Our Halibut: 3 X larger than Sitka, Seward or Homer
Our King Salmon: Highest catch rate in the state!
The
Intelligent Fisherman
(not
always an oxymoron)
While some folks might throw a dart on the chart to choose
which stock to invest in, others take a practical common
sense approach to choosing an investment. Likewise,
choosing where to fish can be approached in much the same
way. I have constructed a rational argument for the
Highliner Lodge as the premier sport fishing destination in
Alaska. No longer should you rely on insider tips, or
irrational exuberance, when making this most important of
life’s decisions.
HALIBUT CATCH ANALYSIS
Why
do we claim to be "Closest to the
Fish!”?
Location, Location, Location!
There
are reasons that
our average
halibut
are 3 times bigger
than Seward, Homer or Sitka! We are NOT limited
to one halibut per day!
There is
a reason that our king salmon catch rate is the highest in
the state. There is a reason that our peak king salmon
season is 3 months long while at most other locations the
king salmon season is 3 or 4 weeks long at best. I will
present the facts… the reasons. It is up to you to decide
if this is an honest and compelling argument. If it is… it
should trump any other reason to choose where to go for a
great fishing experience at an Alaskan fishing lodge. They
call them fishing lodges for a reason. People like to catch
fish! That is supposed to be why you go there… to catch
fish. There are many very fine hotels and restaurants in
New York and London… but there are no fish in those waters…
and everyone understands that. If you are going to a
fishing lodge… your first concern should be… are there any
fish there?…and what are the catch rates? People don't
understand that there are very few fish to catch at many
locations in Alaska. They might have a masseuse and a world
famous chef, an endorsement from a famous fishing
celebrity… a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Lodge and genuine
Lincoln Log bedroom furnishings… but don't you think that
they might be trying to overcompensate for something?
This chart shows the annual migration of halibut and king
salmon from the West, to the East, and then South down
along the coastline to Southeast Alaska and British
Columbia... then on to Washington... Oregon and finally
California. This is the route they have taken for hundreds
of thousands of years. The pathway is well defined, as
commercial fisherman have chased these fish for over 100
years. When you study the charts and tables below… when you
look at the facts… you will note that, year after year,
some places catch many more fish that other places. They
always will. These fish are creatures of habit.
To catch a lot of fish you must be in their migratory
pathway. You must go to where most of the fish are. If you
get in the pathway, but there are tens of thousands of
other fishermen there with you… well, do the math… you have
to share with tens of thousands of others. Your share won't
be very big. If you are late… you won't even get your
share. So it is obvious that you need to get in the pathway
AND go where there aren't tens of thousands of fishermen,
AND if you want to get more than your share…to experience
great fishing… you need to be first-in-line too!
This is where the above chart will start to make more
sense. Please look at the 400 mile-long
UNFISHED AREA shown on
the chart in dark blue. This area is inaccessible to cruise
ships, has no roads, few harbors and no cities, and
therefore… almost no fishing effort. It is, in effect, an
unofficial marine sanctuary. King salmon and halibut
aggregate here and then continue their migration to the
southeast where
you can be first-in-line!
The
table above shows that the two areas closest to the
unfished 400 mile stretch (shown in dark blue on the chart)
have the biggest halibut in the state. Coincidence? Not at
all, it is attributable to biology and fishing pressure.
There are still big halibut near Sitka, Seward and Homer…
lots of them. They ARE located where the fish are. The
problem is… that there are literally tens of thousands of
fishermen fishing there! So it shouldn't surprise anyone
that the chances of actually catching a big halibut in
those locations is now very low… that is why the average
halibut caught there is only 15 pounds. Our average halibut
is 45 pounds. Because we don't have the overwhelming
fishing effort that they do.
Other places are so far away from the Gulf of Alaska that
they just don't have an abundance of halibut or salmon.
They never did. They never will.They are not on the
migratory pathway of these fish.
Some locations are on the pathway… but sadly (for them)
they are last in line. California is last in line to catch
even their own king salmon… they are caught in Alaska
first, then in British Columbia second, then Washington…
and Oregon… if you are from California you know what I'm
talking about! So even if a fishing lodge is isolated and
doesn't have overwhelming fishing effort… they will catch
vey little fish if they are off the migratory pathway and,
or, last in line.
