2014 was a REALLY good fishing season for us. We had a record King Salmon run this year (thank you Oregon, Washington and British Columbia for letting us catch a bunch of your King Salmon before they could get back to you) where we were able to keep targeting King Salmon all the way through June, July and August. We caught lots of beautiful King Salmon and on one charter we hooked, fought and lost a King that will haunt me for many many years. I was able to see him at the side of the boat 3 different times and he was a beautiful monster. Oh well, maybe next time. (note to all of you fishermen that come up here after big King Salmon: do NOT try to lift a big fish out of the water so I can net it, something is going to give!)
Our halibut season was consistent and as usual we were able to catch fish for almost every client. Unlike some years, we didn’t catch any really big halibut this summer. The biggest charter halibut we pulled up to the boat was probably in the 70-80 pound range. Like always, we try to keep halibut in the 15-30 pound range for our clients as these are best eaters and are very plentiful.
Coho fishing was really good this year from the 1st week of July all the way to the end of September. We had brief windows where they would seem to disappear which required us to put more miles on the boat trying to find them. Several groups this summer came during the in-between times where we had to fish alot of different spots to try to find the Silvers. Although these days can be discouraging, its just part of fishing and some days you have to work for it. Thank you for being understanding during the moments when we are doing more fishing than catching!
Pink fishing was good like it is most summers here: you can usually catch about as many Pinks as you want to. We had trips where we limited very quickly as some Pink trips where we just caught them consistently for 4 hours and ended up with a full box at the end of the trip. If your looking for almost non-stop action then Pink fishing in July and August might be the thing for you.
One of my favorite trips this summer was an all-day trip down to the Pinnacle (about 30 miles from town) with some of my favorite Texans. We were using a lure that was especially good this summer (chrome/UV apex) and catching beautiful silvers whenever we let it down from 20-50ft. The bonus that day was whenever we let it down from 60-90 ft we were catching big beautiful King Salmon which really made for an exciting trip and some wonderful salmon fillets for the Texans to take home to the 2nd largest state in the US 🙂
Texans vs. AK 2014 pinnacle trip
