I am so unsuccessful at fishing that I have a hard time asking any of my buddies to spend many hours out there not catching anything, so sometimes I just go out by myself. Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows my track for the day's fishing adventure. There are 3 areas marked (1, 2 & 3) that indicate the 3 areas where I fished. First I ran all the way out to Camaano Point, marked with a "1." I had high hopes for this area. The weather was calm enough that

My lack of success at salmon fishing this season is getting pretty discouraging. I didn't want to subject any of my fishing buddies to my bad luck, so I decided to make a solo fishing trip. I pulled out at about 6:30 AM and pulled out a little before 7 AM. There was a brisk NW breeze blowing through the harbor and I appreciated the guy who was walking by that helped me get out of the slip. I got to the Cammaano Point area (marked with a "1") about 8:15 AM. It took me awhil

I really like to get a few Silvers in the freezer at this time of the year, so I invited my buddy Terry to go along on a fishing trip today. My boat is slow so on a day trip we only have a few limited options on where we can go. Here is the track from my Garmin InReach that shows the 3 places we fished today. The first place was around the tip of Vallenor Point. We only trolled here for a couple hours with no action at all. It was actually quite rough here with the swells

My grandson Hayden has been in town for most of the summer and over that time he has made some friends. Today we took Hayden and 2 of his buddies out salmon fishing for a few hours. The track from my Garmin InReach decided not to work so I don't have that track to show here. However, I did go into my navigational app, Coastal Explorer, and recreate our simple track for this day's trip. The harbor is up at the left, indicated by the green boat symbol. We went out to Mountain

My daughter Jennifer & my grandson Hayden are still in town, and they wanted to make another trip to Shelter Cove before they left town. The Army Corp of Engineers has finished the project to replace the floating breakwater in my section of the harbor, so we had no problems leaving the harbor this morning. We pulled out about 9 AM. Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows our track out to Shelter Cove and back. On the way back we stopped to fish, and I'll sho

My daughter Jennifer and grandson Hayden (11) are in town for a couple of months. Hayden has discovered the salmon in Ketchikan Creek, so it has been hard to drag him away from fishing there. But today I convinced him to come out on the boat for a bit of "real" salmon fishing. He has made some friends while he has been here so today, we invited his friend Braydon to come with us. We pulled out of my slip in Bar Harbor at about 9:15 AM and we had a bit of drama on the way ou

One of my best buddies, Bob Hammer, had lots of family in town for a visit so we scheduled a day of fishing. I only have a few photos, but we had a good day on the water and got at least a couple of fish. Here's a map snippet that shows our track for the day. We started out at Vallenor, marked with an "A." We got a nice fat Silver there, but it got kind of rolly-poly and some of the crew were getting a little uncomfortable, so we pulled the gear and moved over closer to the

My daughter Karen had her longtime friend Stacey in town for about a week, and they wanted to do an overnighter "at a dock." So, I planned a trip to one of my favorite docks, at the Naha. These USFS docks are "first come, first served" so you cannot reserve them. You don't know until you get there whether there will be room to tie up at the dock. We had a slight delay in leaving the harbor. The Army Corp of Engineers are working on replacing the floating breakwater at my

I have been a volunteer for the PeaceHealth Hospice program for a little over 2 years. I visited one of our hospice patients a few times right before he passed away. Because of that connection I became aware that he had been cremated and that his last wish was to have his ashes scattered at one of his favorite spots, Port Stewart in Western Behm Canal. I did not know if the family members had access to a boat that was capable of taking a group of people out there for the c

I had made reservations at a tour company in Wrangell to go on an Anan Creek bear viewing trip last summer, but I was unable to get up there due to the weather. The tour operator, Alaska Vistas out of Wrangell, said they could hold the reservations, and I could use them this summer. Our excursion date was to be Monday July 20th. But Wrangell is approximately 85 nm away and you have to transit some exposed areas that could potentially be very rough. This summer the marine w