We
on the migratory path, we are isolated, we are not
overwhelmed by fishing pressure, and we are first in
line!
This chart also shows the two regulatory areas for
halibut.
In area 3A the daily bag limit is 2 halibut of any size,
across the line in area 2C, the daily limit is one halibut
under 45" or one halibut over 68" (You must release any
halibut between those sizes… that is, any halibut weighing
between 45 and 170 pounds). Not only
do we have the considerable advantage of being first in
line (we like to say… “Closest to the Fish!”) we have the
ability to cross that line and fish in area 3A where the
daily bag limit is much more generous!
The
further down the line you are... the more disadvantaged you
become!
This
chart depicts the fishing effort in Alaska and British
Columbia. Pelican
is not in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska! I have put the
dot that represents Pelican's fishing effort there so you
can see it. The red dot that represents Pelican (where the
Highliner Lodge is located) is so small as to be virtually
invisible. Pelican (the Highliner Lodge) is located where
the arrow that points to the East is pointing. The effort
in Sitka, Homer or Seward dwarfs that of Pelican. There is
about 50 times more fishing effort in each of those ports
than in Pelican!
What
happens when you are in a good location, but too many
fishermen go there?
This
Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) chart
above shows that all inside waters in and around Sitka have
been closed to charter fishing for the past 9 years! This
is because there is too many fisherman depleting the local
halibut resource.
“Tourism,
including a growing sport fishing charter industry, is
vital to the economy of Sitka and other communities. The
number of registered charter vessels based in Sitka nearly
doubled between 1991 and 1992, and, between 1992 and 1998,
doubled again to 240 vessels. In 1998, harvests by anglers
aboard charter vessels comprised 65%, 85% and 88% of all
king, coho, and halibut harvested in the Sitka marine sport
fishery. Between 1982 and 2001, the number of charter
fishing boats in southeast Alaska increased from 139 to
1,343! “ (ADF&G 2000)
Is there really any wonder why this area has been
restricted to a bag limit of one halibut under 45” or over
68"per day? Do you now understand why the average halibut
is only 16 pounds (even before there was this
restriction)? This
is why you cannot fish for halibut in the calm inside
waters of Sitka Sound. But you can fish the calm inside
waters for halibut at the Highliner Lodge!
This
chart depicts the average weight of landed halibut in
Alaska. They halibut icons are sized proportionally so that
you can visually see the difference between the average
size halibut in the different locations throughout
Alaska.
Note
that "Yakutat" and the "Glacier Bay" areas (the Glacier Bay
area includes Pelican) have the largest average halibut in
all of Alaska, more than quadrupling Seward!
Data tables from: http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/sustainablefisheries/halibut/sport.htm
This
chart shows the average amount of pounds of halibut landed
per angler, per day, in these Alaskan ports.
This
takes into consideration that you could keep 2 halibut of
any size in area 3A and you could retain only one halibut
under 37” in area 2C in 2011 (future regulations may change
but the differences will always be
there).
KING
SALMON
CATCH ANALYSIS
The
bigger the red dot the better the fishing! I have depicted
the various king salmon catch rates with a red dot sized
proportionally to represent the king salmon catch per
angler. Notice that Seward and Homer have such a terrible
king salmon catch rate that the red dot is nearly
invisible! The data is from the National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) tables below.
Our
king salmon catch rate is 5 to 50 times greater
on the
outer coast than on the inner coastal areas of southeast
Alaska. A very large portion of the king salmon caught in
southeast Alaska were destined to spawn in British
Columbia, Washington, Oregon & California. Most of the
Alaska king salmon are caught in the ocean and not near the
hatcheries, or streams, where they would will spawn. The
closer to the ocean that you are... the more king salmon
you will catch! Ketchikan, Juneau and Petersburg have
terrible king salmon fishing compared to Sitka, Craig or
Pelican. They are over 100 miles from the ocean. The king
salmon fishing has never been, and will never be very good
in those locations.
Halibut
and salmon are replenished from the ocean, but not at a
rate high enough to make up for the fish taken out of local
waters where there is very heavy fishing effort, as in
Sitka.
This leads to "local depletion"
The two
NMFS tables below show the actual king salmon catch based
on logbook data from south-east and south-central
Alaska.
Don't
be distracted by the sheer volume of salmon caught in a
particular port. It is NOT the overall catch that is
critical; it is what YOU will catch.
