Poundin the salmon... isn't that a euphemism for something...?

Bringing my flounder, sheepshead, and baitfish gear. Maybe one more for big fish!

we do have black cod, but it's most common to see regular cod.  black cod is not actually a species of cod as far as I know, that name is just used for the resemblance I guess.  anyway, we catch cod pretty regularly, which is annoying when you're trying to catch salmon haha.  they're pretty good eating though, considering.

anyway, check out the meat!  hard to get a real idea of how much there is... the fillets are pretty thick too, about 2" in the main part at least.  that thing was a honker.  the left two are the front half, and the other two are the tail end.  the bottom right bag also has the bellystrips, which are soooooooooo good.  I don't have a smoker right now, but that's where my dad comes in haha.  if I bring him fish for himself, he'll hook it up and smoke some for me.  he has worked for fish & game for over 30 years, and they had a friendly smoked salmon competition in his building a few years ago.. he won hands down, and one of the alaska native people he works with told him it was better than his people make it, hah.

and I don't really like this picture.. I look like a 12 year old with a scumstache... but for some size reference.  I need to catch another one.

how's the boat working out for you?

finally, got my first king of the year.  36" fatty!  jerms caught a nice 28" too.  the smaller fish is a dolly, which came within a couple minutes.  not as exciting as the kings, hah...

for dinner we had lemon baked salmon over pesto pasta... so damn good. I could eat this stuff every day for the rest of my life, and I will most of the summer... I have four huge chunks in the fridge.  that thing was fat.

jerms cutting his up

and mine

I got to fish with Solocreep for a few hours, too. Lot's of slow but steady action. So much crab and a lot of meaty sweet tasting males.

trolled for an hour or so in auke bay, again to no avail.  it was nice out though, and we got phantom (Lynzey's dog) out on a boat for the first time, and he was a natural.

I'm in NY and it's supposed to rain Friday night/Sat morning.

I was thinking of going fishing Saurday morning.

Is the rain going to be bad or good or it won't matter?

I tried googling, but got mixed reviews depending on what type of fishing you will be doing etc...

I am most likely going fluke fishing.

really need to go butt fishing too.  halibut fishing is my favorite.. anchor up, drop a line, and sit back with a beer and wait.  as for crab/shrimp, still thinking about it.. might borrow one of my dad's shrimp pots as they're pretty light and smaller than crab pots.  I don't have a pot puller arm on my boat, so bringing them up is a pain in the balls.

as far as what I've actually caught so far... a couple cod and an arrowtooth (looks like a halibut).  tossed 'em all back, although I should have kept the cod for my dad for crab bait.

Dude, if the doctor combs enough crabs off you to fill a bucket does it matter whether it's a bucket or case?  That's a lotta crabs...

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Salton Sea either, their fish taste nasty.  I think Prado is in Corona.  When it comes to sneaking around, you're suppose to do it at night when no one is around to catch you.  

You should try going to Prado or Salten Sea.  My bros and their friends found some other fishing sites but you gotta sneak in, but the fish be biting!  

You need to get a hold of Julius' Beefstick, he reels in a lot with it.

The only time I used snares was in half moon bay off of the rockwall/jetty...

Solocreep- see if you can come out! If there's a good chance you can, I'll PM you my cell and we can meet up and try to get that lost trap back!

 

The high mountain lakes and streams  I usually fish are pretty much iced over still.  Been a wierd year so far, but it's probably because i'm just ancy to get out there.

Solocreep- the fishing on Sunday was nuts. Big males were coming up everywhere. We left at 11, but they were still hitting like crazy, especially at the points. We didn't hit limits, but
I had to get some studying time in so we left good fishing.

Also ordered a Shimano reel for $59.99 usually $100.

ah, I hope I can catch some flounder.

and yeah, seafood that lives around [human] populated waters can tend to not be as "clean."  there is a lot of trash and waste that goes into those waters, unfortunately, so the species living there are living in it and it goes through their system over time.  depends though, you could have fish from a few miles out in clean waters that have ventured toward shore for people to catch.

on another note. the weather forecast has changed to rain for the weekend........ @#$%@#$^

ctoma- misses neither opportunity to identify spam, nor opportunities to make clean posts dirty.

Maybe we'll get lucky and catch a black or red drum off the pier.

The crawfish hotspot at that time was at a lake at a park in Riverside.  We were fishing at the lake because the crawfish likes to come out at night so we had time to kill.  Oddly, that same day we caught a 2 ft carp and catfish with a regular net by hand.  

