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Calm seas are important when bottom-fishing for Pacific Halibut and rockfish. The ‘Arctic Warrior’ floats over calm waters in Prince William Sound.

Pacific halibut are a revered fish for sport and tablefare. Columnist Scott Mackenthun and a group of friends caught a number of halibut on an August fishing charter.

Mist curls around the Chugach Mountains in Valdez Harbor, Alaska.

Calm seas are important when bottom-fishing for Pacific Halibut and rockfish. The ‘Arctic Warrior’ floats over calm waters in Prince William Sound.

Pacific halibut are a revered fish for sport and tablefare. Columnist Scott Mackenthun and a group of friends caught a number of halibut on an August fishing charter.

Mist curls around the Chugach Mountains in Valdez Harbor, Alaska.

Alaska’s Richardson Highway cuts south from Copper Center to Valdez along a gorgeous drive. Travelers along this path see and finally enter the Chugach Mountains, drive past glaciers and lakes, and head through alpine meadows with beautiful summer wildflowers blooming.

As you near Valdez and the coast, you’ll reach a few gently curving switchbacks and pass a pair of picturesque waterfalls. Finally, you’ll arrive in town to a stunning scene; boats arranged in perfect dock rows in harbor against a backdrop of black spruce forests along snow-capped mountains shrouded in an often-present summer fog.

In the last leg of my August Alaska fishing trip, our group of five hoped to end our trip with another successful day of angling. We booked a fishing trip with Capt. Bud Scott of Valdez Saltwater Adventures.

All week ahead of our trip, we would check in with Captain Bud about the weather and the seas, and each day we’d be as unsure if we could get out as the previous day.

While the Valdez fishing harbor set deep into Prince William Sound may have light winds and steady seas, where the sound ends at the entry to the Gulf of Alaska and north Pacific Ocean is entirely a different environment. The seas are rougher, and the winds are not contained by mountains.

Anglers need calm seas on the day of fishing, as well as two or three days prior. Many a hopeful halibut and rockfish angler has booked months in advance to fish out of Seward, Homer or Valdez only to find the seas too rough and their trip canceled.

Local fishing charter captains would love to go out regardless of weather, but detecting bites, keeping baits on bottom and avoiding seasick anglers is nearly impossible in choppy seas.

With fortunate good weather on our scheduled charter date, we headed out of port with Captain Bud in the Arctic Warrior, a 37-foot cabin cruiser pushed by twin 350 horsepower Suzuki outboard motors.

The day began damp and overcast with light drizzle as we headed south for bigger water. The boat hummed and glided along, our crew waking up with cups of black coffee and chocolate chip granola bars.

The boat rode smoothly over the flat water, an easy ride that allowed everyone to take in the lush scenery of mountain fjords and the mark of low tide on the shoreline.

After an hour, we finally found open water. The swells rose and fell.

Captain Bud radioed other parties who had ventured out. The reports were rugged seas and building waves.

After a few minutes of plunging into turbulent seas, Captain Bud turned the Arctic Warrior around and we headed for calmer waters. Along a shelved drop off Hinchinbrook Island, we dropped anchor and prepared for a day of bottom fishing.

With broomstick-like, 7-foot heavy action rods, we dropped 16/0 circle hooks baited with cut herring. Two speed Avet level wind reels were opened to drop heavy braid and 3-pound weights to the bottom in 150 to 300 feet of water.

With all of our lines deployed and everyone doing their best to spread lines out to avoid entanglement, we then started in on the catching. It wasn’t one after another, but every 5 or 10 minutes, you’d feel a little tap-tap-tap, or maybe just a heavy feeling of more than just your 3-pound sinker pulling back.

At the ready, you’d crank down on the reel, gear mechanical advantages were realized, and the line is pulled up quickly, drawing the line tight and bringing the circle hook into the corner of a fish’s mouth.

For the first hour, everyone on board had reeled up a small halibut, a first for most everyone on board. Each angler had to make a decision — the state of Alaska regulates harvest in their coastal halibut fisheries in this location by allowing anglers to take one Pacific halibut above 28 inches and another below.

Each fish landed is a gamble and exercise in probability — should you keep your fish if you expect to land something larger?

It depends on how good the bite is and how much time you have left.

For small halibut that were an inch or two under the 28 inch limit, it was easy to reduce those fish to possession. Smaller fish were always a gamble. Same for fish just a smidge over 28 inches.

Would you catch something bigger? Time would tell.

Our crew kept steadily catching fish — small halibut with occasional Pacific cod, which were kept, as well as some razortooth, also known as arrowtooth flounder, which were released.

After a couple hours of fishing time and while doing our best to stay untangled and out of the way of others who were reeling up fish, Jordan Korzenowski hooked into a nice fish. This fish took drag and gave Jordan a workout.

After 15 minutes of working Jordan to near exhaustion, he managed to get the fish up to the rear of the boat.

There in the surface waters of the cobalt blue Prince William sound lay a real “barn door” halibut, snow white on one side and freckled olive brown on the other.

Captain Bud cleared the deck and approached with a steel rod. With a single shot of his shotgun bang stick, he incapacitated the fish and our team hoisted it carefully aboard. The big fish of the day was landed.

After pictures and rounds of congratulations for Jordan, everyone was back to fishing.

Cod and halibut continued pestering the baits, and our catch cooler slowly filled. A few small skates were hooked, cartilaginous fish related to sharks that were hard to reel in because of the effect of pulling vertically against their horizontal body shape.

Captain Bud understandably cursed the fish as they tended to sail sideways into other lines and produce massive tangles.

A single spiny dogfish shark was caught, triggering stories and anecdotes from the Captain on the size and variety of shark caught in the region.

Just as our group was feeling confident in our halibut catching abilities, the high tide hit and water surged around the island. Our baits were not as easily anchored to the bottom and staying down became an issue.

We swapped three-pound sinkers for four- and five-pounders. After more tangles, we dropped a few anglers out to give those remaining more space and agreed to rotate the fishing spots.

A few more halibut were caught before we reanchored in deeper water to try a new spot. The bite was not as fast and furious as when we started, but it obviously held some good rockfish.

A couple quillback and yelloweye rockfish were cranked in. By this point, our team was getting worn down by reeling up the fish from such deep water, so most rods were tucked into holders while the angler focused on turning the handle. In essence, the rods and reels were operated like a giant winch.

The high tide ended but the boat twirls never truly stopped. Winds swirled through the sound and waves crept in.

After enough menacing tangles, I was certain Captain Bud would lose his cool like a frustrated father tending to his young kids’ fishing lines. Instead, he was very matter-of-fact and kept us fishing until it was obviously a hopeless endeavor.

We pulled up lines and made our way back toward Valdez, stopping along the way to take in the sites of Orcas swimming in a pod near shore, a navigation signaling island where sea lions barked and lounged, and a few stops near relaxing sea otters or when an odd jellyfish was pulsing near the surface.

Despite a long drive in and out, the day had been a rousing success. Our weather window stayed open, we made it out, while others on either side of our dates were cancelled.

Everyone caught fish and we would all be going home with our own packages of rockfish and halibut, a tasty reminder of the beauty and bounty of Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Scott Mackenthun has been writing about hunting and fishing since 2005. Email him at scott.mackenthun@gmail.com.

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