I'm planning to take my son on a fishing trip to Alaska for a highschool graduation present. I'm thinking Sitka the last week in June for Kings and halibut. Has anyone fished Sitka that time of year? Success rate? Are there any better areas to fish at that same time of year that won't break the bank? Thanks.

I'm moving to Sitka as soon as I buy a boat for commercial trolling. I've done a lot of research on the catch rates, both commercial and sport, for kings in Southeast Ak., you're picking the best place and time to go for what you want to do. I've worked in Sitka a couple of times in the early 80's and think it to be the most beautiful setting for a town in the whole state.

The best site I've found for your purposes is (http://www.sitka.org/fishing.htm) It's the site for the Sitka Visitor's Bureau and will give you a list of about 40 charter operators (click on "Grid of Fishing Chater Operators"), that includes their prices, boat sizes, etc.. The site also has a lot of other info besides fishing. I have a Sitka telephone book, so if you need any numbers, just ask.
Good luck.

Sitka is a nice fishery ... although I hate thinking about how many OR / WA-bound fish die there (be gentle AKBill!!). If you decide to go there and need someone to fish there, let me know and I can get you hooked up.

Another option is where I'm at in the summer ... the Kenai Peninsula. While I don't think you'll see quite the number of kings as you will out of Sitka ... there are more options for fishing ... late June would give you kings, halibut, sockeye, and BIG rainbows as well as more varied options for 'other things to do'. Plus, for weak-stomached guys like myself, you've got tidewater kings instead of saltwater fishing ... I can feel my stomach turning already! And actually, the Peninsula would probably be a cheaper trip too, should be able to fly into Anchorage out of Seattle for 'bout $250 at most.

Sitka has its good points but I like to get away from the people/commerce/touristy thing. Sitka reminds me too much of Ilwaco, WA. Just my opinion.
For me, SE AK for Yakutat & Cordova and SW AK for Cold Bay & King Cove are my favorites for the overall experience and the "Do it yourselfer". Rivers and salt. Fewer Kings but enough Silvers and Steelhead to damn near move there for. Enough Kings to keep ya happy. Also plenty of Chums, Pinks, Dollies, Rainbows and even Sockeyes. In the salt, enough Halibut and Tanners....I gotta get the family to move there...Best day I had up there this year was 68 silvers landed and countless #s of the other salmonids. Last trip I made this Sept was 6 plane rides, a boat trip (100' F/V), 14 nights for <$1500, but I can get by cheap. I go for the experience, not the meat, and just knowing that it still exists gets me through our fishing here in WA.

I think you may have trouble finding a good charter for that week in Sitka as it is probably the prime week of the summer for Kings. A friend and I reserved a spot approximately 2 months ago with a well known charter out of Olympia and we were pretty lucky to get in at that time. Our trip is for three days fishing beginning on June 28th. It's possible that there might still be room on the boat as there are two of us and it's a four person boat. Let me know if you are interested in more info.

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Bob, I don't blame you one bit for griping about the Southeast Ak. troll fisheries, including the sporties. However, the more I delve into it the more I'm finding that the impact S.E. trollers have on Wa. fish is much less than I originally thought. For one thing, as I've posted before, S.E. trollers do not take Wa. silvers. At this point, I would be surprised if S.E. trollers take 7% of the ocean-harvested kings bound for Wa. streams. My feeling now is that the impacts of B.C. and Wa. commercial, Native and sport harvests, and the sorry state of Wa. streams make the impact of the Ak. troll harvest look miniscule by comparison. On top of all of that, Alaska gets more than its share of Washingtonians that come up each summer and make money off of harvesting Ak. salmon. So, although I can understand your griping (maybe that word is too harsh), I'm not very sympathetic. I hope I was gentle enough.

Fish'n Fool, I'll vouch for what Bob said about the opportunities that exist fishing with him on the Kenai, except for one thing- I bet Bob would hook you up with more Kasilof kings than a Sitka guide would hook you up with. I lived on the Kenai Pen. for 8 years and fished it for more than 20.

Finally just saw this one ... Whether the number is 7%, 77%, or .7% ... when the fish are harvested in a situation where you don't know the origin of the stock ... it's bad news, and the days of fishing this way have to come to an end if the salmon runs anywhere will have long-tewrm viability.

It's not a matter of who's taking the fish, it's a matter of the non-selectivity ... is that king on the deck of the commercial boat (or a sport landing net) from a healthy coastal stock, or from a small stream with just a few spawning pairs left?? Personally, I don't like seeing any fishery (sport or commercial) that targets mixed stocks in which we have virtually no idea where the fish is bound for.

Tell me, does it make sense to spend a few hundred thousand enhancing habitat on a little stream if the fish can't even make it back??

Thanks for the reply. I understand where you're coming from. I was mainly just trying to show that the impact of Ak. sport and comm. trollers is less than might be generally thought. I have no info on whether Ak. trollers have caused the extinction of stocks in any small streams and I won't speculate on the odds of it happening. Also, I won't speculate on whether there is actually more of a chance that small tributaries of the Hoh, or other rivers, could be wiped out by comparatively more concentrated sportfishing in the mainstem (sure, they might get re-populated faster and by fish that are more genetically similar than a tidewater stream). But if they shut down the sport harvest of kings in the "Hoh" just because of the possibility, I doubt it would go over too well. If they survey every trib of every river, then I've just been talking out my butt.



I do have some more counterpoints,including some numbers comparing the Ak. troll harvest to B.C./south harvest of endangered Or. and Wa. runs, but to heck with it. There's a difference where we draw our lines on this subject, but the lines seem to be only a fraction of an inch apart. An' that's all Ah have ta say about theyahhht.

[This message has been edited by AkBill (edited 12-21-1999).]

Unlike the Kenai (Slikok, Funny, Moose, etc), the Hoh has just a couple of tribs that support king spawning (many more have silvers), and these are all surveyed. The vast majority of the fish are mainstem spawners ... and I'd like to see the state take a step in protecting the kings within the Hoh ... 1 per day, no more than 5 annually (I could live with 2, but this is a good start). Sound familiar??