Searching for your next adventure vacation? How about an Alaska fishing trip! Cascade Creek Inn & Charters in Sitka offers incredible oceanfront lodging, experienced fishing guides, a first class chef, and world-class fishing boats. What makes Sitka such as special fishing destination is that it offers an incredibly diverse fishing population, most of which we get to target on every single fishing day. Learn about all the great tasting fish you can catch below.
King (Chinook) Salmon
Known as the "King Salmon" in Alaska due to large size and flavorful taste, they are one of the most sought after game fish in the world. The King salmon is the largest of the salmon genus in the Pacific Ocean, with a typical average of 15-20 lbs; however they certainly can be bigger. The sport fishing world record is 97.25 lbs! The largest King salmon for Cascade Creek Inn & Charters was caught on the Maverick with Guide Tyler Kraft; the monster weighed in at an astonishing 51 lbs! (late July '16).
King salmon are caught regularly throughout the season (May 20-Sept 5), but typically the hottest bite starts Mid May and lasts until the end of June. If you book a fishing package during that time, you should anticipate catching your annual limit. We catch King salmon utilizing the mooching technique and/or trolling with down-riggers.
Sitka, Alaska boasts the highest King salmon catch rates in all of Alaska, confirmed by Alaska Fish & Game.
Pacific Halibut
Sitka boasts excellent Alaskan Halibut Fishing all summer long. Hook a halibut to fight the biggest fish of your life! These fish can reach sizes of 400 lbs or more and have a clean, mild taste with firm, flakey meat requiring little seasoning. The largest recorded sport-caught Pacific Halibut was 459 lbs in 1996 (Unalaska, AK).
We frequently fish for halibut on or near the same spots as we salmon fish. Large gravel and mud flats are typically where anglers will have the best luck catching these bottom-feeders in depths ranging from 180 - 700 ft. Unlike the King and Silver salmon, halibut can be caught pretty evenly throughout the entire summer.
Silver (Coho) Salmon
While smaller than King salmon, Silver salmon make up for their smaller stature in quantity of fish that can be retained daily (6 per day). Silvers are an entertaining catch because of their acrobatic fight on the ocean surface. The average Coho weights 8-12 pounds, but the world-record in Alaska weighed in at an impressive 26.11 lbs.
The best Silver Salmon fishing is between July and early September, with early-mid August typically being prime action. We may see one Coho here and another there in the month of June, but you shouldn't expect a boat limit until mid to late July.
The Black Cod is a deep-dwelling fish known for its buttery and rich taste. Some might consider it the best tasting fish in the world!
Lingcod
The Alaska Lingcod is known for its prehistoric look and large, toothy grin. It is one of Alaska's most sought after sport fish for its prized meat. These beasts can grow up to 80 lbs. The world record lingcod weighted in at 82.6 lbs.
We usually see at least one of these daily while out fishing, it's catching one in the slot cod (30-35") thats tough. But they make for a great picture and story to tell your friends!
Yelloweye Rockfish
The Yelloweye Rockfish is the most prized rockfish due to their large size and fillet quality. We catch these pretty consistently throughout the entire fishing season.
The shortraker rockfish is the largest of all rockfish species found in Alaska, with the world sportfishing record coming in at a whopping 44.1 pounds (Cross Sound, '17).
Black Rockfish
We typically end each charter day targeting the Black Rockfish. These fighters are a hit with a lot of our charter fishing guests due to their natural tendency to 'swarm' or school up under the boat which makes for some fast action. Great tasting, our recommendation to all of our guests are using these for some delicious fish tacos or fish-n-chips.
Salmon sharks, sometimes described as a mini great white shark due to appearance similarities, can grow to over 10 feet long and in excess of 660 pounds. An apex predator, the salmon shark feeds on salmon, squid, sablefish, herring and pollock; eating about 8% of their weight in food each day.
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