An Adventure of a Lifetime

I (Gary) recently returned from a four day fishing trip in Alaska. We began our adventure by flying from Seattle into Petersburg, Alaska along the Frederick Sound and Wrangle Narrows. From there we grabbed a quick lunch at the lodge and quickly set out to catch our first fish. With limited time we did bring back one Coho Salmon, which was more than some of the charters that went out that day caught. On the second day, we took one of the 30' charter's in search for deeper water and hopefully bigger fish. Our luck stayed with us as we caught 4 halibut and 6 Coho Salmon. The third day we were back on our own, in our 14' skiff, but once again we out did the charter's bringing home 5 halibut (35 - 85lbs) and 1 Coho. Catching an 85 lbs halibut on a skiff with three guys is quite the experience. In order to get the fish on board we had to harpoon it and then wait until it tired then we were able to pull it on-board. On the final day we set out early, about 4:30am, to get in as much fishing, prior to having to board our flight that afternoon back to Seattle. For the first time all trip, the first line in the water caught a Coho. We followed that up with three more Coho, including one that I fought with for what felt like was hours.

I have been fortunate to see a lot of our country, but have never seen anything as beautiful and majestic as this part of Alaska. Each day we fished along side Orca's, Humpback Whales, Sea Lions, Dolphins, Deer, and several Bald Eagles.

Early morning view of Sumner Straits. About 20 miles from our lodge and the primary grounds for our fishing expeditions. This is all salt water/ocean, although this morning the water surface was as smooth as glass.

Our accomodations for the week, located along the Wrangle Narrows.


My friend and captain of our expedition getting ready for a morning departure.

Not quite the Time Bandit (Deadliest Catch) but our charter for the second day of fishing.

Some of our enemies. In these parts the sea lions have been known to attack or try and jump into your boat if they know fish are on board. We carried a baseball bat on the skiff.

The catch from the second day of fishing. The two large halibut weigh about 60 lbs a piece.

My personal battle, I caught this Coho on our last morning. My friend Lon, who has been fishing these parts of Alaska for 10 plus years said this is the largest Coho he has seen. We estimated it at about 3 lbs shy of the world record Coho.


We set three crab pots and manually brought them on board. I guess you could say that we were a little influenced by the show The Deadliest Catch. Lon got a good laugh watching two guys pull crab pots on board by hand. These are two Dungeness Crab that we caught, we did not bring any home but we can now say we set crab pots in the Alaskan Sea.