Craig Alaska Fishing Report. 31st of July, 2025

Since my last post it really feels like the ocean has come alive again. We are seeing a lot more activity in terms of baitfish, whales etc. More importantly the Coho fishing has improved. The boats are all getting limits and seems like each day it keeps getting better. We are also starting to see some bigger Silver Salmon landed, some tipping the scale at 10-11 lbs. We hope this continues throw-out the month in August both in terms of size and quantity.

We are also seeing some greater number of pinks which makes it fun for the guests as they get a lot of hook ups throughout the day. However it could be a bit of a problem for the captains as they burn thru a lot of bait in order to get a limit of cohos. They do however supply the captains with plenty of halibut bait.

With a good stretch of weather the boats have been able to target Lingcod and Yelloweye, and they have been very successful. The small slot of 30-35 inches for lingcod makes it very hard to catch a full limit of them as many are too big and have to be released. They do however offer guests a very cool experience setting the hook on a 40-45 lbs lingcod.

Halibut fishing remains excellent both for “keepers” as well as GAF halibut. Captain Sean has had an impressive stretch bringing in 2 GAF halibut measuring 71 and 73 inches just over the last week.

All in all there are many positives from the past week. Fishing has improved, the weather has been great. On top of that Alaska Fish & Game just announced that non-residents are allowed to retain 1 king salmon per year starting August 4th. This is great news for all our guests that are coming thru the month of August. There are still a lot of questions that are left to be answered in terms of the regulations and prior King Salmon closure. If you would like to get involved and support charter operations in southeast Alaska, we highly recommend you visit SEAGO. They are the organization who is lobbying and working the political end in favor of the many charter businesses in the Southeast region of Alaska. At the moment they are in need of funding as they are performing economic impact surveys as well as hiring full time lobbyist who will make sure that we have a seat the table when next years regulations are to be set.