Whittier opens gateway to Sound
Road access will offer one more Southcentral fishing destination

By DWAYNE ATWOOD
Daily News reporter

F or anglers, the new road to Whittier is nothing less then a sweet invitation to explore an astonishing frontier. Anyone who has ever wanted to wet a line in the deep, protected waters of Prince William Sound will now have easy access.

Until this summer, a trip to the former military post meant boarding an Alaska Railroad train for an 11-mile shuttle.

But this summer, road warriors will have an additional fishing destination – one much closer to Anchorage than popular spots on the Kenai Peninsula. And if curiosity is not enough of an attraction, thrift may be. This year there will be no tolls. Fees are scheduled to kick in next year.

Ted Raynor, owner of Alaska Walkabout Charters, is one of several operators who say the new road will make it easier for anglers to get access to the Sound – most sport boats will no longer have to be hauled in on a flatbed railcar. But the fishing out of Whittier will be just as it has always been – often productive, sometimes perplexing.

Alaska Walkabout Charters caters to kayakers who like to be hauled out to remote, cobbled beaches, as well as fishing clients who want to put a halibut in the freezer. Raynor, a former commercial fisherman, knows the waters well and says anglers will have to hunt for productive spots.

While the west side of Prince William Sound offers secluded coves, it also can be difficult to fish with its deep water shelves and pinnacles, he said. One minute your hook will be bouncing along the bottom in a few hundred feet of water, the next minute you will have drifted over a line-peeling abyss.

Raynor has been seeking out halibut holes for years, and he is still surprised by the randomness of certain areas. Raynor recalls spots that were dynamite for hauling up halibut in 1992 or 1993, but then turned up empty.

"People have to learn they are deep, they are spotty and they move around," Raynor said. "That is fishing."

While Raynor has been looking farther and farther from town, he avoids the three-hour trek to Montague Island that some larger charters make. He fishes with a small boat – a 22-footer – and doesn’t want his customers to spend too much time traveling.

Because of the deep water, Raynor switched from cut herring to rubber-tail jigs, he said. Even strong anglers tire of reeling up 1,000 feet of line because they think their bait has been swiped. Some charters have begun offering electronic reels to speed up the winding.

Raynor said he runs a low-key operation and does not worry about finding the biggest fish in the sea.

"With halibut, you don’t have to go find 100 fish," Raynor said. "And Lower 48ers who have never caught anything bigger than a walleye are thrilled with a 20- or 30-pounder."

Good fishing spots can be hard to find near town, Raynor said. Some who don’t know their way around have tailed his boat, something Raynor said he’s still not used to.

"I have had people follow me for hours from spot to spot," Raynor said. "I think we are going to see a lot more of that in the future."

For those who do want to explore, there will be plenty to see. While it’s no secret that Whittier is Southcentral Alaska’s doorstep to the western shores of the Sound, relatively few visitors or Alaskans have ventured there. This playground for kayakers will undoubtedly see more anglers hunting out its quiet coves.

Road construction to Whittier began in 1997. The Alaska Railroad plans to scale back its shuttles to Whittier, a service that has moved some 100,000 passengers every summer. Residents and business owners expect to see more visitors to Whittier, but nobody really knows what the impact will be.

Charter operator Randy Huber says he counts on the business of Alaskans more than visitors from Outside. Wet and Wild Charters begins the season with spring bear hunting trips, then shifts to fishing later in May. By September the fishing season wraps up and in October Huber begins hauling clients out for deer hunting. That versatility is Huber’s niche, he said.

"We don’t only focus on halibut, we focus on fishing," he said. "We catch everything out there – we even do salmon sharks."

Wet and Wild includes two boats, 26- and 34-feet long. This is Huber’s third charter season out of Whittier, he said.

Those boats carry a half-dozen clients to fishing grounds off Montague Island, a run that is not recommended for smaller craft or inexperienced boaters.

As for salmon fishing, Huber usually begins intercepting silvers bound for Valdez by the second week in July. There is salmon fishing at Whittier, but not much during mid-summer, Huber said.

The Department of Fish and Game is working to develop fisheries at the head of Passage Canal, so anglers who visit Whittier will have more shore casting opportunities, said Andy Hoffmann, a biologist in the department’s sport fish division.

There is pink salmon fishing in Whittier at Shakespeare Creek, but soon there will be king salmon available as well, Hoffmann said. Some 50,000 fry were released last year, and the department plans to continue adding 100,000 fry annually.

Several years ago the king fishery in Seward was developed the same way. The department is looking for the same kind of success in Whittier, with shore anglers hooking fat kings each season by late May or early June. Some of the planted king salmon will likely return as early as 2002. But fishing should really get good when mature, 5-year-olds return in 2004, Hoffmann said.

Waters outside Whittier offer reds and chum. Those fish are often snagged, which is legal in salt water, Hoffman said. Commercial fishers focus on those fish as they return to hatcheries at Main Bay and Esther Island. Hoffmann advised anglers to keep track of commercial boats to avoid any conflicts.

When it comes to salmon, pinks generate the real numbers. They spawn in just about any shin-deep creek you can find.

"Prince William sound is known for pink salmon galore," said Barry Stratton," area biologist for the Department of Fish and Game. "You can catch pinks until your arms fall off."

Pinks have never been a game fish that excites anglers, but light tackle casting with a Pixee spoon or small spinner can make for a fun day. If you don’t want pinks, there is opportunity for some hefty halibut.

Dustin Clark, owner of Alaska Deep Sea Adventures, hauls clients out some 40 miles – about an hour and 45 minutes out of port – to search for the big ones. And he has a good record of finding them. During the town’s 1998 fishing tournament, Clark’s clients landed several of the top flat fish. All were over 200 pounds, he said.

Whittier will have some appeal for anglers thinking about heading for Seward or Homer, Clark said. First, Prince William Sound is more protected from the potential roughness of the Gulf of Alaska. Smoother water means fewer fishing days are lost to bad weather, he said. Whittier is also much closer to Anchorage than Homer, which may appeal to people who don’t want to make the drive.

Clark said his fishing success has not gone unnoticed, and he has developed his own method of dealing with the curious. "Everybody asks me where I go," Clark said. "And I always say, ‘out there.’"

Being vague has its advantages, particularly when getting onto the right deep-water shelf can turn a good day into a great day.

Once while being trailed by another boater, Clark decided to just motor past his intended fishing spot and keep going. Clarks’s 45-footer, the Galaxy, can range much farther than most small craft, he said.

"Finally this guy got on the radio and asked me how far we were going to go out. I said that we passed our fishing spot an hour ago."

That fisherman didn’t learn of any secret spot that day – he was forced to turn back to port or face running out of fuel, Clark said.

In a way, it is hard to fault those who would look to others for an advantage in finding fish. The same knife-edged peaks and rugged valleys that make the scenery so breathtaking also make parts of the Sound tricky to fish. In places, the bottom is well over 2,000 feet down.

"It is just a challenge to find spots that are fishable," Clark said. "But we still find new holes every year."