Jun 6

Written by: jerry.wylie
6/6/2009 6:23 PM

The blue sky, gentle breeze and light chop on the bay’s water lured me into believing I could use only 4-ounces of weight with my jig to reach the bottom fish at 120 to 230 feet below.  NOT!   A rushing tide carried my jig and my 4-ounce weight almost directly away from the boat.  I reeled in, put on a 10-ounce weight and tried again.  This time my outfit descended more vertically and soon I felt the bottom.  I took a couple of turns on my reel and started to slowly jig.  Within half-a-minute, I felt the light tug of a feeding fish and set the hook.  The throbbing of a good fish on the end of my line was exciting and satisfying but did not last.  The fish pulled free and my excitement turned to disappointment.    But my disappointment did not last long before another fish hit and this one did not get off.

My son Tony, grandson Jeremy and I were in one of Alaska’s Prince William Sound bays, on a combined bear hunt and fishing trip.  We were fishing from the deck of Tony’s 26-foot Bayliner, which also served as our living quarters for the next 3 days and nights.  During mid-day, we spent our time fishing instead of hunting and we were pleased with the excellent and fast fishing action.  We often had double and sometimes triple hookups.

We caught a variety of Alaska’s rockfish but our main catch consisted of Yellow Eyed Rockfish (Red Snapper) and Black Rockfish.  The fish weighed in at 2 to 12 pounds and they make excellent table fare.

 The fish fry will be tomorrow night.

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