Fishing in Icy Straight/Couverden

This past weekend Jackie and I enjoyed a three day weekend on the boat down in Icy Straight/Couverden area. The weather forecast was for the best weekend of the entire summer (light winds and temps between 77 and 86).We loaded up the boat with crab pots, shrimp pots, salmon fishing rods, and halibut fishing rods. We had limited success fishing but had great success with our shrimp pots. Our final count for the weekend was 3 king salmon, 1 halibut, 1 King crab, Dungy, and about 200 shrimp. Here are some pictures.

Leaving Juneau headed for Couverden.

Halibut fishing in Icy Straight.

Barley enjoying the view of Chichagof Island and Icy Straight.

Our first shrimp pot we pulled had some decent size spot prawns.

Swanson Harbor

The view from Swanson Harbor

Swanson Harbor has floating moorage but no land access. We brought along our zodiac to go to shore to cook dinner and walk barley. Notice the floating docks in the background.

Yes I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt! First time this summer in Alaska.

Saturday morning we cruised over to Whitestone harbor to try to find some halibut-- no luck. Even though we didn't catch anything the weather was still unbelievable.And we had whales bubble feeding all morning.

We caught both Coonstripe (upper) and Spot prawns (lower) on our trip. The prawns were huge! They measured almost 8 inches.

Jackie and her prawns.

The coast mountains behind Juneau as viewed from Lynn Canal

The latest addition to our boat, a crab pot puller. The puller was given to us for free but had to be totally rewired before it could be used. I scratched my head for a few days and figured out how I could wire it with out having to order the expensive kit from the company. It was sure a life saver on this trip. The shrimp pots were set in 40-60 fathoms of water (240-360 feet).

We also placed a few crab pots while we were out. here Jackie is holding up a red king crab that we caught in one of the pots. King crab season does not open until July 1 so we had to toss it back. It was sunny and 86 this day, very warm for SE AK.

The weather was supposed to turn so we headed back to Barlow Cove near Juneau on Saturday night. Here barley and I are enjoying some sun waiting for Jackie so we can go to shore and cook dinner.

I forgot the bear spray when we went to shore in Barlow Cove. Barley thought I was leaving him behind and watches me closely as I returned to the boat to get it.

Sunset over the coast mountains as viewed from Barlow Cove.

Barlow Cove.Lions Head in the background.

More Prawns!

We caught two King Salmon on sunday in Auke Bay. Here is the bigger fish of the two that Jackie caught. This is all the evidence we have that Jackie caught the fish because she dropped it overboard while trying to gut it. OOPS!

Our final haul of shrimp, cleaned and ready for the freezer.Come visit to enjoy!