Heading out tomorrow!

[Daveinthebush]

Well the boat is fixed, grass in the water intake.  My dad is out of the hospital, AGAIN! Everything is packed and ready to go.  The Whelen is cleaned, .445 sighted in, .44 mag ready (can't have enought guns with you) Food for ten days. Finally hit the herring for fish bait.  Bills paid, permits applied for and I am out of here for a week or so.

Now just if the weather will be clear enough for me to get about 50 miles out of here and the waves are calm.

[Moose-Hunter]

Good luck and be safe out there, Dave. Looking forward to pictures and details on the hunt when you return. :-)

[Matt in AK]

Be safe Dave and good luck.  I hope you nail a big blackie and some monster fish.  We'll be expectin' lots of beautiful pics.

[longwinters]

Well, I am green with envy.  Have a great hunt etc. . . I to look forward to your adventure details.

[Daveinthebush]

Well it just wasn't ment to be!.  Beautiful trip out till I got to bouy 9 and hit "Go to" on the GPS.  The GPS responded - What?  Every single waypoint on the GPS was gone.  (Well at least I have them saved on my computer and can transfer them back.)  Still went on to Cedar Bay and the wind was all wrong. The only safe morage that I knew of had the wind hitting to hard to land the boat and unload.  So I found another spot to anchor and a place on shore to camp.  Poor spot, but worked.  There was a little bear sign but not much.  The ground is DRY!  Like walking on Captain Crunch.  Next morning I loaded the boat because if the wind switched to it's correct direction the boat would be in trouble.  Now the depth finder won't work! Returned to my first morage place and some hunters were there.  One other spot..... more people.  Ok, so another spot...float plane!!!  Crap I can't win.  So I hit my favorite redfish hole. Wopper!  Biggest redfish I have ever caught. Limited out in ten minutes and then back to find a camping spot.  ALL FILLED UP!

About this time with the GPS not working correctly, depth finder not working.....I decided to try to find the favorite halibu hole.  Can't find it without the GPS.

No GPS. No depth finder. No place to camp. Rain on the horizon. Time to head to the dock.

Just wasn't meant to be guys.

[BW]

No GPS. No depth finder. No place to camp. Rain on the horizon.

Geez Dave,

Gotta wonder how the ancient sailors did without all the electronics?   :lol:

Just kidding, I know how ya feel, except there's more places to anchor up down this way.

[Daveinthebush]

The lower unit on an older boats were a lot cheaper! :grin:

Just go to shore, carve another and off again.  Ever try carving a prop out of a spruce tree.

I have an appreciation for the old mariners after going down the Yukon by myself.  Don't know where you are, don't know where your going, don't know whats up ahead, don't know when your going to get there!  What a  life! :grin:

One of the problems with Prince William Sound is that if you do find a place to anchor, you can't always find a place to camp on shore.  The tides are ainteresting too. 12ft can sometimes leave you high and dry if you don't watch it.

Life is never boring in AK.

[longwinters]

Wah!  And I thought it could be tough hunting in Michigan with over 1 million hunters.  How come those magazine writers never write about experiences like that?  At least you can cook up some fresh fish. Dave are you going to get that big red mounted?

[Daveinthebush]

I mounted him right into a large baggie! I love red smapper. Although -  there is a taxidermist in town that I should work a deal with in the future. Why do I think of the camera after the filleting?

I think that a lot of guides have missadventures and you never hear of it. Unless, like the four people we lost this week in a plane crash on Denali, is national news.

The summer business up here since 911 and all the warnings have the guides worried.  So if a fish guide blows a motor, has problems, it is not going to be promoted.  

If a hunting show host comes to AK and sponsers are paying for the bill he had better produce a good show.  In the archives is a story of one that was so pressured, he violated the rules to make the kill.  AND, he paid dearly.  The guide had his plane(s) put up on auction this past winter.

This is not the open country in the books and articles of the past.  In the past year I was checked 5 times just here on PWS. One of the F&G officers in Galena had a Supercub on floats just so that he could land about anywhere to moose hunters.

[Paul H]

Dave,

How does one fillet yelloweye, and the other rockfish?  It mentions that there is a poison beneath the spines in the fins, but no mention of the best way to fillet and stay away from those sacks.  If you've seen any sights on the web that pictorially show the process, I'd appreciate it.

It's a shame that the slob hunters make F&G have to go to such measures to enforce the laws.

[Daveinthebush]

The first step in filleting rockfish is apply Oak. Use a piece about 18" long and 2" in diameter and apply that sucker just between the eyes!  Then place it in a pail, mouth up and stab the heart just behind the "V" below the gills and let them bleed out. Only after they bleed out do you fillet them.  

I have never had a problem with the spines.  But I hold them by the mouth with the one hand and let the other hand do the knife work.  I know of the problem but have just never been stung.  I suppose it is a habbit from cleaning bullheads and such.  

I fillet them just like bass and other fish.  Although, you do waste a lot of meat on a rockfish.  I might try scaling one some time to increase the yeild.

What I don't understand up here is the limit on them.  You have to keep the first 2 that you catch, limit 2.  I can take you to spots where you can catch them all day long. Quite abundant. But, I was also 56 miles from port.  Quiet a run for 2 fish!

[Paul H]

Dave,

Thanks for the tip on filleting, I'm used to rainbows and reds, but hear what you're saying.

From what I've read, the rockfish can be quickly depleated from an area, hence the limits.  The upside of my having a wife and 3 children to take on fishing trips is the increase in haul that make such trips more worthwhile.  

I can see running 50 miles for but's though!

[Dand]

Sorry to read of the poor luck Dave.  But the limit on rock fish, I believe, is like Paul H noted - they can be easily depleted.  This is in part because they are  slow maturing, long lived fish and they don't have the high reproductive potential of salmon.  If I remember right, some rock fish can live to amazing ages 20-30 years plus I THINK [??}.  Give ADFG a call or check out the wildlife notebook series on line.  Give Scott Meyer in Homer ADFG office a call - he would know much more.

Better luck next time.

[Paul H]

Actually some rock fish can live 120 years! :eek: