Alaska Kingfisher

S.E. Alaska sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska July 30th.

Jim Spaletta with his 48 pound King salmon.

Jim with his father in law and brother in law

Captain Harding with his big King salmon!

Kingfisher Lodge is a saltwater sportfishing lodge near Craig Alaska. We are a saltwater fishing charter only focusing on salmon, halibut and other bottom fish. The past three days have been consistent on the Coho salmon although not good enough for boats to land full limits each day. Our boats having up to six guests have been working hard putting in the hours and it is paying off for our guests. Most of the past 3 days we have seen the boats coming in with 2/3rds of their Coho limits. King salmon have been slower due to weather on the outside having Northwest winds up to 30 knots the seas have kept most charter boats off the open ocean where the King salmon have been the most abundant. Captain Braden Harding my son in law with a long history of commercial fishing behind him is guiding for us now and landed the largest King salmon of the season for us at 48 pounds on the 30th. The fish was caught by Jim Spaletta who seems to catch big things. Last year while halibut fishing he caught a large carpet thinking he had a unknown monster of the deep he was surprised to bring up a very large carpet, just try doing that in the middle of the Pacific! As far as the Coho fishing goes we are optimistic that it will continue to improve although we may not see all days with limits we hope to see improved Coho fishing. The Coho are larger than last year so even though limits may not be reached the result is very good. I weighed the average fillets of the Coho and they were 4.1 pounds of fillets per fish, very good for this time of year. Halibut fishing remains spotty or at least now as good as we are used to having to work for our halibut to get a good grade, but able to get limits. Ling cod and Yellow eye continue to be prolific.

John OHare group with a great catch.

Frank Cannon group with a great catch of fish.

Thank you for reading my report. Until next time.

Craig Alaska fishing report for July 23rd thru the 25th, 2018

The Wang-Shenck group with a nice display of fish!

The Volmer-Rasmasson group with another great catch.

Young-Branske group with a great catch of fish.

ADF&G numbers for Commercial troll per boat.

Craig Alaska fishing report for July 23rd thru the 25th for Kingfisher Lodge. Last three days started good and got better by the last day as more silvers and kings started to move in. We were landing close to limits of Coho’s and a few king salmon and some boats were limiting on King salmon in the Craig charter fleet. We spent each day looking for GAF fish so limited ourselves to more salmon fishing but landing 5 GAF halibut in the 3 days. Fish and Game graph shows Coho’s meeting 2013 returns for the past 4 days this week and we did see the increase in the sport fishing as well. Thanks for reading my report and we are hoping that the fish keep coming!

Craig Alaska fishing report for July 20th thru the 22nd, 2018

The Stutz-Hutcherson families with a great catch of fish!

The Stutz-Hutcherson families with a great day of GAF fishing.

Craig Alaska fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge for the above dates. Coho fishing increased dramatically the past three days with our boats landing limits of Coho each day and I believe most boats were getting limits of Coho, thanks to the Klawock Coho hatchery located on the Klawock river. This hatchery puts out 5 million Coho and our appreciation for this facility is beyond bounds as without it Craig’s Coho fishing would be a much reduced fishery, so we are very glad to have these fish suddenly show up (owned and operated by SSRAA). We now are hoping that the Coho’s continue to flood into the inside waters outside the Craig area. Thanks for reading the post.

Craig Alaska fishing report for July 15th thru the 17th, 2018

Great times with a great family.

Craig Alaska sportfishing report for the 15th thru the 17th of July at Kingfisher Lodge. The past three days were fair enough for Coho or Silvers considering the dismal reports up and down the coast especially in Sitka. the past 3 days our 18 anglers landed 130 Coho out of the 320 they could catch in 3 days so not great but not terrible either, as I said considering what is going on up and down the coast. Each day that passes we are expecting more fish to move in and wouldn’t be out of reason to have limits showing up any day now so we are keeping our fingers crossed and saying our prayers this happens. Bottom fishing was good for the past groups and the Blackmond group landed 2 GAF halibut to add to their catch. King salmon fishing is very slow and for that reason most boats are focused on Coho. (I will post more pictures but my phone went dead so I am waiting to receive pictures from guests)

Craig Alaska fishing report for July 7th thru the 13th, 2018

Dowdle group with a GAF day fishing!

Craig Alaska sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge for the week of July 7th thru the 13th. I missed the first group report and now combining the two groups reports for the above dates. King salmon fishing remained slow but we were able to limit on the one King salmon per guest last two groups. By the second group arriving on the 10th we had one slower day and finished strong landing all King salmon limits and the best two days were 15 Coho and 13 Coho for one boat. Each day is a new day and one day we will see limits of Coho or Silver salmon. Some of the commercial trollers are landing up to 100 per day off shore so they are on their way. Bottom fishing remains strong and good halibut fishing depending on water conditions and where we are as far as getting to the halibut spots. The boats are out today so will give a report in 3 days coming. The top picture is the Steve Delamore group with a great catch of fish. Thanks for reading my reports.

The Wes Goldstein goup with a great catch of fish!

Wiper/Dahlgren group with a nice catch!

The Jerry Karlin “Cornhusker” group with a great catch!

Craig Alaska fishing report for July 2nd thru the 5th of July, 2018.

Carl Postma group with a great day of fishing!

Craig Alaska fishing report for the 2nd thru the 5th of July. First of all we had beautiful weather and ocean conditions the past 3 days and everyone had a great time enjoying the beauty S.E. has to offer. King and Silver salmon fishing has been extra tough the past 3 days although all 16 guests landed their limits of King salmon only 5 Silvers or Coho were caught. Bottom fishing for rockfish and Ling cod is very good though saving our bacon and keeping the guests happy landing limits of these fish they have sometimes overlooked in the past due to larger numbers of salmon around. The commercial troll opening was on July 1st and they have also been way down on their catches and surely will affect the sport fisherman to a degree. We are optimistic that more fish will begin to show up as traditionally is the case but as of yesterday it was a struggle. Halibut fishing for the 38″ and under has also been tough off Noyes island, there seems to be plenty of the big ones around but unless a person has purchased a GAF fish they must be released. Looking forward to more fish coming in, stay tuned for the next report, thanks for reading.

The John Wilson family with a great catch. Justin and Jaren both landed 100 plus pound halibut but had to let them go.

The Giraud family with a great catch of fish!