It has been a very busy couple days. March Madness is coming to an end. I have done 4 charters in the month of March which means we are starting 2016 off with a bang. I have caught 6 nice King Salmon so far and plan on catching many more. As we all know Winter Kings can be kind of tricky and I have always thought "Not even worth your time." After catching these Kings lately I have changed my mind. I explained in detail to all 4 charters that it could be a complete waste of time fishing this time of year but I will do my best, and we can always resort to rockfish and maybe set the crab pots. We all left with low expectations and coming back with these awesome King Salmon was definitely a treat. The days are getting longer and the weather getting better. It is definitely time to start working on the boat, Paris and I installed a new windshield on a beautiful Easter Sunday and it was the first step in the right direction. Any one who wants to go find a King Salmon just know Captain Tony K. is ready. By the way one of those bad Kings was WHITE, how cool.
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Been very busy with allday groups and there are many to come. The Chong's fished for 2 days and went home with 119 pounds of filets and the Woodward's left today after 3 days of fishing with I think around 350 pounds of filets. Those numbers should show how the fishing has improved big time in the last 1 week or so. The phytoplankton bloom destroyed fishing close to town. Ketchikan charter boats should be catching 36 pink salmon and going home early on cruise ship trips and some good fisherman were getting 0 fish on 4 hour charter. I fished close to town yesterday for about 5 hours and ended up with 18 pink salmon. The Woodward's trip was an amazing trip first day we ran 35 miles out ended up with 16 coho 11 pink 4 halibut 6 snapper 6 rockfish. Second day was about 20 miles out 31 pink 16 coho 6 halibut, and due to horrible weather yesterday only 18 pink salmon. The busy season for me starts now, probably wont have much of a daily page for a little while, too busy fishing. Here are a few good fishing pictures of killing Ketchikan Alaska fish. Paris Knuteson has been on a strict training program this summer also.
A good bottomfishing trip! Typically no halibut in the box would be a bad thing. However 18 bottomfish in the box and releasing a nice 80 pound halibut with good weather and good crew was a lot of fun! Ran to Dall head for some good bottomfishing was a great idea given the fact that salmon fishing is horrible right now. In my 35 years in Ketchikan Alaska I have never seen phytoplankton bloom and turn the water a very light silty green color. The salmon I have caught have been kind of a pale color, it is weird. I heard they are like that due to lack of oxygen, I don't know. All fisherman on salmon trips are struggling. I have caught a few every trip but we should be catching lots. I have mentioned my pink salmon record of 36 pinks 42 minutes many times, and those times are normally mid July. Scratching for 5 or 6 fish is not normal. I hope my all day groups that are starting to arrive do well like years past, don't want this to be the record worst year. Here are couple pics of the Minnesota crew. Halibut pic doesn't do justice as we were trying to be easy and release her fast. We let a lot of dinners swim away because of halibut regulations.
Typically Ketchikan fishing charters don't start until early May. Today was my second charter of 2015. We have caught some nice Dungeness crab and some nice bottomfish too. Today catching that 29 inch King Salmon was awesome. The second I realized my guy had hooked I was pumped. Once it was on deck of the Valhalla I felt even better. Another beautiful day in paradise. Thank you again to the people who have booked me this summer, it is great to be filling my calendar.
Yesterday I did some bartering and trading, the Alaska way. Since I sold my commercial Dungeness crab permit, I no longer had a use for the commercial crab pots I had. When I sold the pots to another fisherman he started eyeing all my good junk at my boat yard. Didn't take long for him to realize he wanted a nice Canadian built anchor winch I had. He mentioned all the good junk he had and soon this deep drop hydraulic reel was mine. I have been wanting one of these for quite awhile, but never wanted to pay for one. Those days of subsistence halibut and yelloweye fishing is going to be lots of fun. I will not be coming home nearly as tired as I used to after a day of fishing. Better go buy that commercial rockfish permit now. Maybe Ketchikan locals who don't fish, but love red snapper, will be able to buy them off the dock now that Captain Tony will be catching lots.
Been working on Ketchikan Charter boat "Valhalla" the last few days. Since the days are getting longer here in Ketchikan I am itching to catch a Halibut, King Salmon, Crab or something. Have a group of guys that are in Ketchikan, working at the Vigor shipyard. Told them it wasn't the right time of year for a charter but that we could get some crab and try hard for a King Salmon. You can always catch a couple rockfish, and crab without too much trouble so that is my plan. The boat has to be ready though, so that meant tackling a couple projects that I have been putting off. Replacing raw water pump and some engine room cleaning, was definitely in order. Also reinstalling my downrigger's for King Salmon trolling needs to be done. Stripped all fishing gear off the boat so we could do our Sea Cucumber season, and haven't done much to the one boat in the water since. Soon I will have some pictures of actual fishing to post on my daily page. Keep in mind winter time in Ketchikan Alaska means fixing boats and hibernating time.
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CAPT TONY
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December 2016
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