Area Sport Fishing Reports
North Gulf Coast/Resurrection Bay

Archived Sport Fishing Report

August 19, 2014

North Gulf Coast Area

Week of August 19 to August 25
Issued August 19, 2014

Emergency Orders and regulation reminders

• Resurrection Bay is always closed to lingcod fishing.
• If you harvest a lingcod outside of Resurrection Bay you cannot fish in the bay on the way back to port.
• It is illegal to use a rockfish for bait while fishing for lingcod. If you catch a rockfish and a big lingcod grabs a hold of it – the lingcod must be released.
• It is also illegal to use a gaff on any fish that is intended to be released.

Halibut

• Recent storms have hampered halibut fishing by keeping many boats tied up to the dock.
• Halibut fishing remains best in the North Gulf Coast waters outside of Resurrection Bay.
• Most boats head east out towards Prince William Sound.
• Head west towards uncharted halibut fishing and explore.

Salmon

• Recent storms have scattered coho all over the bay and local anglers report that they have yet to school back up.
• Good coho catches were recently reported from Cheval Narrows. Try trolling around the Islands too.
• It remains about a week early for coho salmon to hit the Seward beaches. I would expect the beach fishery to improve slowly over the next week to ten days and be really good just about Labor Day weekend or there about.
• Outside Resurrection Bay, try trolling the headlands towards Prince William Sound.
• Feeder king salmon have been showing up in the catch in Resurrection Bay daily.
• Be sure to ID your salmon and know the difference between a feeder king and a sliver salmon. Especially if you want to enter it into the derby.

Other salt water fishing
• Lingcod fishing outside of Resurrection Bay to be fair to good. Be sure your lingcod are of legal size.
• Rockfish are easy to catch and have a fairly conservative bag limit, so target your rockfish last.
• The rockfish daily bag limit is 4 per day, of which only 1 may be a non-pelagic (demersal) rockfish.
• Use deepwater release methods to release incidentally caught rockfish. Avoid venting rockfish intended for release. Vented rockfish do not survive as well as those released at capture depth. For details on deepwater release, see the ADF&G Rockfish Conservation webpage at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportFishingInfo.rockfishconservation
• Study your rockfish identification, so you do not harvest more rockfish than they are allowed. Please read regulations and limits for the area that you are fishing.

Shellfish

• Check out page 63 of the 2013 Southcentral Alaska Sport Fishing Regulations Summary for regulations on this fishery, and page 62 shrimp pot requirements. Permits can be obtained at the Fish House in Seward.

Fresh waters

Salmon

• See sport fishing regulations for details about legal gear and legal area. Fresh water fishing for salmon in the freshwaters of Resurrection Bay is limited. See page 58 of the regulation booklet for details.
• Fresh waters around Seward are high and muddy due to recent rains, but the clear water stream do clear up quickly, given a break in the weather.

Rainbow Trout, Dolly Varden, Arctic Grayling

• Anadromous Dolly Varden char are now following the spawning salmon into streams. They can be fun to catch using a fly rod or tossing by hardware with a spinning rod.

Northern Pike

• Northern pike are not native to Southcentral Alaska. Please report the capture of any pike in unconfirmed waters to ADF&G. Do not release any pike you have caught, and call us for a positive ID.

Lake Fishing

• If you hike into Lost Lake take your fishing rod – this lake is stocked with rainbow trout.