Outdoors with Don Q: Three days of salt water fishing at Pelican, Alaska

In a previous article, I wrote that our good friend, Barry Drury who lives in Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada had invited us to join him, his wife Susan, plus two of their friends, Denis Ryan also of Watson Lake and Kirk Jensen of Whitehorse, Yukon on a three-day, fishing trip at Pelican, Alaska.

Pelican, Alaska:
As you may recall from that previous article, Pelican is located on the northwest portion of Chichagof Island about 100 miles north of Sitka and about 100 miles west of Juneau.

Pelican can only be reached by boat or float plane, a 45 minute flight from Juneau, it is visited twice a month by a ferry from Juneau and it has a permanent population of only about 89 residents. Pelican has no grocery store, but it does have one bar, Rose's Bar and Grill.

Our fishing and housing:
Barry had booked our three-day fishing trip with sport fishing guide Captain Terry Wirta who owns and operates Chicobi Charters in Pelican at www.chicobicharters.com by email at terry@chicobicharters,com or call 907-735-2233.
That booking included staying in Wirta's very comfortable, four bedroom home built on pilings over the water at the edge of the harbor and adjoins the wooden boardwalk which serves as Pelican's main street and is used daily by a combination of walkers, joggers, bicycles and ATV's.

First day of fishing on June 22:
We all got up early, had a leisurely breakfast in our house, packed our lunches, and then five of us walked the short distance to where the fishing boat was moored in the harbor. Susan had elected to stay behind to go sightseeing and bird watching. Captain Terry's boat "Destination" is 31 feet long, has a 330 HP Cummings diesel engine, and comfortably fishes four rods at one time.
We left the dock at 6:50 a.m. for the 1.5 hour run to the fishing destination in the open ocean in front of a desolate island location known as Deer Harbor. The weather was ideally perfect with bright sunshine and no wind.

Salmon Fishing:
When we began fishing, we took turns individually fishing alphabetically by first names (Barry, Denis, Don, Elaine and Kirk), so when it was your turn to fish, you had all four rods working for you. Our party began fishing for Salmon with Herring bait or Hoochie lures at a depth of 25 feet in 160 feet of water. While at Deer Harbor, we were in a fleet of another 26 fishing boats scattered all around us. This had to be the hot location for Salmon and it was!

Denis almost immediately caught the first King Salmon of the day. The limit is two King Salmon per day per fisherman, and by 11:50 a.m., the five of us were all limited out. I caught the largest and second largest Kings of our group and for the day, I caught a total of 2 Kings, lost 3 Kings and caught 2 Silver Salmon.
For the day, Elaine caught 2 Kings, lost 2 Kings and released 1 King.

We took time out to eat our lunches and then it was time to move to the Halibut fishing area, along with many of the other fishing boats.

Halibut fishing:
Once there, we dropped our lines, ball sinkers and fresh bait to the bottom and began to slowly jig the bait up and down, waiting for a strike. The five of us caught and released lots of small halibut while waiting for the big ones to take the bait.

The limit is one Halibut per person per day and by 1:30 p.m., we were all limited out, plus we had each caught a Yelloweye (the limit on these bottom fish is one per person per year!). Our party also caught some Quillback Bass, Black Bass and Humpies.

Catch of the day:
Denis was reeling a small Halibut to the boat, when his line momentarily stopped and then became heavy as he continued to reel. When he finally got the Halibut to the boat, we saw, in amazement, that a large Ling Cod had attacked the Halibut and was attempting to eat it. Captain Terry kept the Ling Cod and released the Halibut, unharmed. Wow!

Second day of fishing on June 23:
Susan elected to stay behind one more day to go kayaking.
The five of us left the dock at 6:50 a.m. for the 1.5 hour run to Deer Harbor. Again, the weather was ideally perfect with bright sunshine and no wind. Yahoo, the weather Gods were smiling on us!
While traveling to the fishing area, we saw a number of Sitka Blacktail Deer, many Bald Eagles, 2 Orca Whales, and 1 Humpback Whale. Barry caught and released the first fish of the day, a small Humpie Salmon.
I caught the first and biggest King Salmon of the day. The fish Gods were definitely smiling on me for this trip.

Salmon and Halibut:
For the day, our party caught 8 King Salmon, 2 Silver Salmon, 5 Humpie Salmon, 2 Dog Salmon and 2 Black Bass.
Once again we moved to the Halibut fishing area, and limited out with some nice Halibut but nothing of any bragging size.

Catch of the day:
It happened when Barry was trying to reel in a very nice sized King Salmon. All of a sudden, there was a lot of splashing on the other end of the line. A large Sea Lion had attacked his King and in trying to eat it, broke off the line holding the King, the bait and the flasher blade.
The sea lion would dive under the water, then come up, splashing, making weird noises and loudly coughing. It did this three times, until it finally came back up one last time, coughed, spit out the flasher blade, and disappeared with the King, while we all stared in amazement. Wow!

Third day of fishing on June 24:
This was our last day of fishing on the Destination and this was also the day that Susan finally joined us.
However, this was also the day of four complications:
01. Denis forgot his fishing license back at the house and could not fish.
02. Susan had her license but did not have a Salmon stamp, so she could not fish when we trolled for Salmon.
03. The weather Gods stopped smiling on us, it was overcast with dark clouds, rainy and windy with 5-7 foot seas.
04. I lost 6 nice Salmon while trying to bring them to the boat. Darn!

Salmon and Halibut:
For our last day of trolling for Salmon, I caught 2 King Salmon and 1 Silver Salmon, Elaine caught 2 Kings and 1 Silver, Barry caught 2 Kings and 3 Silvers and Kirk caught 2 Kings. The other two people could not fish.
Then we moved to the Halibut fishing area, as the weather deteriorated, it got very windy, the size of the waves increased and it began to rain.
We caught our Halibut, again nothing of any giant size, and then returned to Pelican in rainy weather and rough water.

Finally:
This was another great Alaska fishing trip and when it was over, Barry, Denis, Kirk, Elaine and I each took home 75 pounds of frozen fillets.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon:
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you the weight of the largest Halibut that I have ever caught in Alaska.
If he grins and says, "It was the trip where Don caught a 115 pound Halibut at Sitka," he could have been one of the other three fishermen on that trip. Sigh, that same day, Elaine caught a 148 pound Halibut, her largest ever.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. Don's wife, Elaine, is the Outdoor photographer. They can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.