Julius, nice crab orgy you got there.  

All but 2 have been given away.

Out on the pier the wind blew harder.

drove 3 hours there fished for maybe 2 hours and drove another 3 hours back. 

didn't catch a single thing. nor did i get any bites. apparently there were hard core guys catching flounder.

cant wait to go back and get a bite. And some keepers

Where did you go for crawfish?

Thats why they call it fishing and not catching 

What pier were you fishing from?

I've only tried fishing once, but it didn't turn out so well since my older bro was like trying to show me and my little bro how he does it and well, he lost my lure by trying to cast and getting it caught on the pier at the toss so I couldn't fish anymore.  

I've definitely seen some species of fish in lakes that shouldn't have been there. 

Just like the asian carp.    Eats anything and everything.  

Also there is going to be a meteor shower early Sunday morning, hoping to catch that too!!!

We aren't allowed to release bait into the waters anymore.. apparently it contaminates the natural balance of the lakes. How you say? invasive species.. I catch a lot of em grouppers funny looking things. And they eat anything and everything.

Haven't had crab in a while... but I do eat the eggs from time to time.. I dont eat the gills tho.. i might suck the juices out but that's bout it.

Lotsa cholesterol yum.

I wanna go fishing...and catch me some big o'l fishes!

Had a great meal last night, found a new Lebanese restaurant and had shish tawook, falafel and hummous.

humm.. i wonder how successful that is..

fishing is becoming so popular that Its even hard to catch pan fish, sigh..

^Here's a smaller female we threw back. Her underbelly was soft, so I hope she was carrying a lot of eggs for future sucessful crabbing trips!

 

But, there are some rich neighborhoods that have small men-made ponds that wind through the backyards so the residents can fish from the comfort of their homes. And some of theme do not have a natural source of fish..and the community grounds keepers actually add live fish into the ponds for the residents to catch...

I guess that's the case for Big Bear Lake then because no one catches anything out there, which is probably why they do the golden fish event thingy where if you catch the tagged fish then you win like 50k.

been a while since I've got a good catch...sigh... miss that feeling, where the end of the rod starts to feel heavy..
i can't wait!

I'm jealous of where spenser lives too.  wait............ oh, right.  yeah, I am pretty damn blessed.  can't get the boat off my mind... unfortunately for fishing, it's still winter and snowing at sea level.. woke up to a few inches on our cars this morning.  pow days for closing weekend!  and then... only after that... I will start pulling in kings and halibut, and I'm planning on borrowing a few of my dad's pots for shrimp and crab.

had beer battered halibut the other night for the first time this year, and it sure got me stoked.

 

Yup, public piers do not require a license...you can read the FAQ here:

whatd you use to catch it? cant wait til may when theyre up my way!

Sounds exciting indeed!

Thanks to this thread its reminding me to check up on the fishing. Keeps slipping my mind.

^cute crabs making me crave some seafood now.

Yah its a long shot at this time of year.. but I should still give it a try.

That would be awesome if you got some fishing footage.. and then the  fight underwater.. i'm imagining some cool wicked scene right now haha

I'd love to try trout fishing in the creek looks like fun

kinda forgot about it.. lol was suppose to go out ice fishing this year.. but damn work schedule didn't let me have any weekends off. Now I dunno if I can still use my coupon ) = what a waste.. hopefully they're cool with it and let us still go.

and ironic?

Thanks, i cant take all the credit, we did have a great guide, look up Jason Hoffman if youre ever down there. The only bad part is every bass after this is gonna look so small 

looks like I'll need a boat too

Great catch.. that looks like a monster

Can't wait to do some ice-fishing this year ( =

But after starting to catch Tautog and Sheepshead, I make sashimi out of them.

very good eating. 

Still don't like the croaker, spot or rockfish that much.

That's a lot of fish to eat though hahah I think i'd be sick of eating it everyday!! although I'm craving for some good fish and chips.

