Alaska Kingfisher

June 28th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Prince of Wales Sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska on June 28th 2012 began with light winds and a wet morning with temperatures in the high fifties. We headed for King salmon fishing and within the first half hour landed 3 king salmon and 4 silver salmon. We then headed off the west coast of Baker island and joined the charter fleet there as the fishing was non stop hooking and landing of king salmon and as one viewed the boats nearby nearly all had 3 to 4 salmon on at one time. Most of the King salmon were smaller in size but the action justified being there and everyone enjoyed the action. We landed our best kings to tag us out and as we had a resident on board as well we were able to land 8 king salmon for the day. From here the crew wanted to try for large halibut and so we went shopping for large halibut and were not disappointed as we released one at 103 pounds based on his length ration which was under the 68 inch trophy size required, this fish was landed by 10 year old Turner McCurdy. We continued to land nice halibut with Blake and his dad Rob landing a nice one pictured below. Thus ended the trip for a very happy group and are rebooked for same time next year….until then best to you all.

Blake and Rob Berry with a nice regulation halibut

Turner, Rob, Blake, Lee and Butch with a great catch

Jim, Shawn, Randy, Ama, and Terry with their nice load of fish

June 27th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Prince of Wales Sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska on June 27th 2012 began with light winds and temperatures in the high fifties. We headed for King salmon fishing and were not dissapointed again as we landed 3 King salmon keeping two and then moving on to our second choice spot landed an additional 3 or 4 kings tagging us out on King salmon. From here we headed out for halibut and rock fish limiting on halibut first and then on to our bottom fish of Ling cod, Yellow eye and sea bass. Limiting on most of these species we finished the day and headed in.

Lee, Turner, Blake, Rob, and Butch with a nice catch of bottom fish

June 25th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Prince of Wales Sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska for June 25th 2012 started out with heavy overcast skies which kept our early arrival of guests arriving late due to the weather. We were scheduled for a half day fishing which once they arrived we geared up and headed out. Both boats landed a total of 5 King salmon and 10 Silver salmon for the half day fishing. Weather was for windy and wet the next 2 days.

Jim McGowan with his 32 pound King salmon

Ama, Shawn, Randy, Jim, and Terry first half day fishing

June 23rd Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Prince of Wales sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska on June 23rd 2012 was blue skies, 80 degree temperatures, a NW 15 knot wind.

Today we went fishing off the coast a short distance and many other boats joined us as word has spread of fish being caught in that area and it appears other favorite spots have been slower fishing. The fish have been biting early and then tapers off within the first 3 hours fishing in the morning so if you capitalize on an early morning bite you stand a good chance of securing your limit of King salmon. We had our limit of King salmon by 8:30 or so in the morning and since the silver salmon have been showing up in better numbers continued to catch them and ended up with 10 silver salmon for the 4 anglers on the boat. Listening to the chatter on the radio it sounded as though boats were anywhere from no king salmon to having a limit with many boats landing silver salmon. Since the King salmon were at much lower depths than the silver salmon I suspect that the boats catching only silvers were fishing higher depths opting for the more action by staying up higher and less chance of having to pull up another small chicken halibut that one will quickly hook if you hang out near the bottom.

Halibut fishing for the day was slower as we are always looking for that 45″ halibut but only finding one in almost 2 hours of fishing we moved on to a spot that has more fish but smaller and finished up with our limit settling on a few smaller grade halibut.

I want to thank the Wiper family for coming fishing with us and hope to see them again in the future as they have also become a welcome group to our lodge and become friends over the years.

Kara, Jeff, Cole, and Chase

June 22nd Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Kingfisher Lodge dock June 22nd

Kara, Cole, and Jeff with Cole's nice King salmon

Prince of Wales Sportfishing report for Kingfisher Charters and Lodge in Craig Alaska on June 22nd.

Cole, Kara, Jeff, and Chase Wiper

June 22nd we headed for open water for our King salmon and within a short time secured 5 legal King salmon with the smallest at 28″ and the largest around 18 pounds and releasing one under 28″. While salmon fishing we landed 3 very nice halibut as shown above so that was a bonus and later in the day had to release a nice halibut since we had our legal limit already secured in the slushed ice box. As we could land a total of 7 King salmon we continued to fish but caught no more King salmon but did catch one silver and lost a few other salmon that we could not identify. In the early afternoon we went to a inside spot and landed an additional 3 Kings with the larges at about 27 pounds and had to release one about 22 pounds as we had our limit.

Word on the radio was slow fishing but limits were being secured by most boats. It seems that the halibut are showing up in better numbers with some size to them as today we landed 4 that were in the 37″ to 45″ range which is a nice 35 – 43 pound fish.

Jeff with Chase and his nice King salmon

June 21st. Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Nils, Chase and Cole exploring the sea caves

June 21st Prince of Wales Sportfishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska.

Kara, Jeff, Cole, and Chase Wiper with a nice catch.

