Outer Coast King Salmon Fishing Trip

At the end of June, Pat, our friend Sam and I loaded up our boat with ice, food, fuel, beer and all necessary fishing supplies and headed for the outer coast of Southeast Alaska. We traveled in tandem with another boat, the Desert Crab, operated by Pat's current supervisor Eran Hood, who had our friend Andy on board and their friend Alex.

This was the furthest we had ever taken our boat and the first time we had ever piloted it on the outer coast (Gulf of Alaska). We were targeting King Salmon, and just had to 'deal' with the fantastic by-catch that we caught between Kings, which included halibut, Lingcod and large Rockfish.

Here is a glimpse of our phenomenal trip. We had fantastic fishing, weather and relatively calm seas, and the wildlife was straight out of National Geographic. This included Sea Lions following our boats and eating salmon off our trolling lines, stringers on the side of the boat, and trying to steal our halibut from our rods when we were reeling them up. A constant battle!

 It was bluebird all the way to Cross Sound, which opens to the outer coast and the Gulf of Alaska.

The Fairweather Range frames the northwest section of Cross Sound.

Islands in Cross Sound.

Headed towards open water, Eran's boat can be seen foreground as we follow.

The view looking back on Cross Sound.

One last view of the Fairweather Range.

Headed towards open water.

Time to start fishing....I wore my swimsuit all the way out there and fished for the first hour in it. Unbelievable!

Glass rollers on the Outer Coast....this is how it always is, right?

Heavenly.

A bit different than always seeing islands around Southeast.

I caught my first by-catch, a Lingcod! These guys are super ugly, but REALLY tasty!

Looking back on the Fairweather Range while trolling along the outer coast!

Sam's first King Salmon!

Baiting hooks and manning the rods.

Fishing in the sunset. This was less than a week after solstice, so we had daylight until about midnight when it was clear.

Not a sight we normally get to see, the sun setting over the water horizon.

The Desert Crab, our fishing partners.

The coastline.

We decided to  drive t into the remote village of Pelican.

We had to drive up Lisianski Straight, which was just like its name- straight, rocky mountains, and a TON of couliors that we picked out to ski.

The sun setting as we entered Lisianski Straight.

Entering Lisianski.

Head into Lisianski.

The fishing harbor of Pelican.

Sun setting over Pelican.

Float Plane dock in Pelican.

King Salmon with a coho mixed in.

Instead of roads, the city has boardwalks.

Pelican.

The Pelican Harbor.

The fuel dock in Pelican, the Desert Crab in front.

Jackie climbing the float ladder to get fuel for the boat.

Pelican fuel dock.

Sam's monster Lingcod.

Jackie's giant king from the trip- at least 35 lbs.

Whew!! Fish of the summer right there.

Limit of Kings- time to gut and get them on ice!

We couldn't take chances over the side, since the sea lions were literally circling and following the boat after the salmon.

Testicle toss during gutting.

The Desert Crab having a celebratory beer after 2 days of successful king fishing.

The sun setting over the Fairweathers.

The Outer Coastline.

Cross Sound at night.

Desert Crab.

Sun setting on the last night.

Pondering life on the Outer Coast. Quite an amazing place.

Last sunset over the outer coast and the fairweathers.

Our ocean bounty.

Super happy! Note the monster king :)

Kind of weird since my hands are inside the fish, but I was proud.

Part of the bounty. The smaller salmon are coho.

The end of the story is: We had an AMAZING trip, epic fishing, great weather and beautiful scenery. And our fridge was stocked for the winter by July 1st.

I must say, Outer Coast King Salmon is by far the best fish I have ever tasted, it is literally like butter on the grill. 

Here's to next year!