Welcome back to another Ketchikan Fishing Minute.
The weather in Ketchikan has been great over the last week, with sunny days and temperatures climbing into the 70’s and touching 80 degrees at times. With the great results we had in Bond Bay, I took a couple friends out there again on Friday afternoon. We headed over in a Clover Pass Resort yellow boat, and spent about two and a half hours fishing. We had one line on a downrigger and the other fishing a banana weight set-up. The downrigger was far more successful on this trip, as all but one fish was caught on the downrigger. While we again caught more silvers than pinks, the big surprise was that we also brought in three cod while circling a pinnacle in Bond Bay.
On Tuesday morning, Oscar and I shoved off in one of the Livingston skiffs. We trolled from the lodge to Survey Point, and over to Pup Island, bringing in nine pinks against just one coho. With the warm temperatures and sunny skies, the fish were running deeper than they might normally be found. Normally, pinks take up the top twenty feet or so, while coho are found between twenty and sixty feet, until the pinks move into freshwater. I had a banana weight set-up while Oscar was using a diving weight. He was clearly getting down deeper than my line was getting, and he was rewarded with a limit of pink salmon. I was fishing a shallower depth, and I brought in three pinks and one coho.
As the precipitation moves back into our area, the cloud cover should encourage the fish to move closer to the surface, making it a bit easier to target them without the use of a downrigger. Overcast skies are expected again on Saturday, with the forecast calling for rain for at least a week beyond that.
Skippers at Clover Pass Resort and The Cedars Lodge have been fishing a little further away from town, and we’ve seen some silvers with good size brought to the dock. We expect the fall coho run to be dynamite this year, As those fish move closer to town and the calendar turns to September.
I will get on the water again over the next few days, and bring you the update next week on another Ketchikan Fishing Minute.