June 9th - Yes Bay Lodge Fishing Report

Blue skies and sunshine today and the fishing got tougher...still plenty of kings around, but the bite was slower and you had to work for them. The bottom fishing was pretty good with some decent halibut hitting the dock and most were caught in short order.

On with today's pictures:





















Always a good day of fishing at Yes bay Lodge in SE Alaska!

Capt. Jim
Professor

June 8th - Season Begins with a Bang!!

First Guest day was a tremendous Fishing Day...Limits virtually all around of most species.... Rain in the morning, never hard rain and then it calmed down to flat calm and cloudy but very little rain from about 10:00 am on.
It was a great day with good fishing by our guests...mostly catching!

On with the Pics!

Slice and Two New guides on the Last training day





















A great day of Fishing at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska!!

Captain Jim
Professor

June 7th - Yes Bay Lodge Fishing Report

Last day of Crew Only fishing and it was a pretty good one. First Guests arrived this afternoon and so there will be guest fishing tomorrow. On with the pictures:

Professor, Batman and Kicker had a great day hooking up 5 nice salmon - 1 was released as a touch too small and I (The Professor) managed to loose 2 real nice Kings...I was very disappointed.



Slice and Snowman and new guides Blake McDonald (Woody) and Dan White got a real nice King and a nice halibut!



Slammer and new Guide Jim Green got a real nice King and a couple decent halibut!



All in all a great day of fishing at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska.

Capt Jim
Professor

June 6th - First Guests Arrive Tomorrow!

Three boats fished today on a beautiful sunny and nice calm day...it was slow on the Kings, but all three boats managed to catch a nice keeper and all released a few short ones, so even though it was a little sunny and bright, we managed to put some nice fish on the dock.

On with the pictures...

Just to prove that Kicker actually knows how to fight a fish and hold the rod properly!



Slammer, Slice and new guide Jim Green with a nice King and two halibut.



Big John, Snapper Al and New Guide Woody (Blake McDonald) with a nice king a nice yelloweye and a couple rockfish



Professor and Kicker with new Guide Dan White with the King Kicker managed to reel in (Kicker Won't get in picture)



Capt Jim

(Professor)

OOP's missed a post - May 31st!

This evening trip was from a few days ago, Dewey complained that I forgot to post on the blog our first trip out with crew of the season. It was a short evening trip with two boats going out. Dewey took the new dock guys out and Snowman and I took the new guide - Blake McDonald (Woody) out for a short two hour evening fishing trip. We fished in Yes Bay and managed a nice assortment of Kings - a total of 5 Kings caught - two were just short and released, but we kept 3 real nice kings.

Here is the pic of the crew on our first fishing evening the 31st of May.



Sorry Dewey you were left out...

Captain Jim

(Professor)

June 6th - Crew Fishing!

Three boats hit the water today and the fishing was good. Weather was decent with calm winds and a little light rain. Even Kicker said it was a nice day! Kicker's boat landed a nice fat King.
 



Big John, Snapper Al and Batman fished the Whaler today and had a grand day! Two nice Kings - one about 30 pounds and 2 big Yelloweye Snapper and a small halibut.



Slammer, Slice and Woody managed a real nice big King - about a 32 pounder and a nice 18 pounder




A fine day of fishing at Yes bay Lodge in SE Alaska.

Capt Jim (Professor)

Bust Out the Work Day Today!

Beautiful weather day today at Yes Bay and it was welcome, today was bust out all the work on the dock day....fix engines, downriggers, set up boat, clean up the boat shed, make any electrical repairs to boats, make sure every boat was ready to fish with guests....safety gear, radios, windshield wipers....kickers, and scrub and clean everything.

Only one boat fished late this afternoon. Another boat drove in to town to bring out the last guide boat...everything is here, including over a thousand pounds of nice fresh bait! We are ready, tomorrow will be another train the guides fishing day.

But Slammer and Slice went out to check out Slammers boat and make sure it was ready to fish...

They did good! Two nice Kings and a small halibut in just a few hours of fishing!



