Whittier Salmon

http://www.adn.com/article/20150120/where-did-whittiers-silver-salmon-go

A coworker showed me this and I found it interesting. It would be nice to have a place closer to Anchorage to fish.

http://www.adn.com/article/20150120/where-did-whittiers-silver-salmon-go

A coworker showed me this and I found it interesting. It would be nice to have a place closer to Anchorage to fish.

It's been a strange few years for PWS salmon...especially the cohos.  Valdez has been a bust on even years, and awesome on odd years the past 4 or 5 years.  Almost like pinks.

Whittier, one of the major issues is that they had problems with the net pens close to town.  They used to "imprint" the smolt right by Smitty's cove.  They had to move the imprinting farther out to Salmon Run.  Also 4 or 5 years ago, they switched the egg stock from a later returning stock to a more "normal" one.

Having said that, I did troll by the new net pens several times over the past few years and I have never seen a fish let alone caught one.  I think in my 4 years of kayak fishing and maybe a half dozen trips to whittier, I have caught one silver.  Fishing is just brutally bad out of Whittier, even the powerboaters have their issue.  I know the F&G guys don't know what is going on either.  I spoke with Dan Bosch (quoted in the story) and he is always telling me to go try it because he wants to know if its worth it. 

Frankly I think Seward is just as inexpensive and by "time" was just as close as whittier. I avoid Whittier like the plague.  Do NOT enjoy my time their for the most part.  I go their to catch herring and thats about it. 

Now having said that, the report of baitballs in the area is a bit exciting. Maybe I watch too much Discovery channel, but there is always something out to kill baitfish.   

SO...after trashing Whittier, I'd be up to go give it a shot one day.  Look for baitballs.  I also want to see if I can find an octopus or two.  Still determining method.