My oldest daughter Jennifer and my grandson Hayden are visiting, and they wanted to go to Shelter Cove in Carroll Inlet, and so of course we went there! Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows our track out there and back. It is about 26 nm one-way to get out there from town and it takes my slow boat about 3 hours. It's a USFS dock and they are "first come first served," meaning that you cannot reserve the dock. You just have to take your chances and hope th

My oldest daughter Jennifer and my grandson Hayden are in town for about a month. Jennifer's jobs are all work from home so she can work from anywhere as long as she has WiFi access. Hayden is 11 now and really enjoys fishing & boating so they decided to come up and visit us in Alaska for a while. Jennifer wanted to make a recipe that called for shrimp, so I decided to make another trip to Marguerite Bay since that's the best place nearby that I know of to get some shrimp.

This was to be our last trip during my stepdaughter Cristina's visit. Tyler (oldest grandson) really wanted to fish some more but Cristina was focused on having a beach picnic. Apparently, they debated, negotiated, and eventually agreed that is we could get a bit earlier start than we usually get, then Tyler could fish for 2 hours, and then we would go have the beach picnic. Amazingly we made it down to the boat fairly early and I was able to pull out at 8 AM. The crew for to

Cristina has fond memories of the many family picnics that we had at the Naha picnic shelter, so that was the goal for today's adventure. Some of the clan had departed but we added one more. Today the crew consisted of: Cristina and her husband Devon Oldest grandson Tyler and his SO Megan One and only granddaughter Aliyah Youngest grandson Scotty Devon's nephew Jorel Today fishing was not on the agenda, so we just loaded up the picnic supplies and pulled out at about 9:

My stepdaughter Cristina is in town with essentially all her family. Today was the only day available to get out on a trip with the entire clan. For this trip we had: Cristina & her husband Devon Oldest grandson Tyler with his SO Megan Next oldest grandson Bryan with his SO Lindsay One & only granddaughter Aliyah Youngest grandson Scotty Tyler & Bryan really wanted to fish, and Cristina really wanted just a day out on the water with the whole family. The weather was not

In the summertime the boat trips happen pretty frequently, and it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the blog posts. This is one of those times. I had a total of 8 family members come into town for about a week and we made 4 separate trips with various combinations of them on board. I was so busy managing the boat and the fishing gear and the raft and everything else that I gave up on trying to take photos for the blog. However, after they all had left town, I asked the

I'm not going to say much about this trip because it was a pretty discouraging and disappointing day. I pulled out of my slip at about 6:45 AM in calm sunny weather. I spent 8 1/2 hours trolling in the Mountain Point and Carroll Point areas without even a single bump or strike on the line. I guess the only good news is that this was my first time using my new Scotty electric downrigger and it worked flawlessly. I guess the other good news is that the new charger that I got f

I am always watching the weather, looking for at least 2 - 3 days of little to no rain and little to no wind. It's hard to find those kinds of days in this country. If I see them then I look at my calendar to see if I have any commitments here in town that would prevent me from heading out on the water. Sometimes I have meetings that I can attend remotely since I now have WiFi on board. The weather forecasts for Monday & Tuesday June 1st & 2nd were very good. The only mi

As I have noted before in these posts, I have numerous volunteer commitments that sometimes keep me in town. So, my modus operandi now is that I first check my personal calendar to see what days I have available to get out on a trip. If I see a few days that are open, then next I check what I call the "regular weather" with wunderground.com. That will show me if rain or very low temperatures are expected during the days I have available for a trip. Then lastly, and probab

I didn't want the very few people who actually read this blog to think that I have been inactive, so I am posting this just to let you know what I have been up to. On 2026-05-16 I did what I call a "Harbor Cruise" with some friends of mine. I don't want to invade their privacy, so I am including no photos of them or of the trip. It was a nice sunny Saturday, and I had spent most of Friday scrubbing the decks, so she was nice and shiny and didn't smell of shrimp bait. We pu