Category: Herring

First Charters of 2016

3/24/2016

Been awhile since it was deer hunting season. That was a lot of fun, and shot a couple awesome bucks in 2015. However it is fishing time now. The days are getting longer, the herring are showing up and so are the hungry King Salmon that are chasing them. 2016 will be my 14th year of charter fishing. In those years I have never done a charter in March. Had a successful charter March 3. Went out 2 days later with Captain Larry, who owns Avid Angler Charters, and had a lot of fun releasing small kings and caught one barely legal King. That 28" King tasted amazing. The only thing left was the guts, gills, and a pile of bones. My dad devoured the head, including the eyeballs, and we made sure every last piece of meat was gone. Then last Saturday Captain Ross with Black Flag Charters and I trolled for a short time and ended up with 2 very nice King Salmon. We have been walking tall the last few days after catching those tasty Kings. Tomorrow I will do my second charter of 2016 and plan on catching a couple more of those amazing Ketchikan Kings!

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Ketchikan herring back!

4/2/2015

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Captain Ross and I caught a few herring a week or so ago. It seemed like they were here for only about 2 days and I didn't catch nearly as many as I need. On my first charter of 2015, last Sunday, all the bait we used was fresh awesome bait that I caught. I have always bought bait locally and paid as much as $5 a dozen. It always seemed like I was being stingy with the bait also because it did cost money. Store bought bait never looks nearly as good as fresh. I have had captains from the Florida Keys come to fish Ketchikan, and we always argued about bait. My time in the Keys was always live bait. Though we don't have time for that or the ability to get live ones every day. Catching them now taking good care of them and using my own bait this summer will be awesome. King salmon are very picky and good bait is very important. Any salmon other than kings are often caught on artificial bait and as many of you know that produces a lot of fish. Bottomfish don't care how it looks typically just as long as it smells good. Bottom line the herring are back at mountain point and I will be there bright and early in the morning filling a cooler.

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catching herring

3/23/2015

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We went to Anchorage Alaska for spring break. Normally vacations for us are southbound not northbound. Sometimes you need to be a tourist of your own state. Seeing Lake Hood in person for the first time was awesome. Lake Hood is the largest seaplane base in the world. Since the lake was frozen all the floatplanes were off of their floats and sitting in the middle of the lake on skis. Our trips are never in the midst of summer because of our busy Ketchikan charter fishing season, so spring break is our major trip every year. Upon our arrival home we realized the herring were very thick. Krill were also washing up on the shore in front of my house. With a couple herring sabiki rigs, Captain Ross and I filled a bag or two in short order. In Ketchikan we pay around $5 per dozen frozen herring. I have always wanted to catch my own but too busy. The quality of these fresh caught herring vs. frozen, there is no comparison. Beautiful weather had us pulling dead engines out of the Ketchikan charter boat Ketch'em. We have a set of used engines that are going into the boat and will bring it new life. Even saw a couple deer while working on the boat.

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First Charters of 2016

Ketchikan herring back!

catching herring

CAPT TONY

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