Lazy jigging for halibut

What could possibly be better than a relaxing jig for halibut? I wasn't very lucky on this trip (I think we were drifting too fast) but I sure had fun. We had already caught some salmon and crab so I wasn't anxious to catch anything. It would have been worse if we didn't stop and try. That might be true for everything in life. If I remember correctly, this picture was taken at about 9:00 PM.

Three shrimp pots lost on the ocean floor

We lost three shrimp pots. While we were lowering the pots, I thought we were at the end of the line and that a kink in the line would work itself free as it had before. I was wrong on both counts. The bouy sank and we haven't seen the pots since.

Our three sport shrimp pots were spaced about 15 feet apart on a lead line with a bouy on the top end of the line. The target depth was 300 feet and it was near a ledge that dropped to 550 feet. We marked the location on our GPS.

I felt pretty bad about losing the pots but now I understand the state laws that mandate an area of the pots be fastened with cotton. That way, the cotton will decompose and a hole will be created for shrimp to come and go as they please.

As I talked about this with other people I was comforted by finding out that losing pots was a common occurence and realized that is also why a state law existed - because it happened so frequently that it was a problem.

Most people I talked to quickly told me that I needed some type of grappling hook to drag the area in hopes of finding our pots. I constructed one out of rebar and dragged the area a few times to no avail. I believe my problems were 1) lack of time in the area, and 2) no weight on the drag line. I think I need at least a 20 pound weight on the drag line.

The loss of our pots occured last fall and I am anxious to get back out there this spring and hope we can find our pots.

If not, it is always nice to be on our boat, no matter what we are doing.

Walker Downriggers

The type of downriggers we bought were Walker Cohos. They are manual downriggers. They are pretty good for the money - they are inexpensive but get the job done. We will upgrade someday in the future but they are holding up for now.

To mount the downriggers, I had to place some wooden blocks underneath because there are some short walls that come up in the back of our boat and the downrigger arms didn't clear them at first. The blocks are only 2 inches high and that was all that was needed.

It is a good idea to have an extra spool of downrigger wire (or a wire repair kit) on board the boat as well as an extra downrigger weight. We've already had to replace both in one season. They are not much money though, so it's nice to buy them upfront and that way we didn't miss out on much fishing time.

Learning to Fish

Before last year, the extent of my fishing experience was mainly just casting. When we bought our boat (Adventures of Owning a Boat in Alaska), my wife and I learned how to hand troll.

Trolling is a fishing technique where you hang a heavy weight from a downrigger, attach a fishing line, flasher, and hook, and tow this setup behind you in a boat. We usually travel between 2 and 4 knots.

Trolling works great for Alaska King Salmon and Silver Salmon (Cohos) as well as other fish.

We haven't caught any halibut yet and that is our main goal this year.