Peril Sky

Back in 2021 at the beginning of our tour through Alaska I managed to finagle a seat on the boat with Fish Happens and its skipper Jeremy Downie in the remote Alaskan town of Sitka on Baranof Island. It was an incredible day of fishing, I caught enough to feed the four Valtenbergs for six weeks! When Matt Little feast his eyes on the pics years ago he vowed to join me on a trip with his son Sam when Sam was old enough to handle the kind of fish we’d be catching. With Sam turning nine this year, more than a year ago Matt and I lanned a summer trip back to Baranof Island with the intention of showing Sam and Maxie some of the best salmon and halibut fishing the world has to offer. Greg Halls also caught wind of the adventure and certainly wasn’t going to miss out, so locked himself in as fisherman number five. Sammy unfortunately couldn’t make the trip so a last minute switcheroo saw Milo – one of Max’s mates from junior high – join Max, Greg, Matt and me on our way to Sitka this last Wednesday.

We planned for a buffer day in between flying from San Francisco to Sitka in case our flights to Alaska went awry: fishing charters in Sitka are often secured more than a year in advance so we certainly couldn’t chance the airlines getting us to Alaska behind schedule. On our day off before fishing we enjoyed a lazy morning exploring the tchotchke shops tailored to the cruise ship passengers that frequent Sitka on most days during summer, and also took a walk to the south end of town to sample the brews of Harbor Mountain Brewing (a great little out-of-the way spot Lisa and I discovered when we visited in 2021). The younger boys couldn’t wait for our open ocean fishing adventures so disappeared to find themselves fishing poles and spent a few hours chasing the rockfish and salmon cruising through the harbors of central Sitka during the afternoon. Fun to see them so stoked for their days on the boat… The Pioneer Bar – a very locals-only establishment frequented by many of the commercial fisherman in town – also saw a few visits from me and the (adult) boys whilst we were in town. It was a little too conveniently located only a couple of doors down the street from our digs on Katlian Street. We made some quick friends at the Pioneer on Wednesday: we couldn’t figure out what was going on when some of the natives left the bar and thanked us for the drinks… Until we saw the drinks on our bar tab at the end of the night!

It was an early morning start for the four of us on Thursday for day one of fishing. RJ Miller – the owner of the fishing charter Peril Sky and skipper of our boat – had us at the harbor slip at 5AM on day one, which was a little rough for all of us: the younger boys had grown used to sleeping in until mid-morning during their summer break, and the older boys had imbibed on a few too many libations the night before! After a quick meet and greet with RJ we were off to the west across Sitka Sound to the salmon grounds, a few black coffees quelled the cobwebs from the night before and we all enjoyed chatting with RJ about his background as we motored.

No-nonsense RJ quickly had the downriggers set up for the sunrise salmon bite, and in short order the five of us were sitting there watching the two rods as we trolled back and forth, anxiously waiting for the telltale ping of the rod tip that comes with the release of the downrigger clip. It didn’t take long for RJ to yell, “Fish on!” and Greg was first up to pull the rod from the holder with what ended up being our first king of the day. “Fish on!” again from RJ and it was Max’s turn, this time with a dinosaur-like lingcod on the hook. Matt’s turn was next with a coho salmon… And that’s how we spent the next couple of hours trolling back and forth: “Fish on!” as the rods pinged and the five of us rotating through reeling. RJ was pretty impressive to watch as he intently kept an eye on the echo sounder and quickly adjusted the depth of the downriggers as he saw marks indicating salmon on the screen. At one point he saw a king fly by the front of the boat on the screen and then ran back to put the downrigger lure in front if it as it swam by (it got hooked and ended up being a king for Milo that he unfortunately lost as he was reeling it up…). I think our salmon fishing on day one was helped a little by Greg heaving over the side to chum in some fish after turning green in the face and swearing to never again have a big night on whiskey cocktails before a day on the water! Super fun to sit there and rotate through the five of us every time one of the rod tips pinged skyward with the release of the downrigger clips, the younger boys had so much stoke and Fisherman Matt was smiles from ear-to-ear the entire time.

After securing a respectable salmon haul we motored westward into the deep to one of RJ’s favored halibut holes. Even though temps were cold – I was rugged up with four layers and probably could have done with a fifth – we were fortunate the swells were mild and wind was only blowing at a few knots. It would have been decidedly miserable out there on a small boat with big waves and rain… We anchored up on top of a halibut hole and then dropped our five bait-laden hooks down more than 300 feet in search of the prehistoric-looking halibut Sitka is so well known for. It didn’t take long for bites to start hitting, RJ scanning the five rods for telltale signs of a fish and yelling, “Reel!” at whomever was missing taps on their line. Most of our initial catches were yelloweye, a bright orange rockfish that favor similar depths to halibut and noted by RJ as excellent eating. Last time I fished in Sitka it was illegal to keep yelloweye but the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had updated its regulations since then and we were each allowed one per year as non-residents, so kept five for the day. Once the yelloweye were cleared out we started reeling up the halibut we were targeting, and Matt was able to tick off one of his lifetime bucket list catches as he reeled up his first. A very different fight to salmon, the halibut were like reeling up barn doors from the deep. Max was king of halibut for the day, landing three “chickens” as RJ called them: keeper fish under the 34 inch size cap, their white bellies making them look a little like a chicken as they came out of the water… Matt caught a couple of incredible fish during our halibut session on day one: 50 and 70 pound fish that were too big to keep but great for a couple of quick photos before they went back into the ocean.

