Sund's Lodge

Howling winds prevent fishing

Our guests flew and drove in today from parts of Washignton, Colorado, Maryland, Poland, and Portland, OR.  And despote everyone’s keen desire to get out fishing, Mother Nature had her own ideas.  The wind started out at about 25 mph and got up to 35-40 mph….too windy to fish.  Waves were breaking over the breakwater and all the boats were put out to the buoys that we were able to.  The picture above shows the net on the fishing boat on the right at full attention.  Also notice the waves crashing over the breakwater and the whitecaps in the distance.  We’re going to bed early hoping to wake up to flat seas!

Maybe it was the threat of rain that was just around the corner all day.  Or perhaps it was how windy it has been the previous few days out.  Or maybe just a fun bunch of folks.  But for whatever reason, this was one of the most magical Beach Bistro days of the year.  The biggest salmon of the trip was caught by Pat off Swanson Island just before bistro time.  The bottom fishing was awesome in the afternoon with more limits and nice lings and snapper too.  Brandon had quite an adventure with his 46 pound halibut that actually broke his rod too.  While bringing in his biggie, the rods on the other side of the boat had a double header on halibut- on the same rod!  It was mayhem and quite fun.  All in all, an awesome day on the Inside Passage!

Fishing at dawn in a persistant drizzle, today persistance was the key word.  The skies finally broke after Chef Paul and Jimmy delivered the Burger Boat lunch and fishing got much better.  The Lancaster Crew all limited on halibut and released a few smaller ones hoping for a big hog.  Big fish of the day honors go to Mike DeFabio who limited out on chinooks before lunch and caught this one which was just shy of 25 pounds.  Joe Watkins caught his first salmon and Kyp and Lena had a ball with a limit of halis on their boat.  All in all a very good day.

The Lancaster Crew

Kip and Lena with halibut!

Mike with one of his two chinooks

Ben Fairbanks with his biggest fish of the day- a beauty 24 pounder.  Way to go Ben.  It was the nicest weather of the last week and each boat hit some fish too.  It was a gorgeous afternoon.  Unfortunately several fish were lost to a rogue seal who was following Sammy’s boat stealing salmon off the line.  Not good.  Overall a great afternoon.

Erling's 29 pounder- biggest of the day

The storm hit during the night as expected.  We awoke before 4 am and the wind and rain had already started.  Luckily the guides figured it was worth going out for and the 3 guide boats all got into chinooks.  Erling got the biggest fish of the trip at 29 pounds and Blakes boat got 4 nice springs.  All in all, it was wet, it was rough, and it was a lot of fun!  The wind is already swinging around and getting calm again but it was a wild day around here!

Alan with a nice chinook.

Bob's big chinook- this put him in the King for the Day chair!

Robert Sowers with his first chinook at Sunds.

A group from California flew in today into a light rain and reports of a big southeast wind tomorrow.  They got a few chinook with Bob catching the big fish of the day at 17 pounds.  We’re hoping the reports of a big south’ easter wind blowing up tomorrow are wrong! 

The salmon remained elusive today, very elusive , but thank goodness for the halibut.  We packed lunches and spent about 12 hours fishing hard in the waters northwest of Malcolm Island and ended up with some strong catches. 3 of 4 boats limited on halibut with the biggest being Tony’s 40 pounder.  The sun was shining and although the threat of wind hovered all day, it never really got too bad.  We were very thankful we could be jigging all day and that the wind didn’t force us off the halibut grounds! 

Tony's biggest halibut of the trip

Team Oklahoma completes their limit

The Spensers and Medinas had a great day with Captain Sam

Kincaid Sund with a monster sculpin

Ready….set…huh?  After days of great fishing, today was so difficult.  A persistant wind and huge pressure change made the fish just shut off.  The fishing was terrible, and made more challenging by th 20 mph wind.  The big fish of the day honors?  That goes to Kincaid Sund, who spent Fathers Day showing his papa that he can catch the big ones.  Tomorrow has got to be better!  Great job little guy- nice fish!  Notice the crab inside the mouth of the sculpin…he was just having his breakfast and got to finish it as we let him go.

Brett Anderson smiling proudly with his 31 pound tyee caught this morning off Malcolm Island.  This is Brett’s 3rd trip to Sund’s Lodge and his previous best was 28 pounds.  In fact, Brett had today’s biggest salmon (pictured) and also the biggest halibut at 28 pounds.  What a great day!                                                                                  Also, take a look at Laurie and Nick Medina (like Funky Cold Medina) kissing as their fish kiss.  Is that precious or what?  We often say the best romance is fishing together.  Actually we never say that but it sounds good doesn’t it??? 

Other notes from the day were Mary Spenser’s amazing 15 pound yellow-eye rockfish, also called snapper.  It is definitely the biggest snapper we’ve seen this summer and for quite some time.