Look at that beautiful weather!

A very fine day today at Yes bay Lodge in SE Alaska....a bunch accomplished today!

Capt Jim Professor

Day 2 guide Training and River Fishing

4 boats fished today...and the fishing was great, not only in the salt water but also there was a girl trip up the river and you will see they had a great day as well. The bar has been set high.

We always like to give first billing to someone's "first fish" Saylor has been fishing up here since she could walk, but today was her first all by herself trout!! And was she happy!!
Saylor and her first trout!! By the way Saylor is 5!



Then Heidi managed a beautiful steelhead!! By the way - this was on fly!



Michaela got in the action to help Heidi with her steelhead!



Now on to the Guides....

Kickers boat managed three nice Kings - but Kicker refused to get in the picture...



Later in the afternoon Kicker and crew managed some nice halibut and rockfish! Again Kicker refused to be in the picture (we don't care because he is ugly!)



Snapper Al and Big John and Crew with a nice assortment of halibut and bottom fish!
 


All in all it was a good day with some tasty fish hitting the freezer!!

A fine day of fishing at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska

Captain Jim (Professor)

Crew Training for 2012 Season Begins

Boat Crew Training started in earnest today with 3 boats fishing and all the new guides got a little experience and orientation....a total of 5 kings, 4 halibut and an assortment of nice rockfish. It was a very nice productive day of learning and catching....

This is going to be a great season folks....

Here are the pictures:
















 



A fine day of fishing at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska!



Captain Jim
(Professor)

Dee Lands a Big One - King Season Starts with a Bang!

Dee caught this 48# king today. We were talking about entering the King Salmon derby and then decided not to and of course she ties into this monster. She fought this fish for 25 minutes and the fish ran 4 times of 50 to 125 yards and made the old run at the boat and around the bow trick. Dee fought this king like a Pro!

Just caught - on the boat!









On the dock...









Another smaller view...









Everyone is anxious for the 2012 season to start and it won't be long now...crew arrives this week, the Lodge will put cleaned, polished and ready for guests by the 8th when our first guests arrive.

Capt Jim
Professor

Winter Sojourn 2012

Well I spent this past week designing a photo book of some of my best photographs from this winters adventure. There are three versions all with the same content. Full sized - Large Landscape Hard Cover premium paper - $53.95 right now Smaller Size - Standard Landscape Hard Cover premium paper - $48.00 right now Smaller Size - Standard Landscape Soft Cover Standard paper - $19.95 right now. You can grade the paper on this one.



Here is a preview of the book.

Winter Sojourn 2012 Photo Book by Jim Lucas | Make Your Own Book

Enjoy, Capt Jim (Gypsy Professor)

2012 Season about to begin

The start of the 2012 season is right around the corner, less than 3 weeks from first guests!

Kevin and Dee took a little spin out the bay and found a nice King on one of our favorite spots, right at the mouth of the Bay!

It was a beautiful day - spring is happening at Yes Bay!

Kevin assures me that Dee was the one who caught this!!



It was ready for dinner in short order!!



Join us for the 2012 season or make advance reservations for prime dates in 2013! We already have a number of people booked for some prime King time in 2013! Book NOW!! Still some real good fishing times available for 2012!
Capt Jim
(Professor)

The Gypsy

Over the past twelve months or so as I talked about my plans to leave the “regular Life” and go off on my adventure many of my friends questioned my sanity to say the least! 

Last night as the end of my winter journey comes to an end, I reflected on those thoughts and the many, many people who questioned me…but until you have seen the wild, lived the wild and had the opportunity to discover natures wonder and live within it…it is very hard to understand… 

The Gypsy

A name fondly given me by my good friend Steve Carter this winter during my travels

A long days drive had me weary and as the sun slowly set and the evening twilight replaced the sunlight, I looked for a spot to stop and spend a quiet evening reflecting on this past 6 months journey. As I drove along through the mountains of Montana with snow capped peaks on one side and high mountain lakes on the other the spot to stop materialized right in front of me…a quick U-turn and I was overlooking a glass calm moonlit lake with mountains in the background…as I pulled in to the overlook I startled a herd of deer who were moving down towards the lake to drink and feed in the rich grassland that surrounded the lake… After I parked I left the door open to my humble little home so I could continue to enjoy nature’s majesty. Dinner was cooked, the heat from the stove warmed my house and I watched as the lake grew even calmer…a quiet cocktail enjoying the view and reflecting on this past years journey I was soon ready for bed, I heard the coyotes yelping in the distance, this had been a fine evening. 

