Elfin Cove Alaska - good times for all
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:50 am
So then. About three weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take a little trip up to Alaska and Elfin Cove. You go to Juneau, jump on a float plane, travel about eighty miles thataway, and touch down in this little bitty place with no roads or sidewalks and about two hundred people there during season - and about ten or so year around. Cool and thought it was high time to share the fun of the trip.
It was a fam trip with my brother, dad, and nephew primarily off to do some serious salt fishing with boats and the whole nine yards. You ever want to go, check out Eagle Charters. Woo, absolutely great experience. No negatives other than it's pricey. Unless you're loaded, it's not an every year thing by any means. That said, it's definitely on the agenda for a return trip in maybe two or three years. They do a bang up job on the whole thing. Comfy accomodations, do your laundry, clean and pack up the fish for transport, and great eats. Good times.
Annnnyhow, we had four fishing days out on the water. First two we went for halibut mainly with a little salmon thrown in. Last two it was salmon and rockfish.
First day on halibut was awesome. The boat captain rigged stuff up and was using a lot of scent to kinda seep down from a flat to a deeper water drop off - lure the big feesh up. We started hooking fish fairly quickly. The first one was probably about fifteen or twenty pounds. I'm all jacked and checking the thing out thinking "nice fish!" when they just unhook and casually toss him back. I'm kinda moving my mouth but not saying anything and find they consider those ones little babies that need to go back unless it's the end of the day, time to head in, and you've come up otherwise empty. Limit was, after all, one per day per person.
So, after bringing in and releasing a few of the "chickens," we started getting into some bigger fish. Ended up limiting in about three or four hours with the smallest being about fifty pounds and the biggest being my kickass ninety pounder. They had to shoot Mr. 90 with a .410 before they brought him on board - too big to bring up and let flop around. Took about forty minutes to bring him up and I was thoroughly gassed. Like hauling up a refridgerator. Took line a couple times but other than that didn't fight much - just HEAVY.
(pic of a pic)
Thought I was pretty cool until we got back to the dock and found some folks had brought in a 210 pounder and also a double hookup with a 115 and a 75.
Went out next day for halibut again with a different captain. Kind of mediocre on the day and we ended up with about four 25 pounders. Towards the end of the day we all basically concede that halibut is fun but we want to hit up some salmon. Captain gets all lively as it turns out he doesn't like going for halibut so much but lives for salmon and jigging for rockfish. Woo!
Next day, head out for salmon. We'd heard kings would be tough as the commercial trollers (not trawlers, trollers) had been working the area pretty hard and scattered the fish. People were pretty sure no kings would be had. Wrong. After a couple hours of bringing in a few coho, some varieties of rockfish (tossed back), several lings including one that had to go about 35 pounds plus (couldn't keep 'em, out of season), and a ton of pinks (aka halibut bait) we got into the kings. Limited out with five fish in about an hour with the biggest around 25 or thirty pounds. Big, big fun.
(About a twenty pounder or so)
We adjusted depth to try to get away from the kings and into the coho more, but the kings kept coming. After releasing two including the biggest one, we realized we were just on 'em, couldn't keep 'em off the hooks, and needed to move or we'd just keep catching them. Good problem to have. Went and jigged for rockfish with just unreal action. Ended up with a bunch of black rockfish (aka sea bass) and a couple yellow eye including a 12 pounder. The black rockfish are the only ones they keep other than the yellow eye. You can keep one yellow eye per day up there, which was pretty dang cool. Gorgeous fish.
Last day, the plan was go do it again. Lot slower for coho and kings, but still lots of pinks. So many pinks, I lost what had to be a big, big king because my left arm was gassed from reeling in pinks and I had a hard time keeping the line tight. Still got a smaller (27 inch I think, barely legal) king and a humongous coho - 18 pounds.
It was kinda slower but still decent and we were getting ready to move on and decided to just jig a bit for fun. Boom. Two kings hit the jigs, both nice and big - mid-20s. Add another yellow eye and it was good times again. Went and jigged for more rockfish and just all kinds of fun with that.
Soon as I can figure out uploading pics, I'll put some up. Serious blast and VERY easy to get spoiled fishing-wise and a little fished out. Fish after fish after fish. Unreal how many pinks. Nice crash course in species identification: pink v. coho v. king. Plus, we ended up bringing in a few true cod including a nice big one. I'm all jacked, but once again and as with the pinks it's "halibut bait." After getting back and into the groove of work and life, I'm only just now starting to think about getting the gear out here.
