Seward is the place for variety
Resurrection Bay area offers bounty of salmon, halibut, rockfish

By DWAYNE ATWOOD
Daily News Reporter

Many of southcentral Alaska’s fishing grounds hold legendary offerings. The Kenai River boasts world record king salmon and Homer is a hot halibut producer.

Likewise, Seward is considered a traditional destination for silvers. But for seasoned saltwater anglers, the Resurrection Bay-area shines in its promise of teeming variety.

Sure, you can land king salmon, silvers and plenty of pink salmon. But you can also hunt for chunky halibut or do some light-tackle jigging for lingcod and rockfish.

The town has a long relationship with the coho – its 45th Silver Salmon Derby is set for this August. Since the 1950s, Seward’s tournament has offered reliable near-shore trolling. Pull a bent herring or hoochie skirt and dodger through schools of coho and it is hard to not catch a fish.

But new fisheries are emerging. In recent years, high-speed charter boats have stretch

ed the halibut fishing grounds eastward toward Montague Island. There is also a burgeoning effort to troll for winter kings.

"Seward is a quick drive from Anchorage and it is a multi-species fishery," said Barry Stratton, a state Fish and Game sport fish biologist. "It is an angler’s paradise, to be honest."

There are also fisheries few participate in. Try shore casting for sea run Dolly Varden in the spring, and you’ll likely have a beach to yourself. Take that same trout rod out later in the season when the pink salmon make their return and you can get in a good afternoon of light-tackle angling.

Although the numbers aren’t in yet, Stratton estimates upwards of 50,000 silvers were landed out of Seward last summer. That is a considerable slump compared to the 1998 season, when about 70,000 fish were taken.

Stratton said this one-year decline was likely caused by unusual weather. A late-season flood in 1995 flushed out area spawning streams, killing eggs that would have produced last summer’s run of wild salmon. The return of hatchery-reared fish was also down, Stratton said. He suspects cooler ocean temperatures limited the baitfish that normally sustain those salmon.

Anglers still came up with good silver fishing last season, though. Around the first week of July boaters headed to coastal capes to pick up their limit of ocean-bright coho. Biologists believe some of those silvers were ultimately be headed for Prince William Sound.

"In the last three years we have seen a growing number of charter boats getting into fish earlier in the year down the coast," Stratton said. "About half the fish were harvested before the derby started."

This year should be better for beach anglers who count on the silvers to be within casting range during August, Stratton said.

The Seward Silver Salmon Derby will run from Aug. 12 through Aug. 20, offering prizes for the 50 heaviest fish. The tournament also offers tagged salmon worth thousands. Check the chamber’s web site – www.seward.net/chamber – for more information about the community or phone 224-8051.

Seward also has a productive saltwater king fishery. Usually by early June anglers are landing kings from a few locations along shore. Each year about 200,000 fry are released into the lagoon near the town’s boat harbor. Another 100,000 are released at Lowell Creek, near the base of a waterfall at the south end of town.

Seward’s king fishery is small, but rock solid. Anglers usually land upwards of 3,000 fish during the early run. Shore fishers often catch more than 1,000 of the late run kings, which peak in mid August, Stratton said.

It is not uncommon to hook 30-pounders on spin tackle. The Vibrax is the spinner of choice, although some fishers prefer to lob weighted treble hooks to snag salmon, which is legal in salt water.

While Seward’s bag limits for salmon are generous – you can take six silver or two kings per day – regulations for other species are conservative.

Biologists have been monitoring the lingcod and rockfish populations near Seward in an attempt to keep them healthy. Current bag limits are geared toward increasing their numbers while allowing anglers to get in some good fishing, said Scott Meyer, sport groundfish management biologist for southcentral Alaska.

During the 1970s, it was not uncommon to see sport boats return to harbor with plastic garbage cans loaded with dozens of rockfish. If halibut or silver fishing was ever slow, anglers could count on bringing home some meat, Meyer said.

Lingcod fishing is restricted before July 1, and anglers need to fish outside of a boundary line that extends from the tip of Cape Resurrection to Cape Aialik. The limit is one per day, and it must be longer than 35 inches.

Meyer did agree that variety is the key to enjoying an outing on Resurrection Bay.

"That is the way to go if you are going to go to Seward," he said. "Find a skipper who will try for variety. Try some light-tackle fishing for rockfish."

But keep in mind that only one rockfish in a five-fish limit can be a variety other than the common black or dusky. That means only one yellow eye – a deep-dweller that locals sometimes refer to as "red snapper."

Black rockfish, also called black bass, can be released successfully if they are hooked in 60 feet of water or less, Meyer said. During certain times of the year black rockfish school up and chase feed to the surface. In general, you want to fish near pinnacles and capes, Meyer said.

Erik Jackson, owner of Dynasty Charters, is gaining a reputation for landing big halibut. While anglers aboard his 43-foot FV Servant don’t always hook into lunkers, it’s not uncommon, either. Jackson put anglers onto fish fat enough to win the Seward Jackpot Halibut Tournament three times. The most recent victory was in 1998 with a 280-pounder, he said.

The Seward Jackpot Halibut Tournament will run from May 15 through Aug. 1, offering cash prizes for first through third places. Holland America is offering a cruise for two, and all tournament entrants are eligible for the drawing, said Bobbie Miller, events coordinator for the Seward Chamber of Commerce.

About half of Jackson’s clients are from Outside, and most of the anglers are not only looking for big flatfish – they want to know how big.

"That is pretty much everybody’s first line," Jackson said. "Fishing is fishing, there is no guarantee."

Jackson will generally spend the early part of the day hunting those big halibut, and if the fishing is off he has other options. There are holes that hold plenty of smaller fish. Jackson can motor his clients east toward Montague Island or west to the Chiswell Islands. The fishing grounds offer more than 100 miles of picturesque coastline.

While Jackson usually focuses on halibut or salmon, several species can sometimes be found at one spot.

"It is not unusual to catch lingcod, then halibut, rockfish and salmon all together," Jackson said.

But after July, Jackson and other charter operators begin to target silvers – and sometimes that fishery is white hot. The skipper recalled one trip last summer where a party of 14 anglers caught their six-fish limit within an hour.

"And it can be like that sometimes, especially with silver fishing," Jackson said.

Jon Tippet, owner of Alaskan Summertime Charters, began his eighth season out of Seward early this April. While some operators have made a name for themselves by venturing to Montague Island, Tippet said he is finding plenty of halibut without motoring that far east.

"I put 250 fish in the boat during the month of June last year and I never went to Montague once," Tippet said. "There are some days you can just jet down there, but a lot of times it is weather prohibitive."

Tippet’s operation includes three boats, and many of his return clients look forward to jigging for lingcod and rockfish, he said. The majority of the halibut he lands are in the 40- to 60-pound range, he said.

In combination with the fishing, customers often get to view whales or sea lion rookeries. "One of my big sales pitches is that this is one of the most beautiful places in the state," Tippet said. "Each year I get more and more people coming back."

An angler fights a halibut while on a Saltwater Safari charter out of Seward. (BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)