Alaskan Salmon fishing and Spawning run

[Hookmanski]

My entire family went on an Alaskan cruise this past week and wow, what an experience. The natural beauty up there was unlike anything I have seen in my life so far. Mountains, temperate rainforests, sub-Arctic tundras, we saw it all. Completely worth it.

In addition, we happened to be there at the perfect time for the salmon run, so I knew i had to try and do some fishing! I got on a small charter, there were 6 people on the boat including the captain Marie, who was the only woman in the fleet at Knudson Cove in Ketchikan and couldn’t have been older than 30. As soon as we got to the dock I knew it would be a good day, salmon were jumping everywhere and I was seeing bait of all shapes and sizes everywhere in the water. We pulled out of the marina and set up the downriggers for trolling and off we went. Since there were 4 other people on board we rotated strikes. I was the youngest on board so everyone insisted I take the first strike, and the first strike was a savage one! The rod was bouncing pretty good so I grabbed it out of the holder and reeled up a beautiful Pink Salmon, estimated to be around 3-4 pounds. Cross that species off the bucket list! I was shaking for a good half hour while everyone else was landing pink salmon as well.

Awhile later it was my turn again and we got another good strike and I was able to land another Pink, this one a little bigger at an estimated 4-5 pounds. These guys fought really hard! The other people on the boat weren’t experienced fisherman so they had some tangles and lost fish, but luckily I got some great experience the last time out on a party boat in NJ so I was able to keep my line free and land all the fish that I hooked.

The captain was saying that the run has gotten slower in recent years with less salmon being caught every year, however they had been having a pretty good season so far this year. Fishing was on the slower side, but compared to other boats in the fleet we were having a banner day. A few other boats radioed to Marie asking where the fish were because they had caught either 1 or none. Another thing that was crazy was the depth we were in. We weren’t fishing very deep, however the water was anywhere from 400-1000 feet deep with hardly anything shallower than 300. Crazy compared to what I’m used to seeing in New Jersey!

We were starting to head back towards the marina when I saw a small hit on one rod, Marie wasn’t sure if there was a fish on and neither was I but I thought I’d reel it up to see. There ended up being a TINY King salmon on the hook, maybe the size of an average NJ stockie. They aren’t allowed to be kept under a certain length, I believe 28”, and are protected at that size so the captain released it without me taking a picture. Fine by me though, now I can come back and catch that one in 10-15 years when it’s the same size as me!

It was a truly amazing experience and if you ever get the chance to try some Alaskan salmon fishing I urge you to jump on it. I haven’t experienced anything like that before and it’ll probably be a long time before I get to do anything like that again.

After the trip I thought my time with the salmon would be over, but I was wrong! We got to Juneau the next day took a ride to the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls, two gorgeous natural wonders right next to us. The tour associated with the cruise ship was ridiculously expensive, so we left the boat and found an older gentleman named Ted who took all 10 of us there in a passenger van taxi for $35, as opposed to the tour for $45 per person. This turned out to be a great move as he was super knowledgeable. He brought us to the glacier where I walked to a shallow creek that had a bunch of spawning Sockeye salmon in it. We got to see them fight upstream in only a few inches of water and chase each other away from the females. The glacier and waterfall were gorgeous as well, but we had a very short stay at this port so we had to rush back to the boat. However, our driver Ted asked us if we had 10 minutes to stop at his favorite salmon spawning spot. We pulled off the road and went behind an office building and walked down to a creek that was a bit bigger than the last one, and my mouth dropped. It was like something out of a BBC special. Tons of Dog Salmon spawning, hundreds of them, all at different points. Some had already died of exhaustion, others were actively spawning and fighting upstream. Bald eagles were everywhere, the seagulls were trying to steal eggs, I was in awe. Even saw a few zombie salmon, still trying to breathe even though they had been partially eaten by the birds. Ted said if we had been there even a week later he wouldn’t have been able to bring us here as the stench from the decaying salmon becomes overwhelming, so we couldn’t have been more lucky to see this amazing feat of nature.

As I said, if you ever get the chance to go to Alaska, please do. It truly is the last frontier. The locals were extremely nice, the sights are unparalleled and the fishing experience should definitely be on your bucket list!

[bigfishy]

Great report!!!ty for sharing

Awesome report Hook, thanks for sharing. Never been to Alaska but understand as you mentioned it's a piece of heaven. Sounds like a GREAT family vacation and glad you had the opportunity to experience it!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Bro!!! Amazing report from an amazing place. Absolutely awesome!!! Getting to go there is a dream of mine and my wife’s! Well done brother!!!

[JDTuna]

Trip of a lifetime my friend! Great report and awesome write up! Congrats on crossing those species off your list.

[Lard Almighty]

Amazing report, and great photos. I imagine Alaska is on a lot of people's bucket lists.

[icebadger]

outstanding report that place is fantastic glad to hear that you got to see some of gods country the way it should be... congrats on catching some salmon. did you get to eat the pinks you caught? very cool photos as well

[AndyS]

Amazing trip !!! Sad to hear the salmon numbers dropping, so much is dependent on them.

[thmyorke1]

Thanks for the report, the wildlife there sure is crazy. Id love to see and experience those things in person one day.

[Hookmanski]

Thanks fellas! Definitely a trip I'll never forget. I have some video of the salmon run that i'm trying to find the time to edit together, once i do i'll post it here!

IceBadger - I didn't eat any of the Salmon unfortunately, the cruise ship had a rule against bringing it on board and the only other option was to ship it home for a ridiculous amount of money lol! So I gave the Pinks to other people on the boat who were very excited to eat them.

Everyone should do a trip up there at some point in their life, if you have any more questions about it feel free to ask me here or shoot me a PM!