By Kent Danjanovich
Senior Editor

Southeast Alaska is truly a fishing mecca and Prince of Wales Island sits right in the heart of some of the best fishing waters in all of Alaska.  In fact, the fishing is so good, when you let out your line, you just never know what might take a bite of your bait and proceed to give you the run of your life!

Fellow Sportsman’s News Pro-Staffer, Rick Rosenberg joined me on our adventure to Fireweed Lodge last July.  I had heard a lot about the Ketchikan area, but this would be the first visit for either of us to this inner passage fishing and tourism hot spot.  After arriving on the island runway in Ketchikan, we hopped on the transport that took us across the bay and headed for the Inner Island Ferry depot.  We checked in and purchased our tickets for the ferry that would take us to Prince of Wales Island and then made our way across the street for our first Alaskan breakfast of the trip.

Since this was our first trip to the area, we decided to grab a ride downtown to see some of the sights since the ferry makes only one run to Prince of Wales Island each day at 3:30pm.  This port city is full of sites, restaurants, souvenir shops and a ton of sightseers bustling around from the many cruise ships that make Ketchikan one of their regular stops.  At about 2:30pm we headed back to the ferry and boarded for our three hour ride.  You can also catch a ride with one of the local flight services, but we didn’t mind the leisurely ferry ride, since we wouldn’t be fishing on this first day anyway.

We were met at the gate as we exited the ferry by a member of the staff from Fireweed Lodge and we jumped in the Yukon and headed for the town of Klawock, about a 20 minute ride to the western side of the island.  We soon found ourselves at the front door of the Fireweed Lodge, our home for the next four days.  Bob Anderson, the owner of the lodge, met us inside, set us up with a room and told us to get settled in and then come back over for some dinner.

The lodge is a mix of hotel style accommodations, along with three newly built cabins that can house groups of four guests.  The room that we were in was very comfortable, with two double beds and an adjacent twin bed , along with a full bath, sitting area and satellite TV.  After washing up, we headed over to the main lodge, just a few steps away and found our way to our appointed table.  Upon arrival, our hostess presented us with a heaping bowl of fresh crab legs as an appetizer (A treat that was standard every night) and then offered us a choice of a fresh crusted halibut creation or a braised pork entree with all of the fixins’.  A soup and salad bar was also available, along with a layout of scrumptious desserts, that is if we still had room to make it that far!

Our next morning found us at breakfast at 4:45am and after a quick stop at the sandwich bar to make a sack lunch, Rick and I headed down to the dock to jump on our boat with our captain, Steve Ellison.  Steve’s motto is “First on the water, first on the fish” which proved to be right on during the next three days of fishing.  This first day found the waters a little rough and the king bite a little off, but we still managed to catch a couple along with a keeper halibut each.

Day two brought more favorable conditions and found us heading to the outer reaches  near Granite Island and yes, we were the first boat there!  We each quickly had our lines headed for the bottom.  Steve set us up with a double hook set-up along with a 4-ounch banana weight and a cut piece of herring.  The technique we would be using would be a little different than I had used before.  We would be fishing in about 200 feet of water and after we let our lines out to the bottom, we immediately started to slowly reel our lines back to the surface.  The variation of mooching would prove to be very effective, since we would be working the whole water column and finding the fish at a number of different depths.

I quickly found the rhythm and the right “quick popping” hook set and soon I found myself fighting my third king salmon of the morning.  Rick and our fishing partner for day, Chris, soon hooked into our first double and Captain Steve found himself with his hands full, netting, de-hooking and then re-baiting our rigs as we spent the next two hours hauling in 15 nice king salmon, all in the 18 to 30 pound range.  We decided to keep our third fish, as the word was getting out that we had found the hot spot and about a dozen boats had worked their way into the area.  We started up the big motor and headed across to one of Steve’s favorite lingcod and yellow eye holes.

Our 22-foot Olympic, one of ten in the Fireweed fleet, made quick work in getting us to the spot and on our first let down, Rick hooked a nice lingcod.  Steve hoisted the pre-historic looking fish over the side, slipped the hook out and released him back into the water (Lingcod had a slot limit in the Prince of Wales area for 2011 as follows: Nonresidents, one per day, one in possession, 30 inches or greater in length and less than or equal to 40 inches in length or 55 inches or greater in length with an annual limit of two lingcod, one of which is 30 to 40  inches in length and one that is 55 inches or greater in length).  Chris and I soon hooked up with a yellow eye double and Rick was soon hauling up a nice 20 pounder of his own.  With our one-fish-each limit of yellow eye and a lingcod each in the slot as well, we headed for another spot to fish for some more kings and hopefully a few silvers as well.

The day had been so full of excitement, we all realized that we hadn’t even taken a break to down our sack lunches or replenish our fluid supply.  So as we worked our way to our next spot, we each made quick work of our lunches and soon found ourselves again letting our lines out in hopes of hooking into a big southeast Alaska king.  The next couple of hours netted us a nice mixed bag, as we boated another half dozen kings along with a few silvers and we even managed to each catch a nice keeper halibut.  That is one of the unique things that you will find when fishing in these waters with Fireweed Lodge.  Because of the techniques that they use, you just never quite know what you  will find at the end of your line when you reel in!  After another unbelievable meal, we hit our beds for the night in preparation for our final day on the water.

We again headed out to the outer reaches, but we found that the fish had pulled a quick one on us and moved out of the area.  So, Steve got on the radio to check with a couple of the other boats from the lodge to see if anyone had found a honey hole.  The rest of the day found us hitting spots throughout the Island dotted area and seeming to find a fish or two every time we stopped. Our last stop ended up being a very good one, as I not only managed to hook into the biggest king of the trip, a solid ball silver ball of muscle approaching 40 lbs. and we also found this stop to be a halibut hot spot and each of us boxed a nice ‘butt (Short for halibut and a common term used by fishermen in Alaska) for the dock hands to make quick work of cutting, trimming, boxing and flash freezing for our return trip to the lower 48 the next morning.

Believe me, every aspect of the operation at Fireweed Lodge on Prince of Wales Island is first class!  Bob and Jeanne Anderson and their staff have truly succeeded in putting together an Alaskan fishing experience that is second to none.   The lodge overlooks a beautiful, pristine bay that can captivate your view as you take a soak in their oversized hot tub or while putting in a little time in their fitness room or game room after a perfect day on the water.  We are extremely proud to have them as one of our prestigious Platinum Approved Outfitters and we hope you will give them a call to book your next great outdoor adventure.  Fireweed Lodge,  In-season – 907-755-2930, Off-season – 206-910-7702 and you can visit them on the Sportsman’s News website or at http://www.fireweedlodge.com.