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July 2009 | Volume 1 | Issue 9
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Mid-Season Review:
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June 2009 will go down as one of the best for king numbers in a long time. The king bite built to a fever pitch by the middle of the month. The Gary Wong party, fishing in mid-June went straight to circle hooks to avoid deep hooking kings and enjoyed three days of spectacular catch and release fishing.
With kings abundant, Gary, Robin Beck, and Jim Kraft increasingly shifted to using artificial baits – Berkeley Gulp Sand Eels in white or green and orange did the trick on a lot of kings. The bite got so hot on June 16 that one king was hooked and landed using a Gummy Bear (yes, the candy) on a circle hook. Later in the month, the Rick Bare group, fishing with Captain Phil experienced similar white-hot king fishing with Dave Gorshorn claiming it was “the best fishing in all the years we’ve been here.” We have never seen it better.
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Early July saw a drop off in the massive quantities but the Barr party, landed limits of kings each day along with halibut limits and some silvers. Fifteen year old Mathew Barr landed a 35 pound king on July 2. The fishing continued to get better with the John Slegel party, fishing with Captain Phil, landing a limit of kings and silvers at the Parking lot.
The salmon fishing took a sudden nose dive on July 8 with all the bait flushing from the west side of Kruzof Island. But, as is typical of Sitka, a new slug of fish arrived at Cape Edgecumbe and by July 12 we were finding silvers and kings there. On July 18, a hot king bite on the Cape brought limits to all our boats by mid-morning along with some silvers.
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Jack and Joyce Jolley |
A southeast blow came in July 19 and our fleet headed to the protected shores of Biorka Island to find solid action with silvers and kings. Jack Jolley, long time AU angler, described his day at Biorka on July 20 as “the best king fishing I’ve ever had.” Along with his mother Joyce and son Jack, Jr. they brought in a limit of kings and a near limit of silvers.
On July 21, Joyce Jolley landed a 31 pound king fishing with Captain Ryan and Dan Cushman landed a 38 pound king fishing with Captain Chuck – both at Biorka. Fish have begun showing again in the Shark Hole and the west side of Kruzof is gathering more bait again. We’re counting on the usual mid-summer hot bite of mixed kings and silvers to get nothing but better.
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John Dippold and Angling Unlimited's largest rockfish |
Halibut fishing has been better in 2009 than in recent years, especially for size. Terry Finn’s group, fishing with Captain Ben had four days of getting halibut limits after salmon fishing with fish in the 20 to 60 pound range.
A monster 225 pound halibut was landed on Captain Phil’s boat on June 30. The Willard party, fishing with Captain Phil, landed a 125 pound halibut on June 27. Cody and Rebecca White, fishing with the Don Weathers party on Captain DJ’s boat landed two 100 pound halibut on July 14.
Also on July 14, the John Dippold party got a limit of halibut to 60 pounds after catching a limit of kings earlier a “the Cape”. Landed with the halibut was AU’s largest rockfish ever – a monstrous 32 pound short raker rockfish – a very exotic catch.
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Angling Unlimited is running 7 boats this season – down one due to the recession. We’ve added a “Tent Event” – a reception for all guests and employees – we serve snacks and everyone gets to a little more time to get to know our captains and crew. It’s a great chance to swap stories and have some fun together. We are also sending our guests home with a photo CD of their trips – one more may to remember the good times in Sitka.
We do have dates available this season – the result of the recession – so if you get the sudden urge, see our website and give Kim a call at 800-297-3380 and she’ll provide you with good options.
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Captain Tom Ohaus and Captain Chuck McNamee
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