I spent 10 days up in Sitka, Ak fishing iwth and decking for Captain Eddy Sisom of Scales 'n' Tales Charters. Sitka is considered the Salmon Fishing Capitol of the World and the experience I had gave me no doubts that this title is apropriate (and some said the fishing was slow up there during my trip).

Eddy is a fishing machine and takes his fishing very serious. He is one of the top charters in Sitka and consistenly outfishes most up there. He takes his fishing seriously. As I was posed for a picture or ready to take a picture, I saw his glare telling me "to put that damn camera down and get my line back in the water." Needless to say I didnt get many pictures. We did manage a beautiful 'nook of 47 #'s to the boat but I had left my camera at the apartment and our clients were out of film.

My first day there between 3 of us, we had 20 kings to the boat and twice as many silvers.

This was one of those blistering hot, beautiful and chrome 'nooks that are a dime a dozen in the waters of Sitka.



That sunday was our last good day of king fishing as after that we had to 'work' for our kings. Somedays we would get around 5 or so and others we wouldnt touch one. That is very typical of August and our 20 king Sunday was exceptional for August but would be considered SLOW for June.

We had no problems catching our share of coho. And never managed under 25 coho to the boat a day and usually lost just as many.

All the coho were deep though and I never got the chance to throw a bug at them. Maybe next year!

We fished aboard the 'Storyteller', a complete fishing machine and in my opinion the best boat in Alaska. She is a 29' custom Almar with room to comfortably fish 4 off the stern and two off the bow. Given that no more then 4 people are fishing at a time (plus a deckhand and captain) the room to fish is amazing.

Another option that puts this boat above the rest as well as the addition of a second sounder on the stern. The fish catching aide that additional sounder provides is amazing. You just stand there, rod in hand, staring at the sounder. You spot fish and bait at a depth(s) and place your offering right in front of them, no problem and without straining to see a screen in the cabin or relying on directions from someone standing inside the cabin. If you spotted fish on the sounder at a depth and you were able to get your bait there, 99% percent of the time it was "FISH ON!"

The Storyteller


[ 08-19-2001: Message edited by: RPetzold ]

Great pixes Ryan......thanks for sharing.

Right on, Sparkey!

How many days did you personally get to enjoy fishing, and did you walk away with any eggs? How are the crowds of folks up there this time of year? Good job, again!

Hey Ryan, how can I get ahold of the out fit that you worked for? I am trying to either guide or be a deck hand up in AK next summer and I here that the pay is good so.

The pics are great!!!

FISH ON!!!

:p

Sorry to hear you didn't get a chance to throw a fly at them silvers, I guided in S.E. Ak. for 11 years and though we motor mooched 99.9% of the time I did get a few chances to cast a fly and it was a blast. Sounds like the king fishing was pretty good too. If you're anything like me you're probably ruined for salmon fishing in Wa. I went out to Westport back in early July and sure we limited the boat easily and by Westport standards it was a great day, it was somewhat boring to me. We brought in 15 kings that averaged about 10lbs. and 25 silvers that averaged about 4-6 lbs. Up there (Alaska) a typical day would be a limit of kings that are on average 25 to 30 lbs. with a good chance at a big one 40-50lbs. silvers from 8 to 20lbs (limit 6 per person) and this is usually done by noon, you spend the afternoon topping the fish box off with a limit of halibut and lings. Damn I miss it, but I'm happily married now and have a son and enjoy being a dad even more. I'll get back up there though and probably ruin my son for fishing Wa. too.
I saw you were fishing out of an Almar, great boats, thats what I ran for the past 4 years and when I get the chance to buy another saltwater boat I've got it picked out, 25 ft. Almar Sounder. if you want to check out a fishing machine type in Waterfall resorts and checkout there web page, they've got 25 of them, awesome boats.

Catcher1, are you coast guard licensed? if so, its not hard to get a capt. position. There are alot of resorts from Ketchikan to Yakatat and many of these places replace guides every year, main reason, drinking, but alot of guides also leave because of poor owner operations of the small mom and pop lodges/resorts, I was lucky, I worked for 2 different resorts and both were well run, but I know a lot of guides who worked for some pretty poorly run resorts and they didn't stay more then 1 season.

As for deckhanding, its pretty tough to find a deck job in SE., they don't allow charter boats to carry more then 6 pass. (to keep the Westport type charter boats out) so most private charters don't carry a deckhand and if they do its usually a son or family member, I don't know of any resorts that hire deckhands. You may have a better chance of findng a deckhand job farther north, specifically, Homer and there halibut fleet.
If you would like specific info on good lodges/ resorts let me know and I'll give you some names and #.

AK Kings I would really appreciate it if you would do that for me but what are the age requirements and everthing like that. I dont care if its on a Salmon or Halibut boat but that it is fishing and that I get paid.

Thanks,
Travis

Sparkey,
Now you can take some of that money you made and buy a membership to Golds Gym so your able to pull the anchor next year.

VERY VERY FUNNY!!!

Hey All-
The crowds are pretty typical. You will know where the hot spots on the water are as thats where the boats will be concentrated. But its never too crowded or crowded enough for arguments and fights to break out. I was planning on bringing eggs back and we got some pretty nice eggs but after I forgot about them the first day and it was too late, I decided to give up on curing eggs the rest of the trip.