The Breeching Whales Whale Pass Fishing Report

berry

It’s the end of July in Alaska. That means the berries are ripe.

In weeks past I have reported that the halibut fishing has been consistently good. It remains so. I have not, however, explained the procedure for halibut fishing as practiced here. It is certainly not fly fishing.

The rod we use is a five foot six inch Lamiglas BFC5610, with a Shimano TLD 20 mounted on it. The reel is spooled up with 100 pound test Power Pro. At the business end a large swivel is attached. To the swivel a stainless steel spreader bar is clipped.

On the short leg of the spreader bar a short loop of 30 pound monofilament is hung, onto which is looped a 24 ounce lead ball sinker. On the longer leg of the spreader a “halibut rig” is attached: a doubled piece of 100 pound test monofilament, barrel swivel at one end, a 10/0 or 12/0 octopus hook at each of the other ends, soft plastic glow-in-the-dark squid in between. To the hooks a piece of salmon belly and a herring are attached as bait.

The typical halibut spot here is in 150 to 200 feet of water at a place where rock and sand are in close proximity. The terminal rig is dropped to the bottom from a slowly drifting boat and jigged up and down until the bite happens or the boat drifts off the spot. Fish caught besides halibut include cod, wolfcod (sculpins), dogfish, and occasionally rockfish.

I got up into the Barnes Lake area once this week to try some trout fishing. We got there at the top of the tide. I don’t know if that was the problem, but we did not see any fish rising and only got one small cutt on an egg-sucking smolt pattern.

The Neck Lake Outlet silver run still remains strong. It must be the longest silver run in the state of Alaska, considering I got my first fish there on June 7 or 8. Pinks are starting to show up as well. We also got a few small dollies in 108 Creek this week, too.

On Thursday Lucas and I ran a halibut trip with the Boulwares of Tallahassee, Florida. They had five children with them, ages three through twelve. Assuming I would be kept busy I did not bring my cameras. Of course the humpback whales went crazy breeching and doing other whale-y stuff. I was beside myself.

Kensey very graciously let me load some of her photos into my computer. All the whale pictures below are courtesy of Kensey Boulware. Thank you, madam!