Alaska Kingfisher

July 18th sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Twelve year old Carter Hutcherson with his 69″ 171 pound Monster halibut he landed in 90 minutes.

Craig Alaska sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge for outside waters off Prince of Wales Island in southern S.E. Alaska. Today was another ho hum day of catching fish believe it or not as Coho fishing remains strong and predictable here in southern south east Alaska. Trollers and sport fishermen alike are enjoying the great numbers of salmon swimming under the boats as hungry as ever to bite on a fresh mooched herring. Halibut fishing for quality halibut on the other hand remains a tough fishery and many hours need to be counted on to produce nice catches like the photo’s below show. Today Captain Joel’s boats spent over 5 hours fishing for these quality fish and my boat spent 6 1/2 hours for our bottom fish catch.

Destin, Carter, David, LaShawn, Stan, and David with their outstanding catch.

Luke, Neil, and Dario with their great catch of the day.

July 17th sport fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Alaska Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Today Captain Joel Steenstra was fishing with 3 anglers. Having hot weather and choppy water  he easily limited on Silver salmon and King salmon, as well as beautiful 48″ and under halibut while releasing one over sized fish. Captain Joel Steenstra continues to out perform most boats with his consistent catches both in salmon but especially halibut and other bottom fish. I rank him one of the top guides in Alaska due to his ability to always find fish,  looking for new areas and always learning about the habitat of the fish.

 Chatter on the radio was boats were struggling more to find their fish. Some of this was probably due to the sloppy outside waters keeping anglers from fishing many outside areas. King salmon limits for non resident anglers dropped to one for the rest of the season due to the apparent poor assessment of King salmon numbers by Alaska Department of fish and Game.  

Neil, Luke, and Dario with an outstanding catch of King salmon, Silvers, and Halibut

July 16th sport fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska

Nils Backstrome with a trophy Ling Cod

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska.  Flat calm water and 70 degree temperature is what we dealt with today and limits of salmon by early morning. Although the groups King salmon limits had been filled the previous two days King salmon were still being caught as Joel’s boat landed 4 and my boat landed 2 Kings and releasing all but one on our boat. Salmon runs remain strong in the Craig area and will hopefully continue throughout the summer. Halibut fishing remained good as well as other bottom fish.

Don, Larry, and Tim with a nice catch. (missing is Don Sr. and Barry).

Jack, Bill, Curtis, Chuck, Chuck, and Dan after 3 days of great weather and fishing.

July 15th sport fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Fishing or catching remains outstanding as limits of King salmon and Coho’s or Silver salmon are easily caught by early morning as these fish are everywhere. Today was no different as limits were easily acquired by early morning then off to the halibut fishing where both boats had to release oversized halibut but did land some nice ones under 45″ but no over 68″.

Chuck, Bill, Dan, Chuck Curtis, Nils, and Jack

Tim, Don, and Don Sr.

July 14th fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Fishing or catching remains outstanding as limits of King salmon and Coho’s or Silver salmon are easily caught by early morning as these fish are everywhere and at one point Joel and I went to using only the herring heads and could not keep the Kings or the Coho off the hooks, it made no difference if a person used a herring or just the herring head and one guy caught them on bare hooks!!

Chuck, Dan, Curtis, Bill, Jack, Nils, and Chuck

Don, Barry, Tim, Don, and Larry (missing)

July 8th fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Today the wind was predicted to blow 20 knots SW and that it did so we were more limited on where we might fish. We decided to head for our Coho spot with Blake and his crew and Joel decided to run off shore where he heard there was a good King bite the previous day. We had 30 Coho’s within an hour or so and then needed to find some King salmon. Joel’s report was windy, rain in the face and had not a fish in the box yet. We decided to head to a more protected spot in hopes of finding some King salmon but en-rout  Joel called and let me know he had found a good bite having a double on Kings so we swung and headed his direction and when we arrived he had his 4 Kings and was still marking fish. There were also other boats showing up and landing Kings so we dropped in and soon were landing kings as well and it became chaotic but in a short time landed out limit as well and also Captain Blake with his crew of 4. Halibut fishing was a bit tougher as the waves had not quite met the 8 footers that the weather service had forecasted but was close with a 15 knot wind to make it interesting. We spent 3 hours looking for our limit of halibut and ended up landing some nice under 45″ butts as well as some Yellow Eye and a nice Ling cod we then headed for the dock.

Tyler, Darren, Mike, Pat, Mike, & Scott with a great catch of Salmon and bottom fish.

