Foggy Bay 2011

The fish were big this year!

-Allen

Wow!! Leaves me speechless.

 Dem some nice butts.Where is Foggy Bay anyway ?
 It's kinda hard to imagine pulling one of those into a kayak....but it does look like a blast.
 Well done........

Dem some nice butts.Where is Foggy Bay anyway ?

 South of Ketchikan.

It's kinda hard to imagine pulling one of those into a kayak....but it does look like a blast.
 Well done........

I wouldn't do it myself.  But Bill would!!!  I'll let him tell the story.  Made for a nice video ... to be posted soon I hope.

-Allen

Daaaaaammnn.  Dem's some nice 'buts!

Wow! That looks like so much fun.  I really need to try that sometime in the next couple of years.

Nice flatties Allen. Was Howard with you or down south working on his tan?
I gotta get away from Seward for a trip over there sometime. Maybe a reunion of the four tiburon amigos?

Holy Cow.  Very nice! I can't wait to latch onto something half that size!

Dem some nice butts.Where is Foggy Bay anyway ?

 South of Ketchikan.

It's kinda hard to imagine pulling one of those into a kayak....but it does look like a blast.
 Well done........

I wouldn't do it myself.  But Bill would!!!  I'll let him tell the story.  Made for a nice video ... to be posted soon I hope.

-Allen

Fishing was UNFUCKING BELIEVABLE!!! I am back at work and still on a high from the trip! Those last two pics are still pulled from a video of us doing "something stupid" Dave hooked into a big fish that kept sucking back to the bottom so we knew he had a good one. He was fishing lightish gear so the fish was pretty docile by the time it came all the way up so we decided to play with it and get some good video. I slid my boat between him and the fish grabbed the handles of both boats in one hand and the fish in the other. He threw his out side leg over and I did the same. (Those T-15's are wonderfully stable boats) I grabbed the jig head and slid her right up onto my lap. She gave a couple mild flops and lauched herself off the kayak. The swivel came undone on the ensuing run and we couldn't stop laughing like school girls ... EPIC!!!
Howard only has two spots left for next year and I am seriously thinking about going back again! Awesome trip!!

That was one big fish.  Looks like a blast!

Dude! nice fish! Looks like a blast!

That is just sickness!!

Look how freakin wide that tail is.  Beast.

I finally have a little time to write a more detailed report.

Saturday.  Fly up to SeaTac from San Jose and have a 3 hour layover.  Meet up with Danny and Dave and have a few beers.  Bill shows up and we have a few more beers.

Danny | Dave | Bill



These guys were the hardcore kayak anglers of the group.  They came to fish every second of every day.  Danny and Dave come from New Jersey, Bill from Washington.

Pat was the instigator of the other group of 3.  He works with Larry.  David is Larry's brother-in-law.  Pat comes from SoCal. Larry and David come from Atlanta.  This was to be there first time on the salt.

Pat | Larry | David



It was raining HARD and blowing with gusts to 45 kts on Saturday.  I'm a little worried that we won't be able to get out tomorrow, but NOAA says the storm should die down overnight.  I also couldn't help but think about the group that was out there right now, huddled around a fire under the rain tarp, hoping it wouldn't blow away.

Sunday!!!  Well what do you know, the storm calmed down.  We're set for 2PM departure on "The Boat" so we have some time to provision up.  Howard makes the long run in on his boat, coming from camp to meet up with us this morning.  He was supposed to come in yesterday, but of course that didn't happen with the storm.  We head out on time and 2.5 hours later we're bumping the beach and unloading gear.  It seems like it was only another 30 minutes more and the guys are launching to go fishing.  Danny, Dave, and Bill leave first and heard towards "out front".  I wait and launch with Pat, Larry, and David.  We peak around the corner and I feel the wind blowing hard.  A quick radio call and Danny answers that it's a bit sporty out front and they are likely heading back in.  I turn around and head into the more sheltered inner bay and fish for small rockfish at the edge of the kelp.  DD&B come in shallower but not all the way in.  They've settled for fishing the kelp beds on the outside.  They hit a larger grade of rockies than we do on the inside.  For a while it's a rockfish every drop.  Then we hear on the radio that Bill stuck a nice halbut.  We were to later learn that he did so in 35' of water INSIDE the kelp beds.  CNR'd.  Woohoo!!!  That'll start the trip right.



Well, that's the first fishing day.  The guys kept 5-6 cookie cutter ~18" coppers and quills and we ate them for dinner.  It will only get better.

More later ...

-Allen

Monday.  It rained hard today.  But that didn't stop us from going out fishing.  Got out of my tent at 5AM, and no one was up.  I did hear some stirrings so I said out load, "ready to go fishing?"  Bill answers the call!!!  Shortly after we launch and decide to head "out front".  It's still a little breezy, but manageable.  The skies are dark and rain threatens at every turn.  We pop outside and paddle straight upwind.  I have an idea what we're looking for, I want to head a little south and fish the edge of the reef in ~200 feet of water.  We make it out almost 200 but follow a deep dropoff there and decide to fish it.  Not long after I'm hooked up on a 35-40 pound halibut that completely swallowed the Kalin BigN I had on.  While talking over what to do with Bill, the butt bit right through 100# mono.  Note to self, go bigger next time.  Howard uses a 1' trace of 400# mono.  I decide to switch to a Sumo 7X iron with a glow back, mainly because I had that handy.  We continue the drift and Pat comes out to join us.  Pat and I hook up a double and I mark the spot on the GPS.  This is to be known as the "28 spot" as that was the waypoint number on my GPS.  We continue the drift for awhile as we're roughly following the 200' curve. By now Larry and Dave have joined.  Pat hooks up a couple times, but looses them.  The bite is slowing and the wind is too.  I start trolling for salmon, trailing a small Krocodile behind me.  I don't make it far and hook up on a humpy.  Noticing there are a lot of humpies jumping, I switch to a pink buzzbomb.  I promptly hook up with a small 4# silver.  Go figure.  The bite slows for all and I see Danny working his way out.  The wind starts picking up again and I head back towards the 28 spot, radio-ing Danny to paddle on an intercept course with me.  We meet up exactly 300 feet above the 28 spot.  We drop down for an immediate double on 20 pound butts.  Radio over to Bill to come join us as we set up for another drift through.  Danny and I immediately double up AGAIN as Bill pulls up.  One more setup and wouldn't you know it, we triple up.  The 28 spot was hot!!!  But we were to find out that it was small too, maybe 300 feet long and a couple hundred feet wide.  It dropped to 300+ only a few more feet to the outside.

I'm hungry and I see PLD padding in.  I decide to head in to get a cup of coffee and some breakfast.  Dave was just heading out.  DDB never exactly find "the spot", but they do get a few more halibut.  That 28 spot resulted 8 butts landed of 9 hooked up.  I think we got 12 total that morning.  Somewhere in the mix a few yelloweye were caught ... dinner!!!



That afternoon the wind really came up.  Danny and I went out to the 28 spot, dropped in 300 feet above it, hit bottom right as we were going over it, and immediately doubled up on butts.  Gotta love the 28 spot.  It took us 20 minutes to paddle back uphill to the spot.  But the wind came up even more and we couldn't hold bottom.  The day is done.  And a good day it was.  Lots of fish, and a lot of variety of fish!!!

-Allen