[tube]http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=51033955[/tube]

got out again today.  took out my two new friends from tennessee/NC who moved here for snowboarding, in hopes of getting them a whale sighting or two.  no whales (i think they're heading south for the winter about now), but we had great weather and got to check out a pod of porpoises for a while, as well as sea lion easy loungin' in the sun.  can't complain....

i'm not sure of the question though.  city vs residential?  people live in every part of juneau and it's all considered the city & borough of juneau.  the place you see there is auke bay harbor, and most of the visible buildings are business related.  the red roof in the middle is deharts, the little harbor store/gas station.  couple harbor buildings, couple businesses.. not sure any of those are houses.

the university is in the forest up behind the visible harbor and buildings.  it's between auke bay and auke lake, if you are looking at a map.

the road toward downtown goes to the right.  you'd be right, it's about 3 miles to the airport or to my shop, and about 7-8 miles from there to downtown.  juneau is a unique place in that it's all spread out.  i believe it's actually the largest single city/borough area in the US, or one of them?  it's almost like 3-4 separate little towns like you would see down south.  the landscape allows for a lot of building in some areas, and not much in others.  downtown is on a big outcrop of land at the base of a mountain, then it's the highway for a few miles along the water and base of a mountain, then a big opening goes deep into more mountains which is where a lot of people are.. then there's more driving along the base of mountains, and then it opens up into the mendenhall valley carved by the glacier, which is probably where most of the population is.  auke bay is a little further.  there is also douglas island where a lot of people live, which is is in the opposite direction from downtown, compared to heading out to auke bay.  kind of hard to explain. it takes a long time to really orient yourself with how it's all set up, hah.

3rd outing today.  actually got some fishing in.  it's real slow this time of year, but there are still coho and they are fat by this point in time.

flat calm, sunny through the thin cloud haze.. great day.  cold though, probably 40F.  it was perfect while trolling in the sun but at speed it was definitely worth a shiver.

leaving auke bay, looking back at the mendenhall towers and mt wrather, backing the mendenhall glacier

started fishing

and then aly got cozy with her dad jerms

saw a couple humbpack - jerms taking a photo

and then we blasted out to the pt. retreat lighthouse.  famous lighthouse here in southeast AK.

Take some more members fishing!

we brought the arnette skylights along to get a shot for the review video we're doing on those and the oakley canopy, hence jeremy wearing goggles

Someday maybe someday.

well, i picked a boat.  truly a smoking deal thanks to my dad's friend.  drove it around today.. outboard and kicker run smooth.  a couple little things to be done, but no biggie.  so stoked to finally have a boat!

in the works... work the steering in with grease, replace the motor for outboard tilt, get a depth sounder, gps plotter, safety/first aid stuff, cleats, rod holders, downriggers, and finally a nice custom built canvas canopy top like that other red lund i posted.  gonna be under budget and get the most out of any of the boat options i've looked at.

got two more options today.  a friend of mine that i've known my whole life has a 16ft lund wide model, 50hp outboard, brand new kicker, steering console, and a couple other goodies.  test drove it today and it felt great.  i dig the blue VS red (not that it matters) and i like the overall look and layout of this one the most.  the flat floor is nice, and the design is more open for moving around.  he wants $4800 for this package, which is a good deal.  comes with trailer too.

my dad called me back after i talked to him about this one, and someone at his work (fish & game) has an 18ft lund with trailer.  almost the same package, but the kicker is seized or something and would need work.  the thing is, he only wants 2k for it.  had it since he's lived in juneau and just hasn't used it much over the last bunch of years, so wants to move it quick for a good price.  if everything works, it's kind of a no brainer.  my dad is pushing the larger size on me cause it's safer, more stable, and nice to have the space.  by saving $2800 vs the blue one, i could buy a new kicker and the couple other things i'd want, and still be under budget.  going to check it out more tonight.

it's down to these two.  i like my buddy's the most, but for the price of the 18ft and size increase, it's a tough call.  it would be great to save the money, but we'll see.

first one is the 16ft, second is the 18ft.  it's covered in spruce needles and whatnot, but with a quick clean up, it'll be looking good.

back on the boat train, i may have found the one, if all works out.  i posted what i was looking for on facebook, and one of my little skater buddies that i know from the shop told me about his family's skiff they're selling.  16ft lund with a trailer, 40hp outboard, canvas top, bench seats all the way through, set up to have a depth sounder installed, comes with downriggers (attachments can be seen in the rear), and there's a net, gaff, life jackets, and a couple other things that are in there (not sure if they're included).  he said he thinks his dad wants 5k for it, which is on par, and it's the cleanest package i've looked at yet.  motor is the cleanest too.. still a little older, but sometimes those older 2 strokes are the ones that last the longest.

not sure on that skiff anymore.  turns out it's just a converted lund hull, which is fine, but it's real top heavy and needs bumper floaty things, the outboard is a junker but runs well enough, remote steering/throttle weren't hooked up and it'll be some work/money to get that together, not to mention i'd want a nicer motor, then get a kicker, then get a trailer... so i've decided to find a skiff package, which is fairly common in town so i should be able to get something within 5k fairly soon.

