Salmon Season Starts at Yes Bay Lodge 2011

Well first day of customer fishing started today!! And what a difference a day makes, yesterdays King Salmon fishing was slow, but it looks like another run of fish swam by today...several didn't make it by our boats!! Oh well, that means good fish day!!

The morning was a little slow, but we did have a short King bite at about noon to almost 1 pm - then another nice King bite later in the afternoon. So the afternoon fishing was better for sure...

On with the pics...

First we have Batman's boat...The Amer party with their afternoon catch - morning for them was a boat ride...







The Armstrong party with a real nice bright morning Chum salmon...



And now the crew pictures for today...

First we have new crew Capt Jemison



Then we have Slice and Crew Capt Bortz and Capt Falconer..with three nice Kings a couple Chum, three halibut and some rockfish



Capt Falconer with his 26 pounder...



Then my boat Professor and Capt Epperson and Capt Pfeiffer. A real nice 20 pound King caught by Capt John Pfeiffer and we released a nice bright Chum and we kept a rockfih we caught chasing for halibut




A great day of fishing at Yes bay Lodge in SE Alaska!!

Capt Jim
(Professor)

Crew Training June 14th - Day 3

Training continued in earnest as we finished the final touches on the Lodge for our first guests of the 2011 season who arrived this evening.

The weather was iffy this morning with rain and wind, pretty lumpy ride out to the fishing spot this morning but as is normal, once we got to the fishing spot it was calm and not as bad and it got better as the day progressed.

The target on most boats today was King salmon and today was not the day...several boats landed a couple shakers, some just a tad too short, but back they went...one of our boats played about a 30 pounder for about 10 minutes and nearly got it within netting range before the hooks pulled out, pretty frustrating for that crew, because it turned out to be the only legal sized King hooked today...

Captain Al and new crew continued on out to get some bottom fish, released a nice 30 pound halibut and also landed a few and a very nice 9 pound yellow eye snapper...

So some fish hit the dock...



And a nice picture of one of our boats heading back in after the day of fishing...



Even a bad day of fishing is a GREAT DAY at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska!

Capt Jim
(Professor)

Crew Training June 13th

4 boats all 12 guides - first guests arrive tomorrow so we are training in earnest and a full crew will be fishing again...although Kicker is fishing with a customer and Slammer may be fishing a half day with customers, so we'll see how it plans out tomorrow but for sure EVERYONE will be fishing...

King action was a little slower today but some fish hit the dock and nice 30 pounder off slammers boat and a couple smaller ones on the other boats, several small halibut and a few very nice rockfish...good training day although this set of guides are not going to need much help, all top notch fisherman and it is going well.

Some pics...







Everyone is looking forward to the season starting tomorrow....

IT is going to be a great season at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska!!

Capt Jim
(Professor)

Crew Training Day - June 12th

Training started in earnest today with two boats out fishing all day - Kicker, Batman and Snapper Al training new guides Sean and Brian - both of these guides have Alaska experience so it was more of an orientation to the area than a full blown training session, that starts tomorrow with all 12 guides fishing...6 returning guides training 6 new guides - 4 with a little Alaska experience but all seasoned guides...we are looking forward to a great season with 6 Kings already on the dock and 3 of those 6 were over 30 pounds, including a real nice 38 pounder today, plus a small 12 pounder and two 20 plus pounders so all nice fish...pics tomorrow, still training the office girls to download the pictures and put them in the correct place so I can upload for the blog...guess some more training on that is needed, because here I am writing the fishing report with only one picture from yesterday of some nice rock fish and some halibut...

This picture is from yesterdays fishing, Al Snapper Bermitz took Sean Falconer out and they got one real nice bright Chum salmon and a couple nice halibut and beautiful yellow eye snapper and nice sea bass....



Here are Dewey and I with our catch of three the other day...



And here is Kevin and family with all five of our fish on the board...



And of course Kevin showing off his big one which got beat today...



I will post one more picture from yesterday with another chum and a couple more halibut and some rock fish...then today's catch of the big King and a real nice 8.9 pound yelloweye and a couple nice halibut, I promise to have these up tomorrow as soon as I train the girls how to download the photos...









The beginning of a wonderful fishing season at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska!

Captain Jim Lucas
(Professor)

A three year odyssey is nearly over...about 4 or 5 years ago this air frame and box of damaged parts arrived at our hanger. Three years of careful reconstruction and restoration has culminated in a beautiful brand new Beaver. This was once in a container and stuffed to the max. Rebuilt air frame, almost all new skin, new interior, new dash board and all new electronics, new floats, of course all new paint.

Finished and started assembly last year with new paint on each component, this Spring she left Ketchikan for San Diego to have the finishing touches put together, new engine, new flight controls and the final pieces of interior and dash board completed.

Last Sunday she flew from San Diego to Renton WA, where she was taken to Kenmore and is now on floats. Tomorrow she will make the trip from Washington up to Ketchikan.

We are all looking forward to her arrival...

These are Oly P&S shots - taken by our pilot who brought her up to Washington...

Final touches in San Diego...









Capt Jim
Professor

King Day!!!

So today we took a day of rest, the crew here has been working hard getting the Lodge ready to open and the remainder of crew to arrive this week, so a couple of us decided it was time to go and find some Kings.

Dewey and I headed out at the tide turn about 10 this morning...the Boss decided he would try and keep up and he and Dee and Saylor headed out a little later, GAME ON!!

