It was in 2007 out of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula that I caught my first Alaskan fish. It was too early in the year for salmon, but as a novice I was happy to land some smallish black rockfish and an arrowtooth flounder. The next year I caught a few pink salmon while trolling out of Homer preceding a three day bear viewing excursion to McNeil River State Game Sanctuary.

Not knowing any better and thinking we had done well, upon returning to the boardwalk, a group of fishermen were posing with impressively large halibut, lingcod, and yelloweye rockfish. Envious of the catch that dwarfed my own, I signed up for the same trip they had been on scheduled for departure the next day.

The two hour run toward Kodiak Island produced similar results. At that point I was hooked. With several angling locations across the state under my belt, Kodiak Island remained in the back of my mind, knowing that I must venture there someday. In mid-July of 2021, I finally did.

Arriving in the town of Kodiak with my checked bag nowhere in sight, I continued on to the Kodiak Inn Best Western where I would be staying for the next five nights. The only clothes in my possession were what I was wearing – shorts and a t-shirt. My bag would arrive 24 hours later.

Normally woefully insufficient in Alaska, unusually windless warm weather with highs in the low 70s was the case every day except the last and what I had was comfortable for the first day fishing out of St. Paul Harbor just steps away from the hotel.

A sea otter slept soundly floating on its back near B dock where I met Captain Michael Ensley of Happy Hooker Charters and First Mate Jessie at the spacious 45-ft. aluminum catamaran Reel Fun. Putting clients on fish for over 25 years, Capt. Michael is knowledgeable, personable, and gets enthused as his customers every time a fish is hauled aboard.

From perusing the fishing reports posted weeks before, I knew king salmon numbers were increasing in the area. Reefs channeled the fish just offshore past Buoy 4 which is where many of them were being taken. We set our trolling lines there anticipating our first strike.

It didn’t take long before the call went out, “Fish On!” Theodore reeled in the first one – a king salmon! A 70-year-old professor from California, he’d been fishing Alaska for 30 years and had fished with Capt. Michael in the past.

One after another we pulled in our limit of two kings apiece ranging anywhere from 10 to 20 lbs. The advice I was given when my fish was hooked was to “reel like hell,” which was simple enough for even me to understand. The reason is that there is a bow in the line leading from the rod tip to where the line is clipped to the downrigger 70 ft. below that must be taken out lest the salmon get a chance to throw the hook.

With the slack gone and fish fighting mightily, I played it to the boat and it was netted. Fat and healthy, it may have been my heaviest salmon ever at about 18 lbs.!

Onward to another spot, we dropped our weighted hooks tipped with herring to the bottom and started jigging for rockfish. When you find them on the rocks (as their name would indicate) they are ready biters. In quick order we caught our limit. The black rockfish here are the biggest size I’ve seen, averaging four lbs.

Using a stouter rig than for the rockfish, we anchored, set up for halibut and lowered the chum ball. Scraps of herring were tossed into the water to entice the fish. At first the halibut hauled in were on the small side, but as the scents drew them in, they became larger.

It was just the day before that fellow fisherman Aaron had wrestled aboard a 120 lb. halibut on this very craft. All of us had seen the picture on his phone as had everyone else he came across. My contention was that he held it close to the camera to make it look bigger.

Several corpulent 50 lb. halibut flopped on deck along with a few smaller ones. Some of the plumpest had sea lice attached below their mouths – apparently sea lice are intelligent enough to attach themselves to the most robust feeders.

While the halibut were being gaffed and subdued with a baseball bat, we also hooked into Pacific cod of good girth in the 8 to 12 lb. range. My rod bent steeply downward toward an almost unmovable living object. Gaining line bit by bit or not at all and sometimes giving it back, the fish came grudgingly. Thinking I had a 100 lb. halibut, it turned out to be a 40 lb. halibut and a 15 lb. cod!

The first day would be our best for king salmon, but we landed them the next three days also along with a few pinks and some silvers that had just arrived.

The emerald fjords tumbling to the sea greeting us was worth the 12-mile run to Afognak Island the next day. Concentrating on bottom fishing, we knew the routine.

Humpback whales surfaced in the distance with ejected mist from their blowholes drifting in the air. Far away, except for the tip of its tail, a whale completely breached the surface. An hour into our fishing day, another surfaced 100 ft. from our boat!

Top, right; A 20 lb. king salmon. Captain Michael Ensley noted that, “It’s always the women who catch the biggest fish.”[/caption]

On rockfish once again, this time it was a new species to me. The dusky rockfish were somewhat smaller than the black rockfish and lighter in color with pinkish bellies. Limited out on them we targeted halibut and lingcod. The lingcod is a long toothy predator fish greenish-brown in color with golden spots.

The world-record for lingcod is 82.6 lbs. Lingcod season had only been open for two weeks. An exaggerated jigging motion with a large heavy jig is the usual technique. Shipmate Thelis had it down to a science landing more than anyone else tipping the scales at 20 lbs. More nice halibut, a yelloweye rockfish, and an octopus were added for good measure.

Between where we were and Kodiak, a rocky monolith of an island is home to a rookery of tufted puffins. As we approached, a bellowing Steller sea lion laid sprawled atop a rock. The captain nudged us as close as he could to the puffin-packed edifice without going aground. Thousands of birds filled the cliffs, sky, and ocean around us with white tufts combed neatly behind their heads and bright orange bills glistening in the sun.

Two more days of fishing went a lot like the first few days did, absorbing the scenery and wildlife while battling numerous fish including a couple of 70 lb. halibut. Hailing from Amarillo, Texas, Mandy caught the biggest lingcod of the trip. My last night I splurged on king crab legs overlooking the harbor at the Chart Room. I spent my final day on Kodiak Island taking in some of the sights around town.

Established in 1794, The Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church is the most prominent landmark in Kodiak with its blue onion domes and gold crosses dominating the skyline. Holy oil there is used to anoint sick and suffering pilgrims from around the world.

To the south, the Buskin River would normally be bank-to-bank pink salmon crawling with Kodiak brown bears – the world’s largest, but things were running late this year. There are 3,500 brown bears living on the island.

Comfortably seated on the riverbank across from a well-known bald eagle nest, a pair were raising two fluffy gray eaglets. With one of the eagles always guarding the nest, the other would hunt for food and return, feeding it to the young. The one that had been in the nest would then fly away. An hour easily went by watching them shuttle back and forth.

Catching my afternoon flight to Anchorage, I would spend the night at the Coast Inn next to the airport. My connections looser than they were on the way out, I had high hopes that my bag would be there when I got to Denver. As luck would have it, my green duffle bag rolled onto the carousel with two boxes of frozen Alaskan fish filets.

To book a trip with Happy Hooker Charters, go to www.HappyHookerCharters.net or call 907- 539-5474.

Past articles and pictures may be viewed at www.DaveGibsonImages.com.