anyway.... walked out fish creek before dinner.. one of our favorite spots just a few miles down the road.  salmon are spawning and there are tons of carcasses everywhere, as well as near-dead fish swimming upstream.  the ones we caught were still in good shape, though.

nice views

jerms

2 of 3

one of many in the fish graveyard

thanks man!  you have to give a lot of credit to nature, but..

in other news, been looking at getting a skiff for a while now.  of course there are a lot in town, but the ones in my price range always have something that puts me off.  then i found this gem.  i would probably get a new motor, but the thing looks to be in great shape and has a lot of cool features for a skiff this size.  hard cabin, two seater, storage underneath the bow in front of the cabin, storage space up front on deck, bench in the back, fishing rod rack, outboard is sort of wrapped in but is not quite a drop through style of some other skiffs, and when i was checking it out, it seems it even has its own bilge pump which i don't think i've ever seen on a skiff.  making some phone calls and we'll see where this goes.  hopefully it's legit and it works out....

   

tagged along to pull a friend's dungee pot after work, maybe a mile from the harbor.  6 keepers out of 7, as one was a lady crab.  couple fatties.  not bad for being so close to home.

       

just finished my full photo post for the trip.  i won't post them all here, so here's a link that includes the stories and captions

here are a few of my favorites

black bear in torch bay on the way to lituya

dylan checking out the huge rock face below the mountains at the head of lituya

mountains at the back of the bay that rise over 8,000ft from the water

surf waves from the swell coming up over the shallow bar at the entrance, as we left the bay at 4am

dylan with the only fish of the trip.  super slow fishing...

an un-shrunken close up of the pair of orcas

not that stoked on the photo on my part, but pretty cool to have captured.. an orca breaches in the distance while we were fishing

the view from deer harbor on our second night. it's not an actual harbor, just a small natural bay on the coast with a view of the open ocean.  probably my favorite place i've ever slept.  so peaceful.

a beautiful morning on our final day

Great pics. Damn you have a great life! Snowboarding and fishing!

so many to go through, but here's two for now, shot as we were fishing south of cross sound near deer harbor. a large pod of 40-50 orca passed near our boat, backed by the fairweathers shooting above 15,000ft from the ocean.  the first photo is after they passed so it was shot in the other direction.  i wanted a better photo of them in front of the range more than anything, but it didn't happen.

back on land. lituya bay was the most amazing place i've ever been, with the roughest seas i've ever experienced on the way there. the seraphina usually cruises at around 25kt... we couldn't safely do much more than the 6kt we were doing. surfed a wave through the entrance during the ebb tide, the worst time to do it (not much of a choice at the time), as a tightly packed swell with chop on top was coming from the side and i was looking UP at the peak while out on the back deck. in retrospect, i don't think i/we have ever been closer to dying... but don't get me wrong, it was a great thrill and a hell of an experience and i'd do it again in a heartbeat. had a few moments dead in the water on the coast at icy point as well, which was a bit of a hair raiser. rest of the trip was great. sleeping in bays on the outer coast looking over the greatest and most vast & endless feature of our planet is always humbling, as were the landscapes in lituya, paired with the knowledge of the bay's harsh past and seeing it with my own eyes. in closing, i don't want to be back home. i find it hard to make sense of many things in "civilized" life when i come back from the ocean. and yes of course, everything was thoroughly documented in photos and on film, though nothing could be done justice, as that would be impossible. onward...

target is the catalina white sea bass.  i need to get a rod and reel...  any suggestions?  been doing some research, looks like i'll need something with a 25~30 line weight rod.

also, if you haven't heard of lituya bay, it's the place where the biggest recorded wave in history occurred.  i've wanted to go there since i first learned about it when i was a lot younger. it's really not far north up the outer coast from where we normally go, but it can get nasty and we've just never done the trip. so excited.

the wave was over 1700 feet high, and swiped off all the trees from the mountain sides in the bay. for some comparison, the empire state building is under 1500 feet tall. even crazier, there were a few boats in there at the time.. one with a father and son, or grandpa or something like that, and the wave carried them up and over the bar at the entrance and placed them back out in the open ocean.. alive. biggest wave ever surfed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lituya_Bay  

boat getting ready for the season at my dad's house.  cleaned off a bunch of barnacles and their glue, cleaning everything else, and fixing the kicker and mount that a crab boat smashed into this winter.  first trip is to lituya.. so stoked.  gonna try to find ourselves a new king spot on the outer coast, between cross sound and lituya

here's where we go. doesn't seem very far but it's almost a half day journey to cross sound in the boat.  our normal drag for king salmon is marked, so this time we're gonna try going up the north coast toward lituya and the insanely huge fairweather mountain range.

