Live Report from Kodiak, Ak

[ksong]

06-25
It was rainy and windy all day. No boat sailed today as we had wind upto 50 miles, but even miserable condition couldn't stop us fishing.
We met our Captain Kageyama-san and river guide, Aoki-san, who guided Mogi-san in Kodiak, founder of Japanese style jigging.
Aoki-san gave us valuable infomation about river fishing. He said sockeye run just started and fishing is still slow, but we decided to try anyway. With the help of Kageyama-san and Aoki-san, we got all the equipments and headed to the south.
There were 4-5 flyfishermen fishing sockeyes and saw a few guys land sockeye. But I saw only couple of sockeye swimming up for a couple of hours. We decided to drive northwest of the Island for dolly vardon from shores, but it was dead low tide and high wind against us.
However this kind of fishing remined me of fishing trout in Delaware river alone years ago. Suddenly I felt I have been involved in competitve fishing with crowd and forget about fishing in solitude for long. Even though I fish with Dave for the first time, we fished like we did for a long time together as Dave has as the same enthusiasm as much I have and has appetite for variety of fishes and fishing styles.

We are going to fish with Capt. Kageyama-san today and plan to stay in the bay as wind still is blowing until early in the afternoon.
I hope Dave can catch his first halibut today.





Who said all fishes are big in Alaska ?

[ksong]

It was still windy in the morning. After waiting a few hours we decided to go anyway as wind died down.

we jigged herring in the harbor as we thought we might have some baits. I enjoyed one of the best herring jigging in years. They are thick and big.




After making enough baits, we fished close to the harbor in the bay in protected by islands. There were lots of cod and whiting. Yes, WHITING. Pacific whiting are big and very aggressive to attack big jigs. I might arrange whithing charter to Kodiak.

whiting is as big as small cod.


Pacific whiting hitting a big halibut jig


Dave's first Pacific cod


Dave and Gakeyama-san


Dave's first halibut ever.


As weather was getting better, we ventured outside of islands and we encountered constant 8 - 12 ft waves. We didn't fish long there,but we saw bigger fish there. We have a high expectation for tomorrow's fishing as weather forecast is great.



Dave's first lingcod

[ksong]

Finally we had a nice weather. we decided to go to Whale Pass instead of Ugak Island as we thought there were still big swells in open water.
David got his wish. He caught and released about 40 - 50 halibut on jigs though they were mostly 10 - 40 lbs range !!
When halibut fishing was hot, it didn't take one minute to get bites. We also found cod honey hole. If we stayed there long, we could catch over 100 cods in 10 - 15 lbs range each easily.
We plan to go to Ugak Island for big halibut and king salmon tomorrow.

our boat


Kodiak town




scenary from Whale Pass


Dave fighting a halibut and the catch



There were many multiple hookups


arrowtooth


herring marks. Herring and crill were thick in Whale Pass,


Halibut hit any jigs we used.






Cod were thick.




too many halibut. We released all halibut and cod.

[rtran]

nice report kil, looks like you had a great time

[Snagged]

Great report!

[BretABaker]

i need to get to alaska, that looks great and the scenery is fantastic

im driving from dallas right now....the scenery isnt as nice!

[Fishhead56]

So many various Jigs, very cool.

You will get to experience two extremly different weather conditions
between the 2 largest states in the USA on your trip.

Your trip will also demostrate the versitility of the equipment
you chose to fish both Alaska and Texas.

Continued Good Luck.
With out Bananas..

Kev

[ksong]

We fished an offshore bank near Ugak Island. We had a great success here on a trip a few years ago. But we encountered loads of cod school in nice 15 - 20 lbs range. I fished cod for long, but I never experienced such a hot cod bites. We made one long drift on the bank which lasted about one hour and I caught and released one halibut and 27 cod on jigs. It was not 'one cast, one cod', but it seems 'one turn of the reel, one cod'. This was my fourth trip to Kodiak, but We seldom caught cod on previous trips. We had to move after one drift to find halibut. We tried around Ugak Island, where we had 18 halibut in 50 -100 lbs in 50 minutes a few years ago, but we didn't find big ones this time though small ones are numerous.
I am just happy Dave finally had a decent 60 lbs halibut on a local lead head jig. He even caught a nice king salmon on a special jig purchased at Mogi's shop in Japan. He said he didn't have even a touch on the jig when he fished in Tanzania, Africa, but it seems halibut loved it.

We fished over 12 hours and Kageyama-san said it was the time he fished so long in last three years. He jokingly said he hate me when weather is bad as he has to go anyway if I am around.
We are going to fish red salmon in a river with a guide, O-Oki san today.

[JerseyBrian]

awesome shot of the King with the jig hangin' out of it's mouth!

[STx Fisherman]

Nice pics Kilsong. Looks like another great jigging trip. Congrats!