It was a fam trip with my brother, dad, and nephew primarily off to do some serious salt fishing with boats and the whole nine yards. You ever want to go, check out Eagle Charters. Woo, absolutely great experience. No negatives other than it's pricey. Unless you're loaded, it's not an every year thing by any means. That said, it's definitely on the agenda for a return trip in maybe two or three years. They do a bang up job on the whole thing. Comfy accomodations, do your laundry, clean and pack up the fish for transport, and great eats. Good times.
Annnnyhow, we had four fishing days out on the water. First two we went for halibut mainly with a little salmon thrown in. Last two it was salmon and rockfish.
First day on halibut was awesome. The boat captain rigged stuff up and was using a lot of scent to kinda seep down from a flat to a deeper water drop off - lure the big feesh up. We started hooking fish fairly quickly. The first one was probably about fifteen or twenty pounds. I'm all jacked and checking the thing out thinking "nice fish!" when they just unhook and casually toss him back. I'm kinda moving my mouth but not saying anything and find they consider those ones little babies that need to go back unless it's the end of the day, time to head in, and you've come up otherwise empty. Limit was, after all, one per day per person.
So, after bringing in and releasing a few of the "chickens," we started getting into some bigger fish. Ended up limiting in about three or four hours with the smallest being about fifty pounds and the biggest being my kickass ninety pounder. They had to shoot Mr. 90 with a .410 before they brought him on board - too big to bring up and let flop around. Took about forty minutes to bring him up and I was thoroughly gassed. Like hauling up a refridgerator. Took line a couple times but other than that didn't fight much - just HEAVY.
(pic of a pic)Thought I was pretty cool until we got back to the dock and found some folks had brought in a 210 pounder and also a double hookup with a 115 and a 75.
Went out next day for halibut again with a different captain. Kind of mediocre on the day and we ended up with about four 25 pounders. Towards the end of the day we all basically concede that halibut is fun but we want to hit up some salmon. Captain gets all lively as it turns out he doesn't like going for halibut so much but lives for salmon and jigging for rockfish. Woo!
Next day, head out for salmon. We'd heard kings would be tough as the commercial trollers (not trawlers, trollers) had been working the area pretty hard and scattered the fish. People were pretty sure no kings would be had. Wrong. After a couple hours of bringing in a few coho, some varieties of rockfish (tossed back), several lings including one that had to go about 35 pounds plus (couldn't keep 'em, out of season), and a ton of pinks (aka halibut bait) we got into the kings. Limited out with five fish in about an hour with the biggest around 25 or thirty pounds. Big, big fun.
(About a twenty pounder or so)We adjusted depth to try to get away from the kings and into the coho more, but the kings kept coming. After releasing two including the biggest one, we realized we were just on 'em, couldn't keep 'em off the hooks, and needed to move or we'd just keep catching them. Good problem to have. Went and jigged for rockfish with just unreal action. Ended up with a bunch of black rockfish (aka sea bass) and a couple yellow eye including a 12 pounder. The black rockfish are the only ones they keep other than the yellow eye. You can keep one yellow eye per day up there, which was pretty dang cool. Gorgeous fish.
Last day, the plan was go do it again. Lot slower for coho and kings, but still lots of pinks. So many pinks, I lost what had to be a big, big king because my left arm was gassed from reeling in pinks and I had a hard time keeping the line tight. Still got a smaller (27 inch I think, barely legal) king and a humongous coho - 18 pounds.
It was kinda slower but still decent and we were getting ready to move on and decided to just jig a bit for fun. Boom. Two kings hit the jigs, both nice and big - mid-20s. Add another yellow eye and it was good times again. Went and jigged for more rockfish and just all kinds of fun with that.
Soon as I can figure out uploading pics, I'll put some up. Serious blast and VERY easy to get spoiled fishing-wise and a little fished out. Fish after fish after fish. Unreal how many pinks. Nice crash course in species identification: pink v. coho v. king. Plus, we ended up bringing in a few true cod including a nice big one. I'm all jacked, but once again and as with the pinks it's "halibut bait." After getting back and into the groove of work and life, I'm only just now starting to think about getting the gear out here.