in Benicia (in Bay Area), I've caught a 46in... striper... forgot what it actually was could be a sturgeon, but it was exciting cause it was my first catch and it was big for me and my bait was way the hell out there. Brought it to a donut shop in Vallejo and they gave me endless boxes of donuts for a month. Sooner or later, I realized that they serve burgers and fish and chips for lunch. LoL. I'll never knew or have eaten their fish and chips but their donuts are bomb.

At Berkeley Pier, I went to fish with a couple buddies. They were very experienced, and I witness them and other guys catching sting-rays, hammer sharks, and all kind of other fishies. It was an eye opener for me. And catching a sting-ray is totally different than other fishes due to the way they swim. He let me reel em in for a bit.

got onto a fishing boat to go out to the bay from fisherman's wharf in sf. all we caught were halibuts but we got a lot.

me?  that's a legit boat, not a skiff.  i live in juneau.. the pictures from on the boat were out of cross sound near deer harbor, in lisianski inlet, and around elfin cove.

edit: oh, i bet you meant the pictures from the first post i made.  that's my dads old skiff, still in juneau.. those pictures are all in the waters around juneau.

holy that is an enormous bass

 

it can also be served sashimi style?

 

 

lol, he actually isn't my friend at all

I owned a slick bass boat rig before my wife and I had kids.  I'd fish and steer the trolling motor from the front deck.  She'd work on her tan from the rear deck.  The boat was fun, but it was also a headache riddled money pit.  I sold it when we had our first son.  With my kids growing, I've slowly been getting back into fishing and introducing them into it along the way.

 

 

 

I'm back into boats now, but paddle powered only.  I pimped my ride.  

 

 

 

its the very first thing in my post..

harbor jigging is what i do when im bored and we have nothing else to do on nice days.  i dont go out on the boat very often, but the difference between harbor jigging and fishing on my boat in the ocean is like the difference between watching a snowboard edit of jibbers riding in socal VS going heliboarding around here.  both are fun, but it just doesnt compare.

its really chill though.. its more like hanging out and we happen to have fishing poles.. play some tunes on the boats stereo and relax.

sorry to hear man!  youll make it up some day.

 

best advice ever. that's how i picked it up...you learn how to do everything from them and not to mention having a buddy around to shoot the breeze with.

If you based how fish tasted on how they looked you be in trouble

This guy doesn't look tasty to me but after a new name a clever marketing, people love them some "Chilean Sea Bass" 

Have a browse here - it has a lot of info helpful to get started.

http://about-flyfishing.com/

"well the bugs are bitting and the fish are too, so we've gone off to try to catch a few, some bass some trout, some walleyed pike, so leave us a message if you'd like"

Exactly, I was standing on a boulder just off of shore.  There was a mayfly hatch just before sunset so I decided to leave the boat in and throw a jitterbug from the shore, I caught both within about 20 minutes of each other.  The first pic sucks but I needed to shrink it in order to get it to upload, that one is substantially larger than the second one and left the water at least 6 times.

this is america, its called bread

i thought the crackers were great.  i dont really like salmon dip on anything but crackers anyway.

made salmon dip using my friends skills that she learned while working at a fishery a few years ago.. made with the kings i caught on the outer coast.

SO GOOD I CANT EVEN BELIEVE IT.  the store bought stuff is made with locally caught fish (not king) and its great, but every time i have some of this home made dip i never want to stop eating it.

PS - spenser, your trip looks epic!!

both sides are very large fisheries, but for different fish as you said.  you cant beat the east coast for certain things, but you cant beat the AK area for other certain things.

im no professional, but as far as i know, halibut rods are shorter and thicker, with stronger line of course.  its definitely a different fight and takes longer.  it took all three adults on the boat to get those 170 pounders out of the water once they got it to the boat.

for casual fishing, im pretty sure general salmon are most popular.  king, coho, pink, etc.  at least around here in southeast alaska, its all about king salmon for the most part.

hey, that is really awesome - halibuts. It is huge even 170lbs.  I wonder now they get it out of water. 

this was taken by a friends boat... that would be the open ocean behind us.  i think it was when we pulled our lines to turn around and start the beginning of our trolling spot again.

Oh that moose looks nice, I hope next year to go out for one.