Today the weather was calm with overcast skies when we headed out for our King salmon hoping to land another derby fish we went to the same fishing spot but caught no salmon there so moved off shore and soon found some King salmon. Although the fish were plentiful the size was small so we had to let some undersized Kings go until we finally landed our limit of legal size fish with the largest about 20 pounds.Halibut fishing for us was pretty good landing some nice fish with the largest at 43 pounds.

 King salmon fishing in the Craig area remained steady as most boats are limiting on their King salmon although depending on where you are you may have to work for your fish or if you are looking for that bigger fish. It seems there are a fair number of schooling fish in the smaller or just legal size limit of 28 inches to 33 inches or so.

Halibut fishing in the Craig area has been picking up slowly as the salmon migration speeds up and water temperatures rise they seem to be in larger numbers although most guides are struggling to land respectable catches nearing the 45 in range.

Kara with her nice King salmon

June 19th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

June 19th Craig Alaska fishing report for Kingfisher lodge on Prince of Wales Island Alaska.

Ivo, Mike, Nate, and Richard

This morning we left the dock at 5 am headed for King Salmon and was torn between somewhere new and our old spot where the Waterfall boats had converged on us the day before. Reports for King salmon were dismal and so wanting to fish alone we headed out to search for our King salmon. First stop yeilded one King salmon and not hearing much good news on the radio decided to head out to the ocean and try our luck with the bottom fishing hitting low slack tide. Off we went and in a couple hours secured a limit of nice halibut and then decided to head for rockfish. Hitting some rockfish spots we landed 4 yellow eye, one oversized halibut (50″) a Ling cod and while fishing we spotted some salmon on the sounder so dropping down our salmon gear landed the remaining 3 of our King salmon. So ended a successful day of fishing at Kingfisher lodge and some happy customers. Tomorrow is half day morning then a new group with a half day scheduled for the afternoon as well so will put in a long day but will hope for light winds, sunny skies and hungry fish.

Richard, Nate, Ivo, and Mike

Ivo with his respectable Halibut at 43"

Nate, Ivo, Richard, and Mike

June 18th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

June 18th Prince of Wales fishing report for the Craig area at Kingfisher Lodge. Today we left early in hopes of beating the Waterfall boats to our spot we fished yesterday afternoon knowing they would be there which we did and landed 2 King salmon before they arrived after which time I saw 1 other King salmon landed. We fished there for the next couple hours with no success and finally went to try for halibut in a large built up ocean due to the high winds that had blown in the few days before. We fished for an hour with no results and decided to head out to a spot with undersized halibut to just get some in the boat as we still needed 2 more King salmon to fill our limit. We hooked and landed a King in the process as well as our limit of small halibut and intending to head back to our spot that we did well yesterday afternoon in hopes that we would have it to ourselves and get the afternoon bite. When we arrived we saw the Waterfall boats coming enmass and was pretty disappointed to have them come in and take over the spot. So being crowded out we left them and headed anywhere for a more private fishing experience which we did but did not fill out the last King salmon so ended the day with 3 King salmon 4 halibut and a Ling cod. Word on the radio was slow fishing for most of the charter fleet for the Craig area.

Mark, Richard, Ivo, and Nate.

June 17th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

June 17th Craig Alaska fishing report at Kingfisher lodge. Today we left the lodge at 2:30 pm with a half day trip scheduled, arriving at our destination we landed 4 King salmon (one undersized) and 3 halibut in the 4 hours fished that afternoon. We also marked a few other fish and missed a few bites but were optimistic to return the following morning before the Waterfall Resort boats showed up enmass.

Ivo, Mike, Richard and Nate

June 15th Prince of Wales Sportfishing report, Craig Alaska

Eugene, Kim, Dan, and Anjuli

June 15th Kingfisher Lodge fishing started out with light winds at 5 am with a forecast for 35 knot winds for the afternoon. Our goal was to get our King salmon early then off to get  halibut before the winds made it too difficult to accomplish.

My daughter Anjuli went with us as Nick and Dylan had to go home, so our goal was 5 King salmon and 4 halibut. Dropping in at 6 am we doubled up on Kings landed both of those, we then hooked another landing it. Other boats had got word of the success and with a windy forcast making other spots more difficult to fish were there as well competing for the fish and sure enough they also were landing salmon so our catch rate started slowing down, but we did land one more and hooked 2 more, loosing them. So our total for the morning was 4 King salmon landed and 2 lost.

Then off we went for halibut and were not disappointed as we hooked a very nice halibut right off the bat, but had to let it go since it was about 55″ which falls into the 45-68″ size we must release. Then we hooked a nice halibut and while trying to get it in the boat knocked it off the hook so, with a sick stomach due to that disaster we continued on and eventually landed our limit of medium sized halibut and headed in towards home as the winds were now blowing a steady 25 knots. We are now in the dry of the lodge and watching the winds gust to 35 knots as predicted with rain pelting down and we are grateful for the fish that is now in the walk in freezer ready for the guests trip home tomorrow. Total kings for the group of 5 for 4 days fishing was 19 not including the 6 landed and released.

Gusty 35 knot winds 7 pm