2025-07-01 Fishing Trip

My second wife was Judy, who sadly passed away from complications from heart surgery just at the start of the Covid mess. Her two brothers James & John contacted me recently and asked about scheduling a fishing trip. They both grew up in Ketchikan. John worked his career in Juneau but is now retired and enjoying the sun in Hawaii. James is still working and lives down in Kirkland WA. Apparently, James had never caught a salmon, even though he did grow up in Ketchikan.

So, the goal for this trip was to get James on a salmon. Challenge accepted!

Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows our track over 2 days of fishing. We didn't stray very far on this trip, focusing on getting fish rather than sightseeing.

As you can see, we focused on the NW tip of Gravina Island in an area known as Vallenor Point, with a few diversions to other areas.

Here is James awaiting our departure from my slip in Bar Harbor.

We had no plans to go to shore on this trip and the raft makes the swim step unusable, so I decided to leave the raft behind on this trip. John helped lock it to the bull rail before our departure.

Having the raft not on the swim step also allowed us to run a 3rd line from the middle of the stern. When the raft is in its travel position, I can't run a 3rd line. So, that was another reason for leaving the raft behind.

We hadn't been fishing very long, perhaps about 20 minutes, when we got a strong hit on one of the downriggers. The reel was screaming as it took line. Of course, we gave the rod to James. He fought it his brother John manned the net while I maneuvered the boat into a good position to net the fish.

It was well hooked, and John eventually was able to net it.

James was pretty happy with his first salmon. I don't carry a scale, but it measured out just a little over 36".

This photo was taken a little later in the day and you can see there are some other smaller salmon in the cooler. His King salmon turned out to be the only legal sized King we caught on this trip, and of course it was the largest fish taken on this outing.

We ran a line off the downriggers, one on each side, and then a 3rd line from the middle that was not on a downrigger, just using banana weights.

It was good weather which made the trip much more enjoyable.

This is John with one of the smaller salmon we got that day.

Smaller than the King, but still a very nice fish.

Having the swim step available made it much easier to land fish.

Fishing at this time of year often requires long periods of just waiting for fish to hit.

I was mostly at the helm steering the boat but occasionally I came out to chat with the guys.

Boy I sure look like an old man. Oh, that's right, I am an old man.

On the second day we did some bottom fishing. We set the spare anchor because it has more anchor rode and you can anchor deeper with it. It is not on the anchor winch, so I needed John and James to help me set it and pull it. We did not manage to catch any bottom fish on this trip.

As you can see, the weather was very nice that day.

This is our catch from the first day of fishing.

One King, one Silver, one Chum, and two Pink salmon. A mixed bag for the day.

When I filleted the King salmon, we discovered that it was a white King. Most King salmon have red meat, but a small percentage of them have white meat.

We were disappointed not to catch any halibut, but overall, I think the guys had a good fishing experience.