[KILSONG]

Many East Coast fishermen travel to Alaska for fishing in summer.
I think it is a good time to discuss with jigging opportunities in Alaska. I fished British Columbia or Alaska every year over a decade and I always wished I lived and fished there for the whole summer.

The main targets for jigging in Alaska is halibut, lingcod, rockfish and salmon. Whereever you go in Alaska, you catch halibut though you have to select destinations if you target trophy halibut.
I experimented with several different jigs like viking jigs, cripped herring jigs or diamond jigs and all worked for halibut, but the best jigs I found is scampi jigs with simple lead heads which are used by local fishermen. Lingcod and rockfish can take anything moving.

The more I fish Alaska or BC, the more I am addicted to salmon jigging, especially king salmon. I found the best salmon jigs is 4-6 oz Luhr Jensen's Stinger. Most fishermen in Alaska or BC troll for salmon, but jigging can be very effective and fun, when you find a concentration of salmon in a area.
If you have success with any particular jigs for halibut and salmon, let us know.

Basil visistd Sitka, Ak with the Excel crew last week and had an excellent trip with halibut upto 180 lbs and king salmon upto 35 lbs.
He said they got limit catches of halibut and salmon everyday in calm weather.

 

[SwellRider]

Kil seems like our path always cross. as you know I spent 22yrs commercial fishing up in Alaska, Still own a house there. The opportunities are endless. For a Bottom amd Jig fisherman it's paridise. It is worth the time and money to explore Alaska. The place will keep you coming back for more. Ken Mullen



This post edited by canyonfvr 01:59 PM 09/06/2008

 

[MVPAEC]

Enclosed are pictures of Fish I caught during trip to Sitka in 2006.
All fish were caught on jigs except king salmon that we caught trolling and mooching (very boring).
20 lb Yellow Eye rockfish
100 lb Halibut caught on Avet MXJ w/ 50 lb power pro on 6 ounce bucktail in 300+ ft of water.
Lincod to 40 lbs.
Caught one lincod that latched on to halibut and would not let go.
A trip to remeber.

MVPAEC

 

[chinookhead]

On my trips to Alaska the go to bait for ling were viking type jigs that had plastic skirts on them (the type u see on bass jigs)and sometimes a curly tail in red, chartreuse, and green......I did ling/halibut combo trips and they just fished chunks for the halibut, but next time I do want to try jigs...it seems like alot of guys are using giant twister tails or double twister tails on big jigs for them. A number of ling we saw on the "6 pack"out of Seward swallowed entire sea bass that were 3-8 pounds that hit the jig and then the ling would hit them. This charter fished 100# PP on all of his reels.

I am originally from Michigan and we jig salmon on teh great lakes (mainly kings) as they congregate off of stream mouths and pier heads. The standard jigs are hopkins, cripple herrings, and even kastmasters. We usually fish just the silver or silver hammered ones. My father actually uses a standard salmon trolling spoon, which are typically very light and adds a heavy weight in front of it and then jigs it straight up and down. His favorite are "flutter spoons", but any light salmon trolling spoon (Northportn nailers, stingers, pro king, dreamweavers etc.) would work and he often out fishes me with this set-up because the light spoons definitely have more action (a wider and slower wobble).

Oh, and Alaska is a fishing paradise and a paradise in general. I constnatly dream of going back there!! Absolutely beautiful.

This post edited by chinookhead 09:53 PM 06/07/2008

 

[tunafever]

so when are we going to get a noreast jigging group trip/charter there??

 

[KILSONG]

tunafever wrote:
so when are we going to get a noreast jigging group trip/charter there??

If there are enough interest, we can do it.
But fishing trips become too expensive. I used to fish 3 - 4 day in Sitka for $2000 including airfare and Basil said it cost him about $2500 excluding airfare.

Most remote fishing lodges I used to go charges over $4000 now for 4- 5 day fishing excluding airfare.

 

[bretabaker]

i've been wanting to go to alaska, but its so expensive i haven't really tried to get anything together.

 

[chumslk]

Fished out of Sitka for 4-days at the end of aug. 2-yrs. ago. $ = 2,100 for the lodge and $800.00 for airfare r/t out of newark. Jigged the entire trip . Used Wilson point dart jigs, megabaits, crippled herrings beleive almost anything would have worked . The jigs worked best when we were drifting, goes without saying. They mostly insisted on anchoring for the halibut and dropping a pile of salmon guts. Couldn 't argue the point as I was the only one on the boat that jigged until my partner started jigging on the 2nd or 3rd. day. Fished with a party of four. Brought a saltist 50 spooled with marked pe line on Kils' rec. Matched it with a loomis that was at the lodge. The pe line was a + for the salmon and rockfish. Capt. called out the depth and I was on them ! If I ever get a chance to go again would like to set it up with 4-5 pers. that jig and find a capt. thats willing to do that. Chinook jigging is similar to tuna, Boy can they pull !! The silvers are a blast also . Hopefully I 'm lucky enough to go again in the future ?

 

[KILSONG]

Most fishing charter operations in Sitka are good. They fish halibut and salmon on the same trip as they rarely come back to the dock early. But you can not expect it on other areas where tourists dominate. They keep halibut of any sizes and want to come back early after catching limit even you pay for a full day trip. There are very few captains who gear for hardcore fishermen.

 

[chumslk]

KILSONG wrote:
Most fishing charter operations in Sitka are good. They fish halibut and salmon on the same trip as they rarely come back to the dock early. But you can not expect it on other areas where tourists dominate. They keep halibut of any sizes and want to come back early after catching limit even you pay for a full day trip. There are very few captains who gear for hardcore fishermen.

Kilsong,

Yes, I agree . You should do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions at the lodge you plan on staying at . Was told they had jigs avail. The boat I was on didn 't have a single jig. Glad I brought my own. Pulled the hook on a number of kings due to too much press. as had the drag almost locked down. The capt. was concerned about the pe line wrapping his new twin 250s so I basically locked it down. 1st day they didn 't seem to like the fact I was jigging but they eventually accepted it. When my partner started jigging we were responsible for limit catches of ling, rockfish, yellow eye for all on board. More work for the mate ! We also were passing off fish to the other boats a couple of days. Never saw the sun the entire time up there and it was nasty a couple of days but fortunately fishable. Came down in buckets the day we left and boats didn 't get out. Am checking out falseisland lodge for the near future ? Hopefully ???

 

[KILSONG]

Here is the excellent fishing report of Basil's group in Sitka, Ak.

Sitka, AK

I am going to Kodiak, Ak in late June with Dave Irving from England, who is well known jig fishermen around the world. We are going to catch halibut on jigs, but we are going to concentrate on king salmon jigging there.

 

[ctwhitechin]

I fished up there in 2005, we went to Seldovia Alaska, it was great, flew from JFK to Anchorage via San Fran, then flew to Homer, then took a small plane to Seldovia.

I fished with a jig most of the time, it was sick fishing. Expensive though, for me and the wife, airfare, lodge, and fishing 3 days I bet we spent over 6,000, maybe closer to 7,000 after we shipped the fish back.

Want to go back, but with the way things are going in this economy, I'm fishing locally in New England for a while.