July 6th sport fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Darren Mitchel with his 163 pound Halibut.

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Craig sport fishing remains strong although King salmon numbers have been reduced by the commercial troll fishery. Today we had 14 anglers at our lodge in 3 boats and by 8 am limits were had by all boats for a total of 84 Coho. Captain Joel got his limit of 24 Coho in one drift and we had our 36 in two drifts, Captain Blake also had his limit in 2 drifts.

We started the day with non stop coho’s 6 on most constantly until our limits were met, this is as good as it gets for Silver salmon and we can only guess that these fish are the result of the Prince of Wales Hatchery Association and it’s 5 million Coho release last June. We are hoping the Coho returns remain strong all summer as is predicted so if all goes well those coming to the Craig area to fish should be very happy anglers. King salmon were harder to come by today but since there are so many Silver salmon around it is also hard to find what Kings are around. Halibut fishing was good for us today with all boats limiting and we boated one Halibut over 68″ on the nose after over 5 hours of Halibut fishing for some bruisers.

Scott, Pat, Matt, Mike, Mike, & Darren.

July 3rd sport fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Ryan, Mike, Brady, Andy, Conner, & Kerry
with a super catch.

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Craig sport fishing remains strong although King salmon numbers are reduced each day the commercial troll season is open. Today was the 3rd day the trollers were working off Noyes Island and their numbers appeared to be less than the day before and chatter on the radio was it had slowed down for them as well. We did well on King salmon landing 5 or 6 King salmon but only retaining 2 as many were smaller Kings and as they have one more day they wanted to save 2 tags for tomorrow. Captain Joel Steenstra’s boat with the Rodgers family did will landing many Kings and retaining 4 for the day and 6 person limits of Coho’s. Coho fishing is very good and limits are pretty easily had so that is good as ADF&G has reduced the King salmon bag limit down to 2 for a non resident, but still can catch 6 Silver salmon per day with no season limit. Silver salmon fishing should be a benchmark year as the Klawock river hatchery returning Coho’s are estimated at around 70,000 back to the river which means lots of Silvers on their way to the river which all sport and commercial fishermen will be after.

The Mike Rodgers family is up for a family fishing vacation and they are having a great time catching their limits of pretty much everything that is legal to catch including this nice 40 pound Halibut that Mike caught today. The boys are up each morning by 4:30 am and down at the dock by the 5 am departure which I am very impressed with and every time I see them they are reeling in a fish!

Conner, Brady, Grampa Mike, & Andy

Jack with Captain Chuck and his beautiful King salmon

July 2nd sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge, Craig Alaska

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Today we had 9 anglers on the water in two boats and I was very curious how fishing or catching would be after the first day of the commercial opener. We were not disappointed though as catching was pretty good still getting doubles, triples and quads on King salmon from time to time. The fish we caught today were smaller on average but were happy with what we caught. Silver salmon also seemed easy enough to catch if one spent time after them only we did hook up with quite a few King salmon trying to get the limit of Silvers. We did come short on the silvers but only by a little, so tomorrow we will see what happens. Halibut fishing and bottom fishing was also good on Joel’s boat and we did not target bottom fish today on my boat.

Captain Joel Steenstra and his crew the Rodgers family had a great day out fishing off Noyes island. They caught their limits of King salmon, halibut, yellow eye, and 24 Coho’s for the days fishing. Great job to all the family! The boys really know how to reel in those King salmon, what a great family vacation.

Carol and Jack with their great catch of Salmon.

June 30 sport fishing report for Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska

Day 3 for the boys from Alberta and Kent with his first “Tyee” 34 pound King salmon.

Sport fishing report from Kingfisher Lodge in Craig Alaska fishing the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island in S.E Alaska. Fishing for King salmon, Silver salmon, Halibut and bottom fish was still again another spectacular day. We landed our limits of King salmon and a few limits of Silver salmon with Kent Halvorsen from Alberta Canada landing his first “Tyee” King salmon after 10 years of fishing Canada. His fish weighed in at 34 pounds and he was pretty happy about it saying “after 10 years of King salmon fishing I finally got a Tyee”. I told him he just was in the wrong place all these years. Halibut fishing also remains strong and a nice grade of halibut can be had if time and effort is put into it. The goal is any halibut 45″ or under or 68″ and over with any size in between those numbers having to be released. It appears the reduction of sport and commercial caught halibut has helped increase numbers and quality of the halibut.