I just got back from a 7-day kayaking trip in Prince William Sound Alaska. My fiancée Linda and I hired a Kayak outfitter, Anadyr Adventures in Valdez. We were lucky to have a great guide Steve who loves to fish and have a good time. Our trip began with a 3 hour boat ride across PWS to the Meares Glacier where we were dropped off with our gear. Linda and I shared a double kayak ;The Red Cadillac; which I rigged with a Scotty rod holder mounted to a piece of plywood. We kayaked about 10-12 miles a day and trolled much of the time. The pink salmon were thick as hell and jumping everywhere. It was difficult not to catch them trolling with pink buzz bombs or fly fishing with pink streamers. After getting tired of catching pinks I rigged my rod with a diver, herring dodger (flasher) and blue and white tube fly. This proved quite effective for catching Coho. I landed 6 or so Coho in the 8-12 lb range and lost a number more to acrobatics and barbless hooks. We kept only the fish we could eat within a day or so and released the rest. We did some bottom fishing as well which yielded Flounder, Ling Cod, Halibut, and Copper Rockfish. We fished a nice lake on Glacier Island and caught some little Cutthroat fly-fishing. To add to our dining pleasure I brought a small folding shrimp pot, which fit, nicely on deck. We used fish carcasses to bait and dropped the trap in 100-250 feet of water. Our first pull after 2 hours yielded a nice load of Spot prawns. We got skunked a couple of days due to dropping the pot on a muddy bottom but we had 3 huge meals of shrimp over the trip. Besides the fishing the scenery was awesome and we saw Black Bear, Puffins, many Eagles ect. This was my first trip to Alaska and I will surly return soon.
Kayak route from Meares Glacier to Columbia Glacier PWS (map downloaded from Anadyr Adventures Website).
We were shuttled with our kayaks and gear 3 hours by boat to Meares Galcier in Unakwik Inlet. How are we going to fit all of this stuff in the boats?
I attached my Scotty rod holder to a plywood board I fashioned to hold my shrimp pot line. The tangs I cut into the board to hold the line allowed for secure attachment to the boat via the rear deck bungies. The unit did move around a bit when I caught a fish.
I trolled much of the time using a diver, metal herring dodger (flasher) and a herring pattern tube fly. This setup worked well for catching a mess of silver (Coho Salmon) as well as a occcasional Pink Salmon and Ling Cod (when I got too shallow).
Silver are great fighters which is fun but landing them in a kayak can be quite challenging. I used a mesh diving bag as a net but all too often it already had a fish or shrimp in it. We did a lot of catch and release so I had to tire the fish alot before getting them on the kayaks.
Bottom fishing yeilded flounder, small halibut, ling cod, rock fish.
This was the typical sized Silvers we caught 8-12 lbs or so. We ate fish as we went but due to limited ice and space we did a lot of catch and release.
The pinks were everywhere! The fish were schooling up along the shores in ancitpation of rain and high tides needed to get up the small creeks that abound in this area. Most fish were still bright and were agressively feeding.
My folding shrimp pot, line and floats fit neatly on deck between the cockpits.
We baited the trap with fish heads and dropped it in 100-300 ft of water in areas near a dropoff. Pulling the trap was quite easy in the big double. It was fine with the single if we rafted up. The biggest problem was handling 400 ft of line on the kayak.
We were skunked a few times when we dropped the pot on muddy bottom rather than sand/rock cobble. Caught some interesting crabs, starfish and such.
This picture was taken at about 10:00 PM near Columbia Glacier. The long days meant for more fishing!