Everything’s bigger in Alaska PHOTO: HOWARD MCKIM
Battle with the Beast
Everything’s bigger in Alaska. Take Ket- chikan Kayak Fishing guide Howard Mc- Kim, a mountain of a man. Before scoring a 400-pound salmon shark sleigh ride last year, he matched up with another sort of nigh-inconceivable whopper. While fishing with salmon bellies
across the Tongass Narrows in 2003, he hooked a monster. “I could hardly gain an inch on the sheer weight of this thing,” McKim said. An hour later, a huge shadowy form emerged beneath his ‘yak, far too big and dangerous to land solo. No problem; the burly frontiersman sim- ply towed the beast two hours up-cur- rent, finally beaching his behemoth on a nearby island. It pegged the scale at 183 pounds. That’s a lot of fish sticks!
Creature Features
The West’s largest species of flatfish come in a couple of delicious flavors. The smaller California halibut ranges from Washington all the way down to southern Baja. The average kayak catch weighs in at 8 to 10 pounds. Anything over 30 is a serious fish. They max out at 70 pounds. The mighty Pacific halibut is another story. Most common from San Francisco north to Alaska, some of these “barn doors” reach a quarter ton. Hearty north- erners go after the “chickens”—manage- able and tasty 20- to 30-pounders.
www.kayakanglermag.com… 25 1-2 Island Bleed 5 x 7.75
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52