As I climbed in bed I heard noises outside which sounded like footsteps…wondering if someone else was invading my territory I quickly rose and looked outside to discover a large heard of Elk moving through the crusted snow right outside my door, they too were heading to the lake for a drink of water and some fresh growth of meadow grass. 

This morning rather than be awoken by the sounds of a city, the sirens, the traffic, the clock radio the god forsaken Television…my alarm clock was the sounds of migrating geese and the lonely call of a bald eagle…the Eagle call, a warm reminder that my adventure continues as my Alaska home beckons me once again. 

And I thought…they ask why I have done this?? 

More later

Capt Jim

Professor aka The Gypsy!

New Town - Another State and GREAT NEWS!

I left Grand Junction Colorado again on Wednesday morning the 11th of April. Plan was to start my journey north to Kalispell Montana, with a stop in an old western town in Wyoming. So I spent the day driving up through northern Colorado and made a stop for fuel near Rawlins on damn near empty...you get in Wyoming fill your tank there may not be another gas station for over 100 miles...I drove the last 30 miles with the low fuel warning light glaring in my face!! But Made it. Then drove on to Riverton Wyoming and spent an overnight dry camping in the Wal-Mart parking lot, after a nice dinner in Riverton.

Early morning departure to drive up the Wind River Range to my destination of Meeteeste, Wyoming.

The drive up...with this out my left side of the truck almost all the way!



At another stop I say a herd of antelope and by the time I got the rig stopped, of course they moved further away....but a wonderful sight anyway!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif



I arrived in Meeteeste after about a 2 hour drive, what a wonderful little old west town...with some interesting history. You can read about the town HERE!

Here is one of the old original bank buildings which is now a museum (Free entry at all museums in Meeteeste!



And an early RV - a Sheep Herders line camp wagon.



And now the good news - for those who have been following my Coast Guide License renewal and the problems of providing them the "amplified information" regarding my health status after my stroke 2 years ago....it has been an ordeal!

Yesterday I received this in an email!!

"Your application has cleared the safety and suitability vetting and medical screening/evaluation processes and is currently awaiting a professional qualification evaluation."

So it looks as though I am approved, will wait for the final notice that my new license is on the way before a big celebration, but I feel better about it now!!

Capt Jim
Gypsy Professor

Update - April 9th, 2012

A little update...I am in Grand Junction Colorado camped behind the Moose Lodge, it is a great, inexpensive spot to be in. Electric and water and sewer close by, so easy camping except for the sand spurs...damn RV section is full of them. But the drinks are good and reasonable, the food is good and inexpensive...and some nice people. Wish the club were open more than 3 nights a week...but as with all Fraternal Clubs generating new younger members is a PIA. Not sure why. This club has a beautiful facility and nice people, all old, but nice. At 62 I think I am the youngest person in the club on any given night.

I am STILL waiting for information on the renewal of my Coast Guard License...hopefully the Dr in Salt Lake supplied the last request for information on Friday. I am checking on that today...so if not Friday maybe tomorrow.

No real immediate travel plans at this point in time. I am staying here until time to head towards Montana. And making sure that everything for the USCG has been completed.

No real picture taking the past few days...more trailer work, had a hose break and leak 20 gallons of water from the fresh water tank all over and had to fix that, so not much going on...today is re-supply day and some clean-up.

I hope to take a few pictures either later today or tomorrow. Then is the USCG is satisfied, I will work on the plan to begin heading North.

More later.

Capt. (Maybe) Jim
(Professor)