Whittier Fishing Report 9/13/2012

I went to Whittier last Thursday based on NOAA's forecast for a rare combination of calm waters and sunshine in Passage canal.  I was very glad that I did.

As I came out of the tunnel into Whittier, the dense fog that I saw on the FAA webcam that morning was nearly gone.  By the time I launched my Kayak at Smitty's Cove, the elusive sun was just shining through.

I ran into a commercial fishing guy at the Harbor master's office.  He said that this has been an extremely poor year for Whittier Silvers and he hasn't see any jumpers anywhere inside Passage canal.  Of the 5+ hours that I was on the water, I didn't see any sign of Silvers anywhere either. 

I trolled around a bit with a plug-cut herring with no luck.  I then decided to switch to bottom fishing on the south side of Passage canal and see if I can pickup some action.  I tried cut hooligan and whole squid at various depth.  I caught a few flounders between 80 to 150 ft and found 2 rockfish with the whole squid at around 300 ft.  (Sorry about the long retrieval time, I had over 350ft of line to reel back in.)





There was a whale swimming around so I took a few short videos and strung them together.



JT.

Nice! What a postcard day out of Whittier -- not too many like that come along.  Good that you took full advantage. Those couple of rockfish will make for some tasty fish tacos. Looks like you were pretty close to the whale when you were filming. I've fished out of Whittier half-a-dozen times in the last month, with only three silvers to show for my hours and hours of trolling. I wonder what happened to this year's run.

Question: Did you launch at Smitty's at high tide? I'm curious, because I find that a touch cove to launch from.  I like that it gets me closer to Shotgun, but I've been pedaling out from the processing plant rather than trying from Smitty's. 

Yes, I did launch at Smitty's at high tide on Thursday.  I haven't had too much trouble there.  Parking is usually not ideal due to all the heavy equipment being staged there for transport. 

I've never launched from the processing plant, in fact I don't even know where that is?  Would you mind sharing it here?  Also do you have to pay the $10 parking + $10 kayak launch fees at the processing plant?

No secrets for a fellow kayak fisher!

Before you get to the Delong Dock, there's a private launch that's close to where the fish processing plant dumps its waste.  I think it's owned by one of the charter companies, but one of the kayak operators launches from there.  I've launched there with permission from the charter operator, but still needed to park and so got dinged for that $10. 

I'm thinking that the launch from Smitty's might be better just because it's such a nice cove, and that much closer to Shotgun Cove.  I keep hearing that you can find feeder kings at Shotgun Cove in winter, and despite that Termination Dust I'm planning to keep fishing after the snow flies.   

Wow!  What lake were you fishing?!?!?!  lol Nice fish!!!!!

Watch the weather, I hear winter kings are close to the spit in Homer!

Awesome! I love the water color and the vids!

Akfishergal - Thank you for the info.  I'll look for it the next time I'm in Whittier, especially if I plan to just fish the head of the bay (canal).

Rudy and DmD - It was absolutely an amazing day in Passage canal.  5 years of kayaking there, that day was the best by far.  I am really glad that I had my GoPro so I am able to share it with you guys.  Thanks for the compliments.

Please post the date(s) you guys are going down to Homer for the Kings.  My schedule is kind of messed up for the next 6 weeks, but I'd love to join you if I can.

JT.

Love the whale.  I would love to get that close to one.

A postcard day for sure - videos are excellent, especially the whale - WOW!