Whalers Cove Lodge

See the fishing trip of a lifetime! We brought home 200 combined lbs of Silver (coho), King (chinook), pink salmon and halibut. I had the 'pleasure' of reeling in and releasing 4 halibut (unharmed) greater than 50" from over 650' of water. As you can see this trip put some big smiles on my dad's face.
Our trip to the lodge began at 6:30am from a small hangar. This Super Otter was our seet ride.NEW Tight quarters. I think we had nine passengers and one pilot aboard.NEW Rainy taxi out of the Ward Air Hangar at Juneau's airport.NEW Barrelling down the runway.NEW
And away we go!NEW Tide was out as we took off. I find it amazing trees can grow so closely to brackish or salty water.NEW Dad cracks a nervous smile. It was our first time on a float plane, but it was really fun to fly under the cloud deck!NEW I spy a landslide.NEW
The eastern coast of Admiralty Island.NEW My favorite plane pic of the trip. This is about 2/3 of the way to the Whaler's Cover Lodge.NEW RJH6792NEW RJH6795NEW
RJH6797NEW RJH6798NEW RJH6799NEW I'm pretty sure this is Fishery Creek, where we went later in the morning by boat to catch our fish.NEW
As we'd later learn, deltas are a great place to fish for halibut. The stream detritus washes out into the abyss. There the halibut have a field day.NEW Getting closer!NEW Blurry, I know. But oh, the colors! Obviously low tide.NEW Danger Point. Home to our morning herring bait fishing.NEW
Village of Angoon, AK where our guide Kevin was born and raised. The have fiber optic internet and, how cool is this, get their drinking water from a beaver-dammed lake.NEW What a smooth landing. Just like a speed boat slowing down.NEW We hit the ground running! Within an hour of landing we were on the boat, all geared-up and ready to go! I only carried my iphone the firs day, not knowing what to expect.NEW Cabin of our boat with Capt Kevin.NEW
A small, solitary island on our way out Danger Point for our herring catching.NEW 10-min worth of herring jigging got us our bait for the day.NEW Seas were calm, even with the clouds.NEW After an hour's ride to Fishery Creek, it was time to FISH! Pops couldn't contain his happiness.NEW
Now that's a handsome fisherman.NEW Dropping down for the halibut.NEW My dad's first halibut! All fish over 44" must be released, so we got to keep these small fry.NEW Halibut are an ugly fish. This was Doug, a Whaler's Cove regular.NEW
My dad catches the largest King Salmon of the day. Chinook.NEW Sun's out, smile's out.NEW Our first day was moderately successful.NEW This awesome metamorphic boulder was next to the lodge's porch.NEW
Dinner on night one! New York Steaks, candied carrots, wrapped asparagus and frijoles.NEW Dad shows off his unexpected prize: Hat for the biggest salmon of the day!NEW The docks on Killisnoo Island.NEW We walked-off dinner by combing the rocky shores. Not to much wave action here, but the 12' fluctuation in tides works some wonders on the metamorphic rocks.NEW
RJH6864NEW A sampling of the shore and intertidal creatures.NEW A sampling of the shore and intertidal creatures. Greenstones, marbles, med-siltstones and even a few small granitic chunks with the barnacle.NEW Docks and Whalers Cove Lodge.NEW
Extreme close-up!NEW RJH6885NEW The Lodge.NEW Sunflower Sea Star.NEW
Bald eagles on the island's old scrap heap. My dad had lots of fun wondering why no one came to recycle the stuff.NEW RJH6898NEW The far eastern end of the island had some great exposures of the metamorphics.NEW RJH6905NEW
RJH6916NEW Pulling out of the docks on day 2.NEW Pop's reels in his first salmon of the day.NEW Fishing Morris Reef.NEW
Kevin's the man!NEW That's what an $800 fish looks like.NEW RJH6928NEW Trolling Morris Reef looking "toward the ocean" as Keving put it.NEW
Holy humpback!NEW RJH6948NEW This shot was a fluke.NEW RJH6962NEW
We fished for halibut in 680' of water! My dad takes his sweet time reeling in.NEW RJH6971NEW Measuring to make sure it was 44" or under.NEW Looking south down the straight.NEW
Smile, humpy!NEW SInce I was too busy catching to take photos, all I can show is this hat for releasing a 51, 56, 58 and 50 inch halibut - from 680' of water!NEW IMG 5574NEW Awesome folds in the rocks found on our 2nd night, after-dinner stroll. Quarter for scale.NEW
A lovely 9:30pm sunset.NEW Look at the folds!!NEW Tidepool in weathing silty limestone (now marble-ish).NEW Pushing away on a sunny day! The fishing was about to get epic!NEW
We've had rougher waters in our swimming pool. Talk about glass.NEW Herring time.NEW In a sign of things to come, my dad quickly caught a salmon.NEW RJH7060NEW
We had a double hook-up three times with the silver salmon.NEW IMG 5581NEW Viagra, dad?NEW Halibut wars!NEW
Here was out tally for the last day.NEW An iphone shot with my eyes closed.NEW And a good camera shot. There are lots of fillets in our freezer!NEW IMG 5589NEW
A wonky pano on my iphone of all the treasures found on the island.NEW Not a bad iphone sunset capture. A great memory to end our amazing trip.NEW Kind of a cool old photo of the island. The entire island was once logged and a trading post and whaling plant were large economic drivers in the area. The place is remote today... can't imagine what it was like to live back then.NEW Our trip back to Juneau was on a catamara. A thick marine layer finally broke about 40 minutes into our 3 trip.NEW
Each box held 50lbs of fish fillets.NEW Nearing the lighthouse near Juneau. Mendenhall Glacier can be seen in the distance.NEW Wished I had a telephoto on the trip.NEW RJH7092NEW