Fishing Report Week Ending 6/8/14

When the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced in March that they were closing the Kenai River to king salmon fishing until July 1st, I knew that some of the people that booked a king salmon trip would cancel and not subsitute another guided fishing adventure on the peninsula.  No doubt, the closure has certainly hurt my business, but instead of feeling sorry for myself I thought I would use this opportunity to explore things in my backyard that I haven't had the time to do.   So, this past week I went sea kayaking in Seward, and shrimping in Prince William Sound.    Two completely new things in my life.

Jane and I booked a full day kayaking and hiking trip with Miller's Landing in Seward.   The plan was to leave Lowell Point in the morning and kayak five miles to Caines Head. From there we would get out of the kayak and hike 2 miles to Fort McGilvray.   If you like World War II history, this is definitely an interesting place. Construction of Fort McGilvray began in 1941 and was finished in 1943.   It was built to protect against a perceived Japanese invasion of Seward (it is the terminus of the Alaska Railroad).    Fortunately, no invasion and not a single shot was fired from Fort McGilvray.  It was ordered abandoned in 1944.  

On the hike up we came across several ammunition magazines and a pill box.   What amazed me the most is how pristine looking they were.   At a price tag of $6 million dollars (1940's money), I guess it should be built to last.

2 miles from our kayak, and an elevation change of 650 feet, sits this firing platform for two 6" gun.   As you can see, we weren't the only people taking advantage of such a perfect day of weather.    

In the background is Resurrection Bay.   With this view I can see why they chose this spot as a lookout for enemy combatants.

Adventure number two this week came when Jeff and Brian Raisanen (Team ABC) called and invited me to go shrimping with them in Whittier (Prince William Sound).   They have invited me many times in the past but I was always too busy guiding.   The photo on the left is Brian and Jeff getting the shrimp pots ready.   While we let the pots soak we did a little bit of fishing.   The photo on the right is Jeff's son Jack (holding one of several rock fish caught), and on his right Brian's son, Tucker.

The law is you can only fish 5 pots per vessel.   We dropped three in one spot and dropped two others in another area.    I asked Jeff why we dropped the pots where we did.  He said "steep and deep" is where you will find shrimp.   He wasn't kidding.  We were about 200 yards from shore and fishing in 400-600 feet of water.   After a five hour soak we pulled in the pots and the biggest shrimp I have ever seen came out of the them.    Hard to tell how large the shrimp are when you see Tucker holding them.

This is probably a better representation of their size (Jeff's hand).   This is a Spot Tail shrimp.  The other species we caught were Coonstripe shrimp.

Because of their size you only need a few for a meal.  And let me tell you, if you haven't had shrimp caught in the cold, deep waters of Alaska, you probably haven't had the best tasting shrimp in the world.

So, how about a few reports on king fishing around the state.   The Deshka River run is underway and the fishing has been slow to good.   Jeff, of Team ABC, was there and caught one.   My new friend Franz has been fishing Ship Creek in Anchorage and he is proud to say he landed a king salmon.    The streams on the peninsula have been slow with the Kasilof fishing the best.    Even though there is no king fishing on the Kenai I have been keeping track of the run.  The last reported sonar count was on 6/6 and it was 1,322 kings.   We are coming up to the traditional peak of the first run so hopefully the numbers will surge.

Next post I should be back on track with my own fishing report.  The Russian River opens on 6/11 and I've got a couple of trips planned. See you then.