Alaska Part V & VI

[Angus]

   Starting in 1995 I would spend 16 of the next 18 seasons guiding for a premier fishing resort near Craig AK., only missing the 2001 and 02 seasons as my dad was dying of cancer and my year old son had some significant medical issues that we were dealing with.
   These stories will be in no particular order just because all those early years kind of run together in my memory and I didn't keep quite as good of a log book as I did the first 5 seasons. I will also post some pictures but the computer with pictures prior to 2003 is in my basement, collecting dust and I didn't transfer them.
   The 95 season was probably the best all around season I had, that was the last year that everyone, resident and non resdents were allowed to keep 2 kings a day, everyday, and I think the only days my boat didn't bring in a boat limit was either due to weather or sea-sickness. Though we were surrounded by numerous islands, the best fishing is off shore in open water and some people, not many, but some, can't stomach the big water.
   Back then limits on everything was alot more liberal then they are now, everyone was allowed 2 kings, 6 silvers, 2 halibut, 2 lings and 2 red snapper a day, thankfully that was the last year of that and the limits were starting to see major cutbacks the following season and the years to come. It was kind of funny, every time a limit would be cutback everyone thought we were doomed, people would stop coming but that never really happened, some people whined a little but they still came.
   The next season, 1996 was 1 of my favorites, caught alot of big fish, survived the worst storm of my career and I saw plenty of bad weather, and I met my future wife.
   Early in the season I spent a day at a spot that would become 1 of my favorite king spots, this was the first season where non residents were only allowed 1 king a day and the king fihing was good, so we were being selective. In the 1st hour we caught a few including 1 that was around 40 and released the others, we were motor mooching a rock ledge (by the way, mooching is all we do, no downrigger/trolling here) and averaging a couple kings an hour which isn't great but the fish we were releasing were 25-35 lbs. A couple hours later we get another king around 40 while releasing a few more then in early afternoon we doubled up on a couple more 40's. After that we called it a day and headed in, we figured we released a dozen kings before keepin our 4 fish limit and I don't think any were under 25 pounds, the 4 we kept went 40.5, 41.5 and twin 43.0, which would be the best 4 fish limit, average weight wise, that I ever brought in.
  Be back later with the "Anacapa storm".

[sumbeech66]

Good one!

Waiting for the storm. 

[Ripper]

Cool thing here, I love good stories.

[Angus]

At the end of June in 96 was a day many of us who were there will probably never forget. Before I get into the details let me start by saying the resort was running an older fleet of 21'-23' Glasply's as well as a few newer 22' Olympics. The Glasply's were running 200hp Johnson outboards while the Olympics had 200hp Mercs. My boat was a 1981 21' Alaskan bulkhead Glasply with a tired Johnson outboard main and a 9.9 Johnson kicker. I had the same boat the first year and loved that boat, though she was rode hard as a charter boat for 15 years, she was still a solid boat and dependable.
   The morning of the storm the weather forecast called for S.E. winds increasing to 25kts in the afternoon and winds to 40kts arriving that night. S.E. 25 is no big deal, we fish in that all the time and though it isn't pleasant, its not dangerous either if you use a little common sense and pay attention.
   All the boats head out to fish the outside of Noyes Island which is normally about an hour run and it offers good fishing and protections from S.E. winds. we arrive around 8am and its a little breezy but nothing we haven't fished in on a regular basis. Around 9:30 the wind starts picking up and we receive a call from the resort manager who says its blowing 25 already at the resort with higher gusts and he says the barometer (he loved watching his barometer) is dropping fast. He wants us to start heading back and be across Bucarelli Bay by the noon tide change because its a big body of open water we have to cross and it can get rougher then hell at times.
   Myself and 7 other boats start heading back when we 1st got the call, 9 other boats decided to stay a while longer before heading back. We took a longer route back then we usually go but its more protected so we can usually make better time, not today. We barely got started on the return trip when we hit the 25-30kt. winds and probably 3' chop reel close together, not terrible conditions but it did slow us down a lot. The group I was in made it back to an island that is normally 20 minutes out from the resort, but its taken us an hour and a half to get here and its getting close to tide change, after a brief stop for bathroom breaks and to make sure everything is secured before we cross the open water, we all get in line and start our way across. We make our way out of the protection of the last island and hit the big water and are immediately hit with 4 footers stacked on top of each other, 1 greenie after another, and so close together we couldn't turn around, we were committed and had to go. By now the second group had arrived where we took our bathroom break and they could hear what we were running through, the manager back at the resort told them to stay where they were since it was most likely going to get worse before it got better and it did. The 8 of us continued on, plowing our way up 1 wave and through the next, literally, every other wave was crashing over the bow and sometimes over the top of the boat. I was only 5 minutes into this and I lost site of the boats behind me and could barely see the 2 in front of me and before long I wouldn't see them anymore. As for electronics all I had besides my vhf was a fishfinder and a gps, which just showed me the course to steer to get to my next destination, it wasn't  a fancy chartplotter like everyone has now.
   The first 5 minutes my guys were doing a lot of hooting and hollering, having a good time but about the time the 2nd or 3rd wave broke over the bow they got real quiet and not a lot was said for the next 2-1/2 hours, the time it took to make the normal 20 minute crossing. When we were finally a couple hundred yards from the resort and could actually see it, there was a lot of high fiving going on, finally, at 1:30 pm our journey which started at 9:30 was over.
   After unloading my guests and pulling into my slip I did an inspection of the boat and found nothing missing or broken, every other boat that crossed had broken rods, antenna's, missing wiper blades etc. bait buckets and coolers missing.
   All 8 boats in the 1st group made it across safely with no injuries or serious issues with the boats, just a lot of good stories that are still being told.
   As for the other 10 boats, they waited out 2 tide changes hoping for a change in the weather but it never let up. They just stayed hunkered down behind a couple islands and it looked like they were going to spend a long, cold, crowded night anchored up with little or no food left in their lunch boxes and no blankets and a lot of older guests on board.
Around 3 that afternoon the Coast Guard cutter Anacapa showed up in the area which was a rare site, seeing any coast guard boat let alone a 125 footer. The resort manager called the captain of the Anacapa and requested they meet up with our boats and transfer the guests back to the resort, capt. radio's back, sorry, that's not our job unless someone is in danger, they'll have to stay on board the boats. At this point the manager gets on the horn to someone in Juneau and has a few words with them, shortly afterward he gets a call from the captain who says it won't be any trouble returning the guests to the resort, which they did. After a long, cold day all guests were back and safe by about 9pm, the 10 guides though ended up spending the night, trying to get anchors to stick and not sleeping until 6 the next morning when they were able to cross.
The crew of the Anacapa said they faced 50kt sustained winds when they crossed with gusts to 70 and 8-10 foot seas, and these aren't swells like on the ocean, these are whitecaps stacked on top of each other like a washing machine.
In 21 seasons I never saw any weather come close to what we saw that day.
Think the NWS missed the forecast a little that day! It became known as the Anacapa storm.

[Wake1]

Keep the stories coming. Reminds me of growing up and fishing in Sitka. Good read. 

[sven]

Great read. can't wait to here more......

[TommyH]

Great read. can't wait to here more......

   Im a sucker for anything "Alaska". Lived there for a few years and did a lot of fishing up there.

[rb2506]

Keep em coming

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