With my 50th pass around the celestial "ball o' fire" quickly coming up, my wife conspired with a buddy of mine and put together a fishing trip to Alaska. My friend has a brother living up in Ketchikan, AK, so that was our destination. His brother lives on Prince of Wales island, which is only accessed by ferry or sea plane. Here's a few pics of our trip out of Ketchikan on our way to the fishing grounds.







We were setting crab and shrimp pots within an hour of reaching our destination. After setting pots, we trailered the boat to the other side of the island and fished the afternoon bite off of Noyse island. Lots of outfitters mooching off the bottom for halibut. I was fortunate enough to catch a King (the only one of our trip) on the troll using a down-rigger setup.



Next day we headed out to Coronation island, about 45 miles northwest of Prince of Wales island. It's uninhabited except for the wildlife (deer, wolf, sea lions, birds, etc). We took a canoe along for getting our camping gear on and off the island.



Here's a view of the boat looking out from camp. The island in the background is called Kuiu, which we fished for halibut, ling cod and other rock fish. Our dinner on Coronation consisted of potato chips, Crown Royal and cigars.



Our carbon footprint...



Next morning... The tide really moves quickly and widely up there.



Although the salmon fishing was slow, there was no shortage of Humpback whales. They were breaching very close to our boat, which provided some great photo opportunities...





Here's a pic of our "first mate" and "littl' skippy" helping us pull pots of shrimp. I don't know what order this photo belongs in but is typical of the intensity of the way these boys fish (12 and 16 years old). Last season the older one killed a 10-ft Kodiac bear with dad. What a picture! (not included)



Back home, time to make meat...



We each came home with 70 lbs of meat. It was a lot of fun and I can't thank my wife or my buddy enough for putting this trip together for me. There were a lot more pics and video of the trip (plus stories) but felt this is enough to share for starters. Enjoy!

-- Brian

Hey Buddy, You had all the fun, now get the honey dues done and get back to the gunwork. Real nice pics.
Butch

Fantastic trip and pictures. You packed a lot of experiences into one trip.

Oh, Man! You have surely whetted my appetite - and come 20 August I am on my way to Yakutat and a week of glorius fishing in the Situk River - will be my 22 trip - I think!
Good luck and tight lines.