I'll be bear hunting in Prince William sound in May. I know this is not prime time for salmon, but looking for fishing info. I understand the halibut fishing could be o.k., and possibly rock fish. What else? Will there be any salmon present?

Bill

What part of the sound will you be in, any idea what bays?

I've heard in the southern sound you can troll for King Salmon, but there aren't huge runs so I wouldn't put much effort into that endevour. Too early for the other salmon species.

I've found the sound is spotty for halibut, and you'll have to head out towards Montague or well South to get into 1/2 decent halibut.

Rock fish will be good, just look on the charts for pinnacles that drop off steeply. Should be no problem limiting out, and they are fun on lighter tackle.

Too bad ling cod season doesn't open until July 1, as you can find decent sized ling in the sound, and they aren't hard to find or catch.



Also you can catch shrimp in pots, and the beauty of shrimping is the pots do the work while you are hunting, resting or just enjoying the sights.

quote:

Originally posted by llamapacker:
I'll be bear hunting in Prince William sound in May. I know this is not prime time for salmon, but looking for fishing info. I understand the halibut fishing could be o.k., and possibly rock fish. What else? Will there be any salmon present?

Bill

Feeder Kings or Chinook (Blackmouth's etc.) are there all year.
Look for birds working a bait school & fish below the bait. Troll 10' off sandy bottoms in 50-100' of water. Green or Red 11" flasher, 6' of leader, Herring, Fly or Spoon. Mouth of most any bay.
Oh ya, & Don't tell anyone

Great replies! Thanks!
I'll be taking my own boat out of Whittier and we intend to cover lots of differnt areas. There is certainly lots of ground between Whittier, Montague, and Valdez, so we will let conditions dictate where we spend most of our time. I don't have any shrimp pots, but understand that can be very productive. The main focus is still a bear hunt, however, and we do intend to stay mobile. I'll post a report when I get back.

Bill

It's definately worth bringing a string of shrimp pots, and I recomend investing in a puller as it seems good shrimping is in 70-100 fathoms and handpulling multiple pots really sucks! My buddy let me borrow his pots and puller last year and we were pulling up over 100 shrimp each time. I've heard that you can pull the pots after 2-3 hours but I prefer morning/evening or once a day if I'm otherwise busy.

Friends did well shrimping while bear hunting last spring. I don't recall if they did any fishing. Having a couple of rods for rockfish is worth the effort, most areas of high relief will be productive. Just move if you haven't caught anything on the first or second drift.

Hopefully there won't be 3-4 ft of snow to the hi tide line this year at season close