Dewey and I try a few spots down South hoping to pick up some early Kings, troll for several hours and nothing, two knockdowns, both missed...so about 1 we head to one of my favorite early King spots and lo and behold we pick up a small one, measured legal so in the box it went...radio - King in the Box...no real answer, we know the old man has got to be mad...so less than 15 minutes I nail another one, much bigger so now Dewey and I are real stoked...King in the Box over the radio, this time we get an answer..where are you, how deep, etc, etc...about another 45 minutes go by and bingo we nail another one...our limit...a nice one...so of course we have to rub it in and announce over the radio, knowing Kevin has got to be getting aggravated by our shear numbers!!

4 pm - Blackfly tells us it is time to head in...nothing said about any fish on his end, so we figure we have him!! Get to the dock, his boat is not there, we are disappointed because we want to rub it in...especially if he got skunked...

So we happily hang our fish...



Hold the two bigger ones and see that Kevin is coming in now...oh boy!!



Of course he cruises by the dock and yells out WOW nice fish!! But is grinning, we head down to help him tie up and we both just know we were had!!

Kevin proudly announces, now do you want to see some real King Salmon?? And he promptly pulls two 35 pounders out of the well!!



Kevin and Saylor...



Kevin, Dee and Saylor with all our fish...



Then Dewey and I jump in with all the fish...



One of Kevin's big ones was a Unuk River fish as it was a White King...



Some nice steaks...



A great way to kick off King season at Yes Bay!!

Captain Jim Lucas
(Professor)

BTW - While Dewey and I were fishing we heard a huge echo...something like this one is for you Slammer...we didn't know what it meant until we hit the dock and saw who the echo came from...

Salmon Season Starts at Yes Bay Lodge 2011

Today was the first day of really working hard at trolling for Salmon. The Kings are just starting to arrive and I had 2 guests to fish from one of the InnerSea Discovery boat - the Adventurer, it will be stopping at Yes Bay every other Thursday all summer, the sister ship will be on the alternate Thursdays, so we will have one of the boats by the Lodge every week on Thursdays. About 50 passengers a few went up the river and fished for trout and on this group I took 2 out for a half day of salt water fishing. We also took two groups on a nice Flightseeing trip on 9 pound.

Managed a nice big and bright Chum salmon and one just under-size King Salmon, so the salmon are starting up....

Here are the guests with part of their catch, we also caught a couple nice rock fish.




Here I am with a closer shot of my first guest keeper salmon of the year!



Lodge opens in just a couple weeks on June 14th with first guests, there is still a few spots left in June, some in July and some in early August, the end of August is nearly full and September Silver season is going to be a bomb!! Lots of people and lots of fish!!

Come and Experience Your Alaska at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska.

Capt Jim Lucas
(Professor)

9 Pound Home - Ready to fly

After the winter off and some needed updating and some nice new shiny paint, 9 pound arrived back at the Pirate office today, ready for the 2011 season and waiting for her sister plane to arrive later this month.

Just a couple days ago with new paint - charcoal and some red and white touch up...



Putting the wings back on...





Arriving back from her test flight and first trip out to Yes Bay...







Pirate Flies Again!!



2011 Season is right around the corner...

Capt Jim Lucas
(Professor)

Statewide Commercial Salmon Harvest Forecast for 2011

Juneau – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announces that the statewide commercial salmon harvest for 2011 is forecast to total 203 million salmon of all species. This would be the fifth largest total harvest, and fourth highest pink salmon harvest, since Alaska became a state and took over the management of its fisheries in 1960. All major pink salmon producing areas are expected to produce abundant harvests. Statewide sockeye and chum salmon are also expected to generate excellent harvests, with chum salmon predicted to provide the fifth largest harvest since 1960.

The statewide Chinook salmon forecast is not yet available, because the Southeast Alaska Chinook harvest quota is set under the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. The Southeast Alaska quota will not be released by the Pacific Salmon Commission until late March or early April.

The 2011 harvest forecasts for the other four salmon species are 45.1 million sockeye salmon, 4.7 million coho salmon, 133.7 million pink salmon, and 19.2 million chum salmon.

These forecasts are based on quantitative projections of next year’s salmon run using information on previous spawning levels, smolt outmigrations, returns of sibling age classes, and recent survival rates observed for hatchery releases.

Look for inseason harvest information, postseason statistics, and other information about salmon in Alaska online at

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

Pirate New Passenger Van

Another step closer to the fantastic 2011 Season with the arrival of our new van to transport flightseeing guests for Pirate Airworks and Lodge Guests and Crew for Yes Bay Lodge...SignPro finished today and they did a vantastic job!!





Only a few weeks until the season starts...work on the planes continue and we'll have pictures soon. 9 Pound is finishing it's annual and some new paint and a few minor modifications which are complete, will be in the air in another week or two!

OZ is in San Diego getting the new motor installed, with new interior, it will be a completely new airplane when it is finished, flight tests should start next week and we hope to have it back home in Alaska by early June.

Book your flightseeing tours with Pirate for this season!!

Capt. Jim Lucas
(Professor)

Lodge Construction Update!

After the end of last season during a winter storm we had winds in excess of 130 MPH, in fact Kevin's beloved weather station at the top of the ramp departed with the last wind reading of 130 MPH. Along with most of the railing for the walkway up to the Lodge, which made plenty of work for the winter crew this year.

Here are some of the damage photos







As of today per Kevin's new pictures the railing has been completely rebuilt. Art and Johnson scrounged around for some nice yellow cedar logs and with our sawmill cut all new wood and posts for the new railings.











A job well done by the winter crew at Yes Bay Lodge, we are busy now getting the Lodge booked for the upcoming season and doing last minute cleaning and repairs from our harsh winter.

Stay tuned for more updates as the season approaches.

Capt. Jim Lucas
(Professor)