Fishing in May

[JeanfromBNA]

My husband and I would like to go fishing in Ketchikan and Skagway. We are on the Celebrity Infinity departing May 18. Researching the boards here, I found a thread where posters stated that fishing in May was poor. I understand that it's the beginning of the King Salmon season, and that we're not guaranteed a catch, but is May fishing bad, period?

[mapleleaves]

I don't fish but there is wealth of information in the Alaska Outdoor Journal. This link opens to run timing in the SE, including Ketchikan. If you dig thru the site there's also an article about how to choose a good charter.

My BIL flew to Ketchikan for a guys fishing weekend over Memorial Day a few years ago and was extremely successful with both halibut and salmon.

http://alaskaoutdoorjournal.com/Fishing/Regions/ssetime.html

[slider728]

I will tell you upfront that I spend most of my time fishing in Juneau. Ketchikan is a few hundred miles south of Juneau and the fisheries are going to be slightly different there. Skagway is less than 100 miles North of Juneau and both are on the same body of water (Lynn canal), so the fisheries there are going to be pretty close to Juneau's.

 

I am not going to proclaim to be an expert on either Ketchikan or Skagway, but hopefully I can throw you a few pieces of helpful information that you can use to make your decision.

 

For the most part, May isn't the most productive time to be salt water fishing in SE Alaska. May tends to be the height of the King Salmon run, but King Salmon fishing is much different than fishing any of the other types of fish in SE Alaska. Sport fishing productivity is rated by what they call rod-hours. Rod-hours are exactly what they sound like, the average number of hours your rod needs to be in the water per fish caught. During some salmon runs like the Coho run, catching a fish maybe as little as 4 rod hours per fish (though it is very common to catch your limit of 6 fish in a tide or about 6 hours). During the King Salmon run in May, it is usually at least 40+ rod hours per fish, meaning that most people would catch 1 King Salmon in about 5 days of hard fishing.

 

For the local who can catch a 6 hour tide every day, 40 rod hours per King isn't terrible. For a tourist who has a single shot about 8 hours long at best...it means that most likely you won't get a fish.

 

I do not mean to discourage you in the slightest. Like an old timer used to tell me, "You ain't gonna catch a fish with a sofa pillow". You aren't going to catch a fish by going on a dog sled excursion. If fishing means a lot to you, then you need to take your chances. However, I just wanted to give you some realistic expectations.

 

During May, in your best bets are going to be King Salmon and Halibut. The likelihood of catching a fish is going to vary from year to year, ranging from 10 rod-hours per fish to 100's of rod hours per fish. I am going to give you two links from the Alaska Fish and Game website:

 

This link will show you what fish to expect at what times in Alaska. Ketchikan has its own link in the pull down menu. Skagway shoudl fall under the Juneau/Sitka/Yakutat heading:

 

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportFishingInforuntiming.main

 

 

This link is the fishing reports for the area. The fishing reports start coming out around the beginning of May. You can look through the 2011 archives and you can get an idea how the fishing was at the time you were going last year. My recommendation is to follow this in 2012 as long as you can before you leave. You can get an idea how the fishing is going in the areas you are interested in. If the number of rod-hours is low, then go for it! If it is taking 300 rod-hours to land a fish, then I'd recommend saving your money personally:

 

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/FishingReports/index.cfm?ADFG=main.home

 

I hope this helps! Enjoy your trip!

[JeanfromBNA]

Thanks for the information, Mapleleaves and slider728. Sure is a lot to contemplate. I think we'll regret it if we don't go fishing at all, but maybe only one port instead of two.

[Budget Queen]

You may also want to inquire of some long standing vendors, their recommendations.