Going Fishing !
The day of your charter with Alaskan 4 Star Charters start at Quigley's Icecream Parlor, There you can get a fresh cup of coffee and your fishing license if you need one. And meet up with your captain of the AK 4 Star a 28 foot Sea Ray. From there we will walk down to the loading ramp and board the AK 4 Star, for the trip of a life time. With some 3000 miles of shoreline, some 2500 square miles of water and over 70 islands you have a chance to see some of Alaska's most beautiful shore lines and animals that live there. From Black Bears to Sitka deer and if you are really lucky you might even see a Brown bear on Montague Island.
You leave the Whittier Harbor and turn east out of Passage Cannel, past Port Wells and head out for as day of fishing and sightseeing. Be prepared to find Ball's Porpoise, Harbor Seals, Stellar Sea Lions, Killer Whales and Humpback Whales an of course the always present Sea Otter. And not to mention the Sea birds. The trip will last about 2 hours to get to the fishing grounds. Once there you will notice that you are fishing (Blue Water). The captain will pick out what type of rig he has chosen for you, ether a jig or bait rig. As you let out your line you will notice that you can see your rig drop out of sight some 20 to 60 feet below. Hold on that's not the bottom, that's another 100 feet too 400 feet further. Prince William Sound is quite deep. There are places in the sound that are 400 + fathoms deep. For those of you that are trying to figure that out, its 6 feet to a fathom or 1.828 meters to a fathom. No mater how you figure it that's a long way down. Once you hit bottom the skipper will then instruct you or fine tuning your fishing technique for the sound. O yes don't for get to keep an eye out for the wild life.
Your trip back to Whittier will be a short one for most. That's because most fall asleep after a hard day of fishing. You can kick back and enjoy the ride. Once at the dock Jody will take your fish to the cleaning tables lay them out on the dock and there you can take all the pictures you want. Now that all the fun has been had for the day its time for the real work, Jody fillets your catch for you.
When to Fish
Early season fishing starts May to mid June is good with some fish being caught in the upper reaches of 100 lbs. But most are in the 20's to 50's. From mid June to August the Halibut start to come into the sound in larger numbers. As the Salmon start to enter the sound the fishing gets better. The Halibut feed on the salmon and other fish. At this time we seam to find our larger fish. The largest Halibut landed by the AK 4 Star is just under 225 lbs. On July 1st the Lingcod season opens these fish can reach some 70 lbs, and are some the best eating of all Alaskan salt water fish. Jody has given these fish his own nick name, (funnels with teeth) if you are lucky to land one you will soon find out how and why he calls them that. Oh and don't forget the Sea Bass these fish can reach 20+ lbs. This makes for a nice mix in the fish box on board the AK 4 Star.