The two pics below of Max and Milo are signs of a great day one: after 10 hours on the water we were all feeling a little spent, but there were lots of smiles on the way back into the harbor with a limit of halibut and yelloweye for each of us and a respectable haul of king, coho and sockeye salmon. We enjoyed a mellow evening and dined on Milo’s sockeye that night accompanied by fries and rice pilaf. Early to bed for all of us in preparation for day two.

Back at the harbor at 5AM for day two, RJ greeted us with, “What do you guys want to do today, do you want to see some cool shit?” Is the pope Catholic? Instead of heading westward across Sitka Sound to the typical fishing grounds for most Sitka-based charters, on day two RJ weaved his way through the islands and took us on a 90 minute tour south along the west coast of Baranof Island to Whale Bay. It was a magic way the start the day: the hum of the big diesel engine as we cruised at 24 knots across the glass, watching for bald eagles as we motored and taking in the incredible landscape of Southeast Alaska. We lost Milo to an early morning nap while Max enjoyed sharing the copilot seat next to RJ for an hour-or-so, peppering him with all kinds of questions about who knows what.

We were almost to Whale Bay when RJ spotted some bird activity off one of Baranof Island’s points and quickly had the downriggers dropped in search of salmon. It didn’t take long for him to squeal, “Fish on!” and it was Greg up first with a monster king salmon on the hook. Milo nabbed some great keeper rockfish and we also hauled in some nice cohos before the action died off, no complaints for the start of day two.

From our salmon spot we motored east into Whale Bay proper with a magic tour through some of the coves to the south, stopping off at a picturesque waterfall dropping into the ocean along the way (it was too far away to snap with my wide angle lens). Pretty cool to be able to sit there and – with the help of polarized glasses – watch all the salmon swimming into the waterfall to spawn upriver. Such a beautiful part of the world, and pretty special to have it all to ourselves for the day given the fleet of other fishing charters were 90 minutes north to the west of Sitka.

We anchored up to target halibut on the north side of Whale Bay, pretty incredible to watch the echo sounder as we slowly cruised: the center of Whale Bay was more than 800 feet deep, carved by a glacier millennia ago, and then quickly rose to 430 feet via an underwater cliff face. We dropped our five hooks onto the sandy bottom of the 430 foot underwater plateau in search of halibut, clearing out a few yelloweye like the day before to begin the session. I scored a couple of excellent chickens on day two: 33 and 34 inch fish just under the legal limit, great fun reeling them up from 430 feet down. Matt hooked into an incredible 110 pound fish that took him ages to reel up and had him red in the face, we didn’t even attempt to pull it onboard for a photo but it was awesome to see it thrash about in the water before it was deftly unhooked by RJ to fight another day.

I feel like I need to devote a special paragraph and gallery (below) to one particular fish from Whale Bay. Midway through our halibut session RJ yelled at Greg, “Reel, fast, now!” as his rod tip bent southward all the way into the water. Greg had been on the receiving end of a handful of RJ’s wisecracks that morning – much to the enjoyment of Matt and I – after letting a handful of fish get off the hook. RJ opined this particular fish was a serious halibut and was all over Greg to make sure it ended up in the boat. Whatever was on the hook was taking out considerable drag, and Greg was reeling so hard he had to take off his beanie during the 15 or 20 minutes it took to get it up from 430 feet below. Red in the face, Matt and I thought Greg may do a hernia under the strain… After a respectable slog, we all could see the white belly of a monster halibut below the surface as it came up from the deep. RJ and Matt carefully reached down with gaff hooks and pulled it in in a synchronized fashion, a behemoth of a fish weighing in at over 180 pounds. Usually a fish that size would have been way over the size limit for a 34 inch chicken, but RJ purchased a handful of GAF tag halibut quota for the season which provided us the option of keeping the halibut and having it logged as commercial catch. With probably close to 100 pounds of fillets on a single fish it was a pretty easy snap decision to make as the fish was surfacing, so in the boat it came! Such a monster, it was longer than Max and Milo are tall.

With more than enough halibut onboard – and Greg’s reeling arm shot for the day – we headed back to the mouth of Whale Bay to try for more salmon to wind up our second day. With the sunrise bite well past we didn’t have much luck, other than a single king Greg reeled in that was unfortunately less than an inch undersize. With our time on the water getting close to done we stopped on the way back through the islands for some pics of our day two catch. An amazing haul, I love the shot below of the halibut hanging between the boys, gives a great view of the monster’s size.

So great to be able to get Greg and Matt over here for such a fun few days on the edge of the world, and I’m stoked Milo could join us for the adventure as well. The pics above have already made their way back to Australia and I have a feeling Greg’s dad may find his way to Sitka sometime soon for his own attempt at a 180 pound monster from the deep!