Fish Alaska’s 2017 Fishing Report 
for Icy Bay, Alaska

Check back for updates from around the state all summer! Submit your local fishing reports here, be sure to include all pertinent information.
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Icy Bay Lodge
Mike York
Icy Bay
June 26, 2017

Week four of offshore fishing in Icy Bay was the best yet. The bottom fish really turned on like we expect them to, and the king salmon bite has remained hot. Jim Snyder and Dwight Soleta, hailing from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, returned to Icy Bay for another try this year after experiencing an awful week of weather last year, and they weren’t disappointed. Along with the familiar faces of Jim and Dwight were three newcomers, a group of friends and hardcore fisherman from New Jersey. They had made the journey after hearing about the epic jig-fishing from fellow anglers. Most guys use lodge gear when they come to fish the summer season, but all of our guests last week brought their own, and everything they brought worked great. One of the most successful jigs of the week was a crippled herring style jig, chrome with red eyes, 16oz. The lingcod could not keep away from it, and both of Dwight’s 160 pound class fish fell for it. Ralph Granke from New Jersey caught our first 200 pound halibut of the year on a plain 8 oz jighead tipped with herring. The drift was most effective, working from about 120 feet of water up to 80 before resetting over the rocks. This group was more interested in the bottom fish than the kings, but we still managed an annual limit trolling on the edge of a reef in about 100 feet of water with herring and bright spoons. As the weather deteriorates once more, we are thankful for an epic week of fish and sunshine and looking forward to more memories and big fish this week!

Returning guest Dwight Soleta from PA with a beefy halibut.

Ralph Granke with his personal best halibut.

Ish from NJ with a monster lingcod.

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Icy Bay Lodge
Mike York
Icy Bay
June 19, 2017

The last two weeks at Icy Bay Lodge have been a battle against the elements with some tough days and some triumphs. The week of June 5th brought us two returning guests from the Sacramento area, Hoss and Davey, along with four Icy Bay newcomers. Mixed in with the group was an Alaskan local, something we don’t see a lot of. Taz Tally, an author from Homer, spent the week kayaking, hiking, and photographing the beauty of Icy Bay from one of our Delta ocean kayaks while the rest of the group fished. The first half of the week the ocean was unfriendly, and we picked away at black rockfish and smaller halibut. With the Wednesday halibut closure in our area, we were able to hone in on the king salmon and get a nice limit before heading back out for the bottom-dwellers Thursday and Friday. The kings fell victim to herring and spoons behind a flasher trolled in about 45 feet of water. Thursday was redemption day, and we limited on halibut, lingcod, yelloweye, and pelagic rockfish. The rockfish couldn’t resist a dropper rig with any color hoochie and a herring head while the bigger fish fell for just about anything on a 12 oz. jig with the most popular color still being white. A power drift in about 100 feet of water proved the most successful technique for finding the lingcod, and the group caught some absolute monsters. 

Last week we saw some better weather offshore, and the fishing was on fire. We found ourselves limited out on kings so early on Wednesday that we had to figure out something else to do with the rest of the day! We cruised back up the bay and showed off some of our local glaciers and scenery. We had a mixed group including one returning guest, John Petroski, from Connecticut. John wore a ball cap that said Alaska on the front with 6 species of fish listed, halibut, lingcod, rockfish, salmon, yelloweye, and pacific cod. His goal was to catch all six, and he succeeded with a last minute cod on Friday! The fishing continues to get better, and we are more excited than ever for the coming weeks as the big halibut start to arrive on our remote, unfitted reefs. Our biggest fish of the last two weeks went approximately 140 pounds according to the chart and was released safely to get bigger.

Frank Graziano from Queens, NY with his personal best halibut.

Roger Winkle from Wasilla, AK with a beautiful china rockfish, one of the prettiest fish on the reef.

Jeff Schneidewind from Portland, OR poses next to a pig of a lingcod.

Mike York
Icy Bay
June 8, 2017

The season began with a bang last week at Icy Bay Lodge. The weather was nice, the ocean calmed down, and the fish were cooperative. We had 6 guests from northern California, Oregon, and Washington, all first time Icy Bay Lodge visitors. Only a couple of the guests had fished Alaska before, and all of them had visions of big fish. The halibut and rockfish were on fire in 80-120 feet of water. Anything was working, but a white 12 oz. jig tipped with salted herring was the most popular offering of the week, landing the most numbers and biggest fish. It took awhile to wake them up on anchor, but power-drifting was effective, and calm seas kept the tangles to a minimum. The biggest fish of the week was a 167 pound halibut caught by Randy Anderson from Washington, and we released it unharmed after a couple pics. The lingcod haven’t turned on with the insane numbers we are used to seeing, but we picked our way to a limit, and the average size was BIG. The salmon bite was slow, but we didn’t do much trolling, so it’s tough to say exactly what’s going on with kings just yet. 

Lisa from Washington with beautiful Icy Bay lingcod.

Randy Andersen from Washington and Ken Ward from Los Angeles pose with a giant before releasing her off the door of the boat.

Dan Patterson from Medford, OR with a netted halibut ready to go back after we had our limit.

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