Fishing in Frederick Sound

At 7 am we cast off our lines from our stall in Petersburg. We are waiting on a part to arrive for our water maker,  so we are heading out to some of our lucky fishing spots while waiting on the part. It is another beautiful day in Alaska to be out on the water. So far the weather has been much better this year than last season.  It rained almost every day last year.  

It is a long 67 mile day to  our  secret halibut hole outside Pybus Bay on the southern tip of Admiralty Island.  We have always caught halibut here. The fishing is slow today.  We overhear several of the Pybus Lodge fishing boats on the VHF complaining of the same.  At least we aren’t the only ones not catching anything.  After an hour of fishing and a tide/current change, we call it a day with only two small halibut aboard.  They won’t fill the freezer but will make for some nice meals this week.  

We anchor for the night in the well sheltered Henry’s Arm.  Two Petersburg crabbers are here getting ready for the commercial crab season which opens in two days.  In addition to the traps on their boats, they have many more traps ashore that they have pre- staged.

We are out again the next day to try once more for a big halibut.  It is another slow day.  I think we are too early in the season for the halibut.  They are probably still down deep at over 200 feet.   We do  manage to catch two more small ones.  We had a big one on the line but he was able to shake the lure.  Our secret spot continues to produce.   We anchor for the night in one of our favorite anchorages, Cannery Cove.  

The snow capped mountains of Admiralty Island  provide a beautiful backdrop.  We set out two crab traps in hopes of getting some more crabs before the crabbers get here tomorrow for the opening of the commercial season.  We easily get our limit of six crabs before nightfall.

Honey Dew Cove, another favorite, is our next destination.  Motoring south across Frederick Sound we can see whales feeding in the distance.

  Honey Dew is on Kuiu Island.  The anchorage has room for only one boat. We won’t arrive  until 5 pm so are a little worried that someone will have already taken our spot.   Luckily, we find the beautiful cove empty and our hook is soon down just off the sandy beach. 

We share this spot with two black bears and a dozen eagles.

The bears  come out each day at low tide to check out the beach.  

Honeydew is a get place to explore by kayak.  Jeff ventures into  this tiny cave.

Just outside Honeydew is another halibut spot where we caught several big ones last year.  We fish this spot for two days.  The whales are all around us feeding on the krill.  Several of them put on a nice  show for us. 

The sea lions are also fishing out with the whales.  We have seen them out with the whales on several occasions this year. The 1000 pound sea lions look tiny in these photos compared to the enormous bulk of the whales.

On our second day of fishing, we finally hook up to a nice fish.  We initially thought it was a halibut but it turns out to be a Lingcod. We let the fish dangle from our line just above the surface as we quickly search the rule book for size restrictions. As nonresidents, we can only keep two Lingcod per year, one 30-35 inches and one  greater than 55”.  Ours turns out to be a keeper at 35”.  

We are off to Petersburg tomorrow to pick up our water maker part.  The halibut will have to wait for another day. Thanks for following along.