The catch per unit of effort (per angler day or per rod
hour) is the only thing matters.
See the spreadsheet below. I built this spreadsheet
based on the above data for the whole season.
The
catch rate is computed by dividing the total number of king
salmon caught, by the total number of angler days: for
example, there were 367 king salmon landed in Pelican...
divide that by 569 angler days and that equals .63 king
salmon caught per day.
In other words, in Pelican, the average king salmon
catch per angler, per day, was .64 king salmon.
We only fish for king salmon about 4 hours per day.
This works out to be a fish every 6 hours, everyday, all
season long! In contrast, it would take, on average, over
26 days to catch a single king salmon near
Seward!
Sitka's
Catch Rate: 7,889 king salmon / 44,194 angler days = .64.
In other words, just slightly less than
Pelican.
I built this argument for a prospective quest who had gone
to Larsen Bay (Kodiak) and was disappointed because
although he caught some halibut... he did not catch any
salmon. In Larsen Bay, the average catch per
angler, per day, was .05. This means that Larsen
Bay averaged one king salmon for every 20 DAYS of effort.
Again, the data in the spreadsheet represents the whole
season. If you choose more optimal dates with us, your
actual rate can improve markedly.
What
really counts? How many fish you catch per hour!
We will have to use this Sitka table because Alaska Dept.
of Fish & Game doesn't bother to make a king salmon
catch rate table for our area… to little fishing effort to
bother! We have already shown with the NMFS tables above
that we have a slightly better catch rate for king salmon
than Sitka. We will use Sitka's stats to represent the
Highliner Lodge when comparing king salmon catch
rates.
Please
note the charts represent how long, on average, it takes to
catch a king salmon, not how many king salmon were
caught. Notice the window of opportunity to catch
kings is nearly 4 months long! Now look
at the Juneau chart below.
Why
can’t I show you a harvest rate table for Pelican? Because
the fishing effort is so small that we are virtually
invisible to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and
they don’t bother to compile a table for our area. Please
let me know if you'd like any further information. I have
charts for most areas of Alaska.
The best
you can hope for in the Juneau area is a king salmon every
2 or 3 days fishing. More likely, your might catch a king
salmon in Juneau once every 7 days. Around Sitka (same as
Highliner lodge) you can catch a king salmon every 4-5
HOURS! Juneau's "window of opportunity" is only about 3
weeks (June 8 to June 26). Our window is nearly 4 MONTHS
long (May 4 to August 31)!
This
is the generic chart that you will see on almost every
other web site. Those charts are
worthless at best, and downright misleading most of the
time!
They are an amalgam of
ALL salmon fishing in ALL of Alaska. There is usually very
little correlation between the fishing at that particular
lodge and the chart. After comparing the our catch rates
and the Juneau area catch rate on the charts above you can
see how meaningless… well, like I said… down right
misleading… this chart is.
The
distance between the Highliner Lodge and Juneau is about
100 miles (as the fish swims). Our catch rate far exceeds
Juneau's because We are located very near the Gulf of
Alaska; and we are north of all of the other fishing areas
in Southeast Alaska. I can present charts from every
other area of SE Alaska and make the same point. The catch
rate in our area exceeds all other areas by 2 to 15
times!
Our catch rate is equal to, or better than, Sitka’s,
because of our location and lack of competition.
We
are in the migratory pathway, isolated from extreme fishing
effort and first in Line!
Compare
us objectively to any other destination and you will find
we are indeed “Closest to the Fish!” There is no better
place to fish for BOTH king salmon and halibut!
After
perusing this information and studying our charts, I hope
it is clear that fish are not evenly distributed in the
ocean. One needs to break away from the crowd, and go to
where the fish are, and almost as important, get away from
overwhelming competition.
Aside from the objective arguments, there are subjective
attributes that don't fit into spread sheets, that can't be
fact checked, and tend to look like hyperbole...until you
experience it (Please see our other webpages and consult
our former guests).
Please consider the Highliner Lodge for your next Alaska
fishing adventure!
We
are undeniably... “Closest to the Fish!”
Fact:
There are less than a dozen boats registered to charter
fish in Pelican, but only 3-4 boats actually go out each
day. By comparison Sitka has 285 registered charter
boats!
Other
Charts
Yakobi Island
Cross Sound to Icy
Strait