Port Protection fishing.

[Snakeriver]

Heading up to POW here in a little over a week. Just wondering if anyone has fished up here and has any info they can share. Were gonna be targeting Halibut, salmon and bottomfish. Got 5 days of self guided adventure coming up.

[Skillet]

Heading up to POW here in a little over a week. Just wondering if anyone has fished up here and has any info they can share. Were gonna be targeting Halibut, salmon and bottomfish. Got 5 days of self guided adventure coming up.

What dates? The commercial salmon troll fleet is on a mid-season break from August 8th- 12th, could be really good for you.

[Snakeriver]

We'll be fishing the 16-20.

[Skillet]

Roger. That's getting into prime time for the big Stikine River coho run through there. You'll see the commercial fleet fishing right outside of town.  Very tidal salmon fishing, a lot of water moves through twice every day.   That means serious chop in an opposing wind and tide, too.

It's a great place for halibut and lingcod too. I'm sure the outfit that you're renting the boat from has maps for all the species.  Find out how far they let you roam.  I haven't fished it for several years, but did well then. If you can get the map ahead of time I'll look it over with you and share what I know.

Good luck

[hunthard]

Man what a great offer!!!

[Angry Perch]

Yes. Do not pass that up!

[Snakeriver]

Thanks for the assistance Skillet, what type of map would you like. Does an onx map work?

[Skillet]

We'd need a decent chart of the bottom in the area.  I don't know if On-x map does that?  I'm away from my boat at the moment, so can't screenshot my charts for you. I was hoping the lodge you are working with would provide a "fishing map" with hotspots, and boundaries you can't take their boat beyond. But any type of bottom mapping in the area would work.

I did a quick search, but didn't find anything detailed enough to describe the areas I fished.  I did find and older publication I grabbed a few screen shots from, however.  It gives you the general idea of the area.

The blue are suggested salmon fishing spots, the dotted areas are halibut. This salmon info map looks more like spring king areas over shallow water. You're going to find coho all over the straight, but they will ball up behind current breaks on the ebb either side of the point. It's a really fishy spot. Depending on how your boat will be rigged to fish will determine how you target them. If you are allowed to run all the way down to Warren Channel, it might be worth it if the coho are thin at Point Protection. It can be a couple of hours of furious fishing when they stack up around there.   Be mindful of the weather and ocean swell, though. That is a long run and best done on the flood both ways. With the wrong ocean swell pushing up, a savage chop can develop in lower Sumner.

Heading east, there is a rock in the middle of Sumner called the "eye-opener", it comes up real fast out of 400 feet or so to about 10 feet, if I recall. That whole area in the middle is loaded with groundfish. Hali, lings, cod.  There's another bank that's good for lings and hali due west of Port Protection that comes to to about 150 feet. It runs north-south, about 2/3 the way to Kuiu island.  Would need a proper chart to describe it, it's been a while. Even when trolling that bank for coho, I caught a bunch of big lings.

If you find a bathy chart, let me know and we'll put more X's on spots.

Wasn't there was a member here that crushed it out of PP last year? Might be worth looking that thread up.

[Snakeriver]

Skillet is there a particular app or chart you prefer?

[Skillet]

Skillet is there a particular app or chart you prefer?

As I mentioned, any type of bottom mapping will work.  I would expect the lodge to provide you with something. I'd see what they have first.

[jimmyt]

Sign up for Navionics app on your phone you get a free week download the maps for the area you won't have cell service there week did great last month out of point baker

[Wanderer]

have fished out of point baker 6 - 7 times now.  we're heading there again this month arriving the 20th.   are you staying around port protection or somewhere else ?    we've had good luck for salmon right off the point at point baker, just off west rock and all along the coast just west of port protection.   halibut down by hole-in-the-wall and across the strait around strait island. 
like has been said, the water moves fast so be aware of how deep your trying to halibut fish and the conditions out further in the strait if you try and cross.   let me know if you have any questions and i'll see what i can help with. 
we've had good salmon luck just targeting the birds and whales....

[Snakeriver]

We are staying in PP. I have fished out of Coffman and Petersburg. But havent spent any time in Sumner Strait, so looking forward to hunting all that area hopefully.

[Stein]

Navionics has all the mapping you need.  The "eye opener" is pretty crazy, there are several shelves there that must be absolutely loaded with fish.  There is a red marker showing where they are.

Several nice spots around protection head by White Bluff if you have accurate gps and good sonar and know what to look for.  Never been there but I would love to poke around and get on some good lings and cabs.

[Angry Perch]

Stein, You're not kidding.
Holy humps!

[Skillet]

Navionics has all the mapping you need.  The "eye opener" is pretty crazy, there are several shelves there that must be absolutely loaded with fish.  There is a red marker showing where they are.

Several nice spots around protection head by White Bluff if you have accurate gps and good sonar and know what to look for.  Never been there but I would love to poke around and get on some good lings and cabs.

Navionics takes the data from the C-Maps and averages it.  The problem with that is that in SE AK, most areas are poorly mapped - so the average slope that it shows in a some areas is very far off from the reality.  Where there is actually an abrupt edge or pinnacle between two data points, the Navionics will instead show a gradual slope between the points.   You can see that in AP's map above - those slopes to the west of the well-defined area just out side of Port Protection don't look like that at all.  It is a sharp ridge over there.  The more frequently fished an area is, the better it is usually mapped - but in the areas just a little out of the way the Navionics is almost dangerous to use, imho.

[Angry Perch]

Navionics has all the mapping you need.  The "eye opener" is pretty crazy, there are several shelves there that must be absolutely loaded with fish.  There is a red marker showing where they are.

Several nice spots around protection head by White Bluff if you have accurate gps and good sonar and know what to look for.  Never been there but I would love to poke around and get on some good lings and cabs.

Navionics takes the data from the C-Maps and averages it.  The problem with that is that in SE AK, most areas are poorly mapped - so the average slope that it shows in a some areas is very far off from the reality.  Where there is actually an abrupt edge or pinnacle between two data points, the Navionics will instead show a gradual slope between the points.   You can see that in AP's map above - those slopes to the west of the well-defined area just out side of Port Protection don't look like that at all.  It is a sharp ridge over there.  The more frequently fished an area is, the better it is usually mapped - but in the areas just a little out of the way the Navionics is almost dangerous to use, imho.

That's really interesting to know. Not that I plan to put myself in uncharted territory any time soon, but something to keep in mind when looking for the next spot.

[Stein]

Makes sense, I only fish Puget Sound and can say it has been mapped rather well by now.  It still isn't 100% accurate (and won't likely ever be), but pretty dang close for the places I have been.  I'm probably at 90% for finding a place and having it look like it did on the map and hold the fish I'm looking for.  Every once in a while something is just not right or the current is such that it never slacks enough to fish effectively.

[jimmyt]

How was the fishing

[Snakeriver]

Fishing was really good. Halibut and bass. We mixed it up and spent time drifting out in the strait and anchoring back in the bays. Looking forward to going back.