Whittier Silvers!

[Michael Strahan]

Okay folks, I promised, so here goes...

A friend of mine came up to hunt moose and he got lucky with a nice 58" bull, so we pulled out a week early and did some fishing over in Whittier. As it turned out, we tried to go on a halibut charter, but we kept running into dead ends. Summer has been so wet here that the normal operators we go with in Seward and Homer had pretty much rolled up the sidewalks for the season. Same deal in Anchor Point / Ninilchik and even in Whittier. We did find one guy in Whittier though, but when we got there I called him and he said he'd phoned my cell the day before to cancel, because the other folks that were on the same boat canceled. That's my wireless provider for ya! I get my messages sometimes three days late!

The charter captain graciously offered us the use of a couple of spinning rods and we dove in to the silver fishing in the harbor. It was unbelievable. I think it took us a couple of hours to each get our limit of six fish, and what fish! Ocean bright, not a one of them was in bad shape. We cleaned our fish and dropped them off at Indian Valley Meats for vacuum packing, and came back the next day to do the same thing. Same results., and now we had 24 fresh silvers for my friend to take home (I didn't want any because I already have some nice sockeye in the freezer). We found another charter boat and returned for one more attempt. We got halfway out to Naked Island but had to turn back because of weather. Back in the harbor, we ran into some hunters who were headed out to Naked Island for a deer hunt (perhaps this was the same group that posted questions here on hunting out there? It was about the same time). We fished silvers again, but the third day was a complete bust. I think with all the runoff in the harbor (it was raining the whole time), the fish just shut down. A commercial boat came in and said he was reading a whole school of silvers laying on the bottom near the breakwater, but they weren't moving and we couldn't get out there because the breakwater is closed to fishing.

Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise to find silvers in Whittier that late. Something to remember...

I'm attaching a photo of my friend with one of the fish he caught.

-Mike

[Michael Strahan]

Here's another photo

Here is a photo of one day's catch- That's me on the right.

-Mike

[Gambler]

Nice!

Nice job Mike!

When were you down there?

-- Gambler

[Michael Strahan]

Dates for Whittier silvers

Nice job Mike!

When were you down there?

-- Gambler

I think it was the 19th-21st. Boy, when the weather goes down in there, it really goes down. A 45-ft boat sunk at the dock when we were there. The story I got was that the stern line broke because of an abrasive cleat. The wind slammed the boat around enough that it rubbed a hole in itself against a cleat. Eventually the hull filled up and that was that.

-Mike

[wildog]

Real Fishermen

Nice pictures. You can tell the real fishermen. When the freezers are full the guys that are still fishing are the ones that truly love fishing.

[Tomcat]

Nice report, Mike. Glad your buddy was able to enjoy a fruitful trip, and take home a cooler full of salmon fillets and moose steaks.

Looks like you guys were fishing bait under a bobber. What was triggering the strikes - roe, herring, prawns?

Two friends and I each took home a limit from the Whittier area on Friday. However, I regret to say that we were only able to find success using the infamous "Alaskan star" (weighted treble hook).

We spent several hours casting spinners and spoons, but it seemed like the fish had lockjaw. Sure was frustrating to watch our lures passing through a school of 100+ salmon and not find a single biter. The other hardware casters seemed to be experiencing the same luck.

Anyway, a nice young lady saved the day by giving a bunch of us some extra pieces of "dynamite" that she had stashed in her tackle box. It's amazing how quickly our luck improved after changing tactics.

Next time, I plan to try eggs under a bobber. Seems like that just might do the trick.

[Michael Strahan]

Whittier Silvers

Nice report, Mike. Glad your buddy was able to enjoy a fruitful trip, and take home a cooler full of salmon fillets and moose steaks.

Looks like you guys were fishing bait under a bobber. What was triggering the strikes - roe, herring, prawns?

Two friends and I each took home a limit from the Whittier area on Friday. However, I regret to say that we were only able to find success using the infamous "Alaskan star" (weighted treble hook).

