08-24-2006, 02:43 AM
Me and my son (Bean) went to Alaska to play in the salt water since I miss it so very much. It was Bean's first trip to Alaska (my 7th), a college graduation present from the old IFG. I let him pick a fishing trip anywhere in the world (within reason) and he chose the one we went on.
We had a few prerequisits going in. We wanted to fish just me and him....no mixed charters. We wanted to fish for Yelloweye, Halibut, Lingcod and Salmon. We wanted a Capt. to take us out since I've done several do-it-yourself trips and, while fun, it's much better to go with experience.
We fished with Capt. Randy of KH Charters, he's a one boat operation and booked just me and Bean. We stayed at his 4 bedroom condo he has just for clients. It has a pool table, bar, card table, foozeball table, nice living room and fully stocked kitchen. He picked us up every morning and brought us back every night. He gave us a 1 ton P/U to use if we wanted to tour the island after fishing. We did have to cook for ourselves, but that was part of the deal. He gave us a bunch of shrimp and crab to last the week and we ate some of the fish we caught too. He fed us a light breakfeast and sandwich lunch while on the boat. Bean promply threw those up everyday.
We flew into Ketchican Ak. and got on a seaplane for our ride to Prince of Wales Island and the town of Craig.
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We caught our limit of Halibut, Lings and Yelloweye every day. We only spent 2 hours offshore to do it then ran in to finish off the day wearing our arms out on Salmon. Here is a picture of 2 nice Yelloweye. Notice mine is bigger.
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We also nailed the Ling's here is a picture of two nice one's we could keep. They have a slot limit of 30-40" and had to throw back the really big ones. I think we only got one under the slot.
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Bean's was 39 7/8", we measured it 6 times just to be sure.
When we talked to Capt. Randy he said there are no King Salmon in the waters we were fishing in Aug. No way he said, no Kings, no how. Here is a picture of Beans 30 pound King he got on day two, he actually got two that day, another 40 pounds or so. Capt. Randy wouldn't let us take it out of the water since we didn't have King tags. We didn't get King tags since we wouldn't have kept them anyway, we both would rather have Halibut.
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Here is a picture of the biggest Halibut we kept. Normally I wouldn't have kept this fish since the 20-40 ponders are much better eating, but it was Bean's first Halibut and no way was he not keeping it. After hapooning, then shooting it we brought it on board. If you've never seen this, it was worth the money. I wanted to get video of it but the camera was dead since Bean was too bust taking video of Whales and Seaotters and Sealions and such.
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Here is a picture of one of the 100's of Salmon we caught. A nice Silver.
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All in all we had a great time. It was one of the best trips I've been on and I've been on lots. If you are looking to go to Ak. for a trip I can let you know Randy's e-mail to see if he has open dates. I've fished all over Ak. and this was my second best trip. My best was a 7 day live aboard out of Valdez but what I paid for this for both my son and I was half of what I paid for that for just me, and was 7 years ago.
My second week of vacation to follow.
IFG
We had a few prerequisits going in. We wanted to fish just me and him....no mixed charters. We wanted to fish for Yelloweye, Halibut, Lingcod and Salmon. We wanted a Capt. to take us out since I've done several do-it-yourself trips and, while fun, it's much better to go with experience.
We fished with Capt. Randy of KH Charters, he's a one boat operation and booked just me and Bean. We stayed at his 4 bedroom condo he has just for clients. It has a pool table, bar, card table, foozeball table, nice living room and fully stocked kitchen. He picked us up every morning and brought us back every night. He gave us a 1 ton P/U to use if we wanted to tour the island after fishing. We did have to cook for ourselves, but that was part of the deal. He gave us a bunch of shrimp and crab to last the week and we ate some of the fish we caught too. He fed us a light breakfeast and sandwich lunch while on the boat. Bean promply threw those up everyday.
We flew into Ketchican Ak. and got on a seaplane for our ride to Prince of Wales Island and the town of Craig.
[inline AK1.bmp]
We caught our limit of Halibut, Lings and Yelloweye every day. We only spent 2 hours offshore to do it then ran in to finish off the day wearing our arms out on Salmon. Here is a picture of 2 nice Yelloweye. Notice mine is bigger.
[inline AK2.bmp]
We also nailed the Ling's here is a picture of two nice one's we could keep. They have a slot limit of 30-40" and had to throw back the really big ones. I think we only got one under the slot.
[inline AK3.bmp]
Bean's was 39 7/8", we measured it 6 times just to be sure.
When we talked to Capt. Randy he said there are no King Salmon in the waters we were fishing in Aug. No way he said, no Kings, no how. Here is a picture of Beans 30 pound King he got on day two, he actually got two that day, another 40 pounds or so. Capt. Randy wouldn't let us take it out of the water since we didn't have King tags. We didn't get King tags since we wouldn't have kept them anyway, we both would rather have Halibut.
[inline AK4.bmp]
Here is a picture of the biggest Halibut we kept. Normally I wouldn't have kept this fish since the 20-40 ponders are much better eating, but it was Bean's first Halibut and no way was he not keeping it. After hapooning, then shooting it we brought it on board. If you've never seen this, it was worth the money. I wanted to get video of it but the camera was dead since Bean was too bust taking video of Whales and Seaotters and Sealions and such.
[inline AK5.bmp]
Here is a picture of one of the 100's of Salmon we caught. A nice Silver.
[inline AK6.bmp]
All in all we had a great time. It was one of the best trips I've been on and I've been on lots. If you are looking to go to Ak. for a trip I can let you know Randy's e-mail to see if he has open dates. I've fished all over Ak. and this was my second best trip. My best was a 7 day live aboard out of Valdez but what I paid for this for both my son and I was half of what I paid for that for just me, and was 7 years ago.
My second week of vacation to follow.
IFG
] i want to got to alaska. thanks for sharing your adventure.
]
]