Seward - Hows the fishing?

[Snowwolfe]

Finally got off my dead arse and got the boat our early this year (early to me anyhow). We have a free day this week so son and I are headed to Seward on Thursday.
Figured we would head out of the bay and head south until rough water slowed us down. Have 120 gallons in the tanks from last year and it needs to go

Any suggestions on where to go? Halibut is the goal.

[tzieli22]

Randy,
I was down this weekend dropping my boat in for the season, didn't fish but talked to a few that did (guides.) They are picking them up but still a little small (largest was about 15 to 20lbs.) They said most everyone is heading out towards Montague right now. If you want to stay in the bay, PM me and I can give you the spots I normally check and have some success with.

[Snowwolfe]

We went on Friday to enjoy the weather window. Sea's were calm until we came back in about 6 pm but even then with a wind coming from the south we could run 25-30 mph. We went as far as Granite Island, then went about an hour further out into the gulf. Could not believe the weather as temperatures were about 55-60 degrees and sea's were almost flat. Days don't get much better than this.

Fishing? Seemed everywhere we stopped we were hooking rockfish. Didnt matter if it was muddy flat bottoms or rocky structure. Tried various depths up to 550 feet (gotta love those electric Diawa's) but not one butt.

Ended up keeping a couple of rock bass, 2 golden eyes, and one cod for a fresh fish fry tonight. Tons of dolphins and many whales. Great day for boating.

[AK2AZ]

Did great on saturday for multiple species...C&R`d at least 50 halibut....probably 200+ fish to the boat from 7am to 7pm...and in the bay!

[AKCAPT]

I fished both days this weekend. We fished around half way to Montague Island. There were quite a few chicken halibut, a few bigger. Tons of P cod everywhere and a surprising number of dog fish. I have heard from the rest of the charter fleet the same thing. Dog fish from Montague to Cloudy Cape this last week. On Sunday fishing was slower, we worked all day for a respectable limit of chicken halibut. Caught about 50 dogfish too. I saw two big charter boats get back at 730 and 815 at night. The later of the two fish Montague Island and caught one chicken halibut. I would not reccomend making that run right now unless you are dieing to spend 500 dollars on fuel to catch squat. Maybe Fishface can weigh in on that. I know he spent a long day saturday searching over there.
If was departing from Seward to fish in the next 7 days I wouldn't go past Cape Junken. I will be off the water this week due to an illness in the family but I will be on the water for the Combat Fishing Tournament on the 27th. And then daily starting from there.

Hope to see some of you down there

[FISHFACE]

The fishing was much better the weekend before. We stayed at Jumping Salmon Lodge on Saturday night, so I fished for quit some time out there and caught chickens. The water wasn't very nice out at the Island and the wind was **** cold. No sharks or or Pcod, but I wasn't in a area that usually holds cod. Put a couple stalks on some bears and caught some shrimp. All in all it was a good weekend.

[jrogers]

We found chickens out by Montague as well. Fished Sunday pretty hard inside by La Touche and Prince of Wales, but in there is was all cod. What is the deal with the cod? Do they move out in a bit when the halibut move in, or are we going to be C&R cod all summer? Often we would bring up two of them on a double circle hook setup.

[wildog]

We found chickens out by Montague as well. Fished Sunday pretty hard inside by La Touche and Prince of Wales, but in there is was all cod. What is the deal with the cod? Do they move out in a bit when the halibut move in, or are we going to be C&R cod all summer? Often we would bring up two of them on a double circle hook setup.

We seem to catch a lot more in April and May than other months in our excursions.

[Paul H]

You could always fillet the cod and use the whole carcass as halibut bait.

[AKCAPT]

the cod are always around in the early season. there seem to be more this year. The disturbing thing is the abundance of dogfish this early. Our general rule is that we stay on this side off the straights until Memorial day. There are plenty of halibut from Barwelll to Danger Island right now.

[Azimuth]

Any one fish the Chiswells yet? We fished Cape Mansfield and did well last weekend, but it looks like the weather is going to be a bit sporting this coming weekend. Would be nice to be in a little more protected area.