We spent several hours casting spinners and spoons, but it seemed like the fish had lockjaw. Sure was frustrating to watch our lures passing through a school of 100+ salmon and not find a single biter. The other hardware casters seemed to be experiencing the same luck.

Anyway, a nice young lady saved the day by giving a bunch of us some extra pieces of "dynamite" that she had stashed in her tackle box. It's amazing how quickly our luck improved after changing tactics.

Next time, I plan to try eggs under a bobber. Seems like that just might do the trick.

Yeah, I think they were actually still eating then... perhaps they're not biting now? We started out using herring under a bobber, but ended up with some fresh eggs the first day. So we salted the split skeins and boraxed them. Worked like a charm. In fact, when the action slowed down, we fished eggs on the bottom with no weight and just slayed them. There's a few cod in there though, and they kept pecking at the eggs, so sometimes we ended up with something besides a silver. One guy caught a small cot about 8" or so and silvers were attacking it as it swam around on the hook. I never saw them do that before...

-Mike

[jmg]

Nice report, Mike. Glad your buddy was able to enjoy a fruitful trip, and take home a cooler full of salmon fillets and moose steaks.

Looks like you guys were fishing bait under a bobber. What was triggering the strikes - roe, herring, prawns?

Two friends and I each took home a limit from the Whittier area on Friday. However, I regret to say that we were only able to find success using the infamous "Alaskan star" (weighted treble hook).

We spent several hours casting spinners and spoons, but it seemed like the fish had lockjaw. Sure was frustrating to watch our lures passing through a school of 100+ salmon and not find a single biter. The other hardware casters seemed to be experiencing the same luck.

Anyway, a nice young lady saved the day by giving a bunch of us some extra pieces of "dynamite" that she had stashed in her tackle box. It's amazing how quickly our luck improved after changing tactics.

Next time, I plan to try eggs under a bobber. Seems like that just might do the trick.

Not trying to be the board police here, but just to let you know, using the famous "alaska star" is not allowed in the small boat harbor. Your post doesn't say where exactly you were fishing, so just wanted to give you the heads up. I was down there a couple weeks ago and it was obvious that a few people in the harbor had not read the regs on this.

Tight lines.

[Tomcat]

I've never fished in the boat harbor, but certainly am aware of the ban on snagging there.

Although we were in the general vicinity last week, it was an area where using the "star" is considered a legal harvesting method.

Meanwhile, just returned from a follow-up trip today. Didn't see any salmon -- just rain. Whittier is definitely a hit or miss fishery, especially with the tunnel closing earlier now. Under the winter schedule, the last run out of town is at 6 p.m.

[AKCheese]

pardon my ignorance but.........assuming the boat harbor is salt water why can't you snag there??????

[Tomcat]

Not positive, but I believe the prohibition on snagging in the small boat harbor was implemented within in the past year or so to protect watercraft from the errant casts of anglers tossing heavily weighted snagging rigs.

Last year, I recall a number of people complaining about damage caused by "stars" hitting their boats that were moored in the harbor. In fact, fishing inside the harbor may have been banned entirely at some point in 2005.

[jmg]

Not positive, but I believe the prohibition on snagging in the small boat harbor was implemented within in the past year or so to protect watercraft from the errant casts of anglers tossing heavily weighted snagging rigs.

Last year, I recall a number of people complaining about damage caused by "stars" hitting their boats that were moored in the harbor. In fact, fishing inside the harbor may have been banned entirely at some point in 2005.

That seems like a logical reason to put that into place. I saw a few vibrax bouncing off of boats when I was there a few weeks ago. I can't imagine having one of those pricey boats there and having alaska stars bouncing off of them.


Akcheese - check the regs. They list the small boat harbor as one of the exceptions. Tomcat's reasoning as to why you can't snag there seems to make sense, but the bottom line is that you can't snag there because the regs say so.