been to SE now 4 times but I'm going to really consolidate the trip from here because for 5 days straight, it was basically all the same.

It was really windy for most of those days. We kept calling it the "main fishing grounds" because it was almost out into Sumner strait where we had our best fishing for cod and halibut but with S/SE winds, getting out there was not easy if the wind was blowing since it was on the northwest corner of the strait with a lot of ocean exposed to that wind direction. Occasionally we would get out there for a morning or an evening and were able to catch some of the target fish. Otherwise, our days were spent fishing more secluded, shallower waters which resulted in a few rockfish but mostly just catching sharks. My biggest regret from this trip was not keeping at least one shark to just see for myself if they are edible.

 

[seeth07]

Lots of Halibut, almost all from 15# to 40#.

 

[seeth07]

and most halibut. Did I mention we caught A LOT of halibut?

 

[seeth07]

One day when I set the hook, my reel started screaming and for about a whole minute, 200 plus feet of line ripped out and I held on for dear life. 10-15 minutes later the fish came up. Impressive fish but it really makes me wonder what in the heck its like when you hook into a true "barn door"? This one we estimated was around 70#. There was 27# of skin free packaged meat from him alone.

 

[seeth07]

We caught other stuff too.

Lots of rockfish like this guy. We intentionally would move after starting to catch them as almost all species we caught we were not allowed to keep them due to some emergency closures this year.




A few skates too including this monster. My wife said it was like reeling up a sheet of plywood as it took everything she had to muscle him up. Didn't help he was hooked in a weird spot.

 

[seeth07]

Had a few nibbles and kept missing him. Went to check bait and had this going on...apparently not knowing you catch a flounder and then using it as bait isn't a half bad idea.

 

[seeth07]

Lots of other wildlife as well, pretty much saw all Alaska has to offer with the exception of no orcas. Humpbacks, sea otters, seals, sea lions, eagles, black bears, deer and porpoise.






A penguin in SE Alaska? Saw this same guy 3 or 4 times in the same area. It isn't a Murre. He was likely 20-25 pounds, couldn't fly. Had wings that very much resembled the arms of a penguin as he was "flop" along the water away from us or would dive and swim away.

 

[seeth07]

Various photos of the area while fishing

 

[seeth07]

 

[Dave N]

I'm getting the impression that no bears were harmed on this fishing trip. Could be wrong, though! Getting antsy to head up there myself. 2 more weeks!

 

[seeth07]

 

[Dave N]

It was just saying hi!

 

[CRJR45]

Taste like chicken?