What's Biting
I'll periodically post fishing reports that could be of interest to you in planning your trip to Lake Palestine.
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Alaska trip, 5-11 Jul
Updated: Thu Jul 11, 2024
Alaska trip, 5-11 July. "Jim! A hit!" That's what I like to hear as we troll for salmon in the islands around Sea Otter Sound in south east Alaska. I normally drive the boat as my partner, Nick Sharp of Hideaway, watches the rods for the slamming, jerking motion that means a silver salmon has connected with one of our lures. I chop the throttle to neutral and idle, we then go to land the fish. We both take our rods out of the troll holders, then the one without the fish immediately starts reeling in to get his line out the way, stows his rod, then gets out the net. The silver salmon is an extremely acrobatic fish, often doing twirling jumps out of the water, sometimes making quick, high speed dashes stripping line off the reel, or doing a tumbling fight underwater when being brought close to the boat. Even when netted and in the boat the fish has to be quickly "calmed" with the small bat to keep it from tangling and damaging tackle. Then after unhooking, it's into the cooler.
That's the scene that played out many times during my recent fishing trip to Alaska. Sometimes the salmon were caught trolling, sometimes bait fishing with a technique called "mooching", and a few times casting and jigging an oddly shaped lure called a Buzz Bomb. And several times, when one of us was trying to get our line in and out of the way of the one that had a fish on, another salmon would strike and we would have a double, when we would have to eventually decide which fish was ready to be landed and which could be let to run for awhile until we could take the first out of the net.
Our trip started and ended in Ketchikan. Getting to and from that city was not part of the package and we made those arrangements with American and Alaska Airlines, flying from and returning to DFW through Seattle.
The Sea Otter Sound Lodge is located on Heceta Island, a little over 100 miles west of Ketchikan, and that part of the journey was done in single engine floatplanes, which adds to the adventure.
This was my 19th trip to the Lodge, and it was a pleasure to see several people again that I had met there on previous visits. The Lodge can accomodate 23 guests at a time on these 5 day excursions, and has a very warm, personal atmosphere.This Lodge is also one of the only in Alaska that is self-guided, that is, all or most of the guests' fishing is done without a guide and from 18 or 21 foot boats, two guests to a boat, in about 90 square miles of island studded salt water that the salmon pass through in their spawning migration toward fresh water rivers and streams.
The weather is a welcome relief from the July heat of Texas and California, where most of the guests come from. While we are there the daily temperature is usually around 62 degrees.
All meals are served family-style at the large table in the Lodge's main room, breakfast at 6 AM and dinner at 6 PM. A box lunch is provided, so it's easy to spend up to 10 hours out in the boat.
In addition to the main attraction, salmon, there are rockfish, lingcod, and halibut to pursue.
It is a great trip, and, yes, I plan to do it again next year. Join us?
Newer Fishing Reports
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Older Fishing Reports
If you're interested, you can see what the conditions on Lake Palestine were like on:
