2015-07 Fishing Sitka and Whale Bay with College Buddies

We've just returned from four days fishing around Sitka, Alaska.  From Tuesday, June 23 through Saturday, July 4, Alex will be fishing with his college chums Willie, Joe and Mike.  Some 45+ years ago these guys were students at Cal Poly College, San Luis Obispo.  This group has crewed on the Wild Blue many years now, especially fishing the Sitka area.

Mike the CPA, Willie the turkey rancher
and Joe the chicken rancher

June 23, 2015
The boys arrived complete with a large wheeled cooler stuffed with food: chickens, turkey breast, prawns, sausages, lamb and all the ingredients for gumbo, seafood soups, etc.  Willie is our Chef de Jour this week and he has a menu prepared.

June 24, 2015
The weather forecast is for 30-knot winds so we stay tied to the docks.  We cruise the town and enjoy dinner at Ludwigs Bistro.  Then we provision the few items needed that Willie didn't bring in his giant cooler.

June 25 through 28, 2015
We're off by 5:30AM and the wind and waves are southerly so we fished the protected side of Biorka Island at 7:30.  We landed a big king salmon within 30 minutes but after fishing a couple hours pushed on towards Whale Bay, a 3 hour motor. The ocean cooperated with just 4-foot swells, well spaced.

We arrived around 1PM and began fishing in the rocky swells on the south shore of Whale Bay.  The Bay yielded 5 kings last week, but sucked today.  We took a break for dinner then returned to fishing at 7PM.  Then the fun began.

Over the next four days we caught a bunch of Kings, Coho and even a halibut on the troll when the down-rigger ball bounced off the bottom!  A total of 39 fish!

Check out our Fish Report through July 1st at the end of the next post.

A mess of fish.

Mike landed what he thought
was a big piece of kelp.

Joe and Willie have lots of cleaning work.

Willie severed  a small part of his toe while showing off
with the knife.  His comment: "I still have nine other good ones!"

When not knifing around, Willie dazzled our taste buds.

Sunset over our anchorage in Kristoi Basin, Whale Bay. 

The Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife
asked to see our catch.  This officer was a
biologist looking for tagged salmon.  She
found one and took its head for study. We
eventually will get an email as to where
this hatchery fish was raised.

The Wild Blue Blog is getting so popular, we're planning on
marketing our own beer brand.  Here's